This review deals with restricted Boltzmann machine(RBM)under the light of statistical physics.The RBM is a classical family of machine learning(ML)models which played a central role in the development of deep learning.Viewing it as a spin glass model and exhibiting various links with other models of statistical physics,we gather recent results dealing with mean-field theory in this context.First the functioning of the RBM can be analyzed via the phase diagrams obtained for various statistical ensembles of RBM,leading in particular to identify a compositional phase where a small number of features or modes are combined to form complex patterns.Then we discuss recent works either able to devise mean-field based learning algorithms;either able to reproduce generic aspects of the learning process from some ensemble dynamics equations or/and from linear stability arguments.