The evolution of digital technologies: a network perspective on machine learning

The development of digital technologies such as Machine Learning can be described empirically as a co-evolving network based on online platform data. Here, we construct a network of technologies related to machine learning based on data from Stack Overflow, the world’s largest question-and-answer website for programming questions. This network reveals the changing centrality of machine learning topics, libraries, and related programming languages over time as the network links rewire when novel technologies are introduced. It thus allows for understanding the development of the field as combinatorial technological evolution, shaped by the replacement of older technologies by novel ones. The data can be used to test network models on innovation and novelty, and on creative destruction.