Which of the following characterizes machine language?

Machine language is characterized by its use of numeric codes to perform basic operations. This low-level programming language consists of binary code, which is the only language that a computer's hardware can directly understand and execute. Each instruction in machine language is represented by a series of zeros and ones that correspond directly to specific operations within the computer's central processing unit (CPU).

This fundamental aspect of machine language allows it to operate at the lowest possible level, which makes it efficient for the computer in terms of performance. Since it's comprised of direct binary sequences, it does not offer the human-readable syntax seen in higher-level programming languages.