Machine Learning for data journalists

 I have been writing about machine learning and data science as the next step for data journalists in 2019. For example: https://d3-media.blogspot.com/2019/03/kaggle-is-there-data-journalism-in.html. However this way of using ML had a steep learning curve. First you have be familiar with R and next you have to dig into various models of ML, like RandomForrest or Tensorflow. 

 Now there is light at the end of the tunnel, google sheets included an add-on for ML. Under extension in the ribbon you find ‘simple ML’ for sheets. This should give data journalism a new boost in working with statistical models. ML for sheets has two option, to predict missing values or to spot abnormal values. In order to get started you should read the documentation: https://simplemlforsheets.com/ and try the included dataset. Step by step you practice missing values, abnormal values, training and evaluating a model and finally predict values with a model. Have learned the hard way with R a couple of years ago, I was blown away; just a pushing a few buttons and done. No deep knowledge needed….however you better understand what you are doing. So if you have the taste, eat more ML at a special course by Google: Google Machine Learning Education: https://developers.google.com/machine-learning