learning

The earliest use I’ve found of the term machine learning is in the title of a paper by Arthur Samuel (Samuel 1959) which opens with:

The studies reported here have been concerned with the programming of a digital computer to behave in a way which, if done by human beings or animals, would be described as involving the process of learning.

References

Samuel, A. L. 1959. “Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers.” IBM Journal of Research and Development 3 (3): 210–29. https://doi.org/10.1147/rd.33.0210.