A slightly more human readable form of machine code is called assembly language and a program called an assembler is used to convert the assembly notations into machine code.

This is why I’ve long argued that BASIC is the most consequential language in the history of computing. It’s a language for noobs, sure, but back then most everyone was a noob.

Unless the machine languages are very similar, it is difficult to translate an assembly language program from one CPU series into another. See standards - machine languages.

In the past, control programs (operating systems, database managers, etc.) and many applications were written in assembly language to maximize the machine's performance.

Though machine learning has long been part of Google’s technology — and Google has been a leader in hiring experts in the field — the company circa 2016 is obsessed with it.