What is the primary characteristic of unsupervised learning?

The primary characteristic of unsupervised learning is that patterns are identified without labeled data. In unsupervised learning, algorithms analyze and learn from data that has not been labeled or categorized, allowing them to detect underlying structures, relationships, or clusters within the dataset. This is particularly useful for exploratory data analysis, where the goal is to uncover hidden patterns or groupings in the data without prior knowledge of the outcomes.

Unsupervised learning techniques, such as clustering and association, help in identifying the natural structure in data. As a result, these methods are valuable for tasks such as customer segmentation, anomaly detection, or market basket analysis, where the focus is on discovering insights directly from the input data rather than relying on predefined labels. This allows for flexibility and the ability to extract meaningful information from complex and unstructured datasets.