What is learning?
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“Learning denotes changes in a system that ... enable a
system to do the same task more efficiently the next
time.” –Herbert Simon
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“Learning is any process by which a system improves
performance from experience.” –Herbert Simon
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“Learning is constructing or modifying representations of
what is being experienced.”
–Ryszard Michalski
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“Learning is making useful changes in our minds.” –
Marvin Minsky
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Machine Learning - Example
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One of my favorite AI/Machine Learning sites:
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http://www.20q.net/
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Why learn?
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Build software agents that can adapt to their users or to other
software agents or to changing environments
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Personalized news or mail filter
 Personalized tutoring
 Mars robot
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Develop systems that are too difficult/expensive to construct
manually because they require specific detailed skills or
knowledge tuned to a specific task
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Large, complex AI systems cannot be completely derived by hand
and require dynamic updating to incorporate new information.
Discover new things or structure that were previously unknown to
humans
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Examples: data mining, scientific discovery
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Applications
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Assign object/event to one of a given finite set of
categories.
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Medical diagnosis
Credit card applications or transactions
Fraud detection in e-commerce
Spam filtering in email
Recommended books, movies, music
Financial investments
Spoken words
Handwritten letters
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Major paradigms of machine learning
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Rote learning – “Learning by memorization.”
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Employed by first machine learning systems, in 1950s
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Samuel’s Checkers program
Supervised learning – Use specific examples to reach general conclusions or
extract general rules
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Classification (Concept learning)
Regression
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Unsupervised learning (Clustering) – Unsupervised identification of natural
groups in data
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Reinforcement learning– Feedback (positive or negative reward) given at the
end of a sequence of steps
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Analogy – Determine correspondence between two different representations
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Discovery – Unsupervised, specific goal not given
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Rote Learning is Limited
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Memorize I/O pairs and perform exact matching with
new inputs
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If a computer has not seen the precise case before, it
cannot apply its experience
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We want computers to “generalize” from prior experience
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Generalization is the most important factor in learning
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The inductive learning problem
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Extrapolate from a given set of examples to make
accurate predictions about future examples
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Supervised versus unsupervised learning
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Learn an unknown function f(X) = Y, where X is an input
example and Y is the desired output.
Supervised learning implies we are given a training set of
(X, Y) pairs by a “teacher”
Unsupervised learning means we are only given the Xs.
Semi-supervised learning: mostly unlabelled data
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Types of supervised learning
x2=color
Tangerines
Oranges
a)
Classification:
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We are given the label of the training objects: {(x1,x2,y=T/O)}
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We are interested in classifying future objects: (x1’,x2’) with
the correct label.
I.e. Find y’ for given (x1’,x2’).
x1=size
Tangerines
Not Tangerines
b)
Concept Learning:
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We are given positive and negative samples for the concept
we want to learn (e.g.Tangerine): {(x1,x2,y=+/-)}
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We are interested in classifying future objects as member of
the class (or positive example for the concept) or not.
I.e. Answer +/- for given (x1’,x2’).
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Types of Supervised Learning
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Regression
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Target function is continuous rather than class membership
y=f(x)
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Example
Positive Examples
Negative Examples
How does this symbol classify?
•Concept
•Solid Red Circle in a (regular?) Polygon
•What about?
•Figures on left side of page
•Figures drawn before 5pm 2/2/89 <etc>
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Inductive learning framework: Feature Space
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Raw input data from sensors are typically preprocessed to obtain a
feature vector, X, that adequately describes all of the relevant
features for classifying examples
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Each x is a list of (attribute, value) pairs
x = [Color=Orange Shape=Round Weight=200g ]
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Each attribute can be discrete or continuous
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Each example can be interpreted as a point in an n-dimensional
feature space, where n is the number of attributes
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Model space M defines the possible hypotheses
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M: X → C , M = {m1, … mn} (possibly infinite)
Training data can be used to direct the search for a good
(consistent, complete, simple) hypothesis in the model space
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Feature Space
Size
Big
?
Gray
Color
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Weight
A “concept” is then a (possibly disjoint) volume in this space.
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Learning: Key Steps
• data and assumptions
– what data is available for the learning task?
– what can we assume about the problem?
• representation
– how should we represent the examples to be classified
• method and estimation
– what are the possible hypotheses?
– what learning algorithm to use to infer the most likely hypothesis?
– how do we adjust our predictions based on the feedback?
• evaluation
– how well are we doing?
…
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Evaluation of Learning Systems
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Experimental
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Conduct controlled cross-validation experiments to compare
various methods on a variety of benchmark datasets.
Gather data on their performance, e.g. test accuracy, trainingtime, testing-time.
Analyze differences for statistical significance.
Theoretical
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Analyze algorithms mathematically and prove theorems about
their:
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Computational complexity
Ability to fit training data
Sample complexity (number of training examples needed to learn
an accurate function)
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Measuring Performance
Performance of the learner can be measured in one of the
following ways, as suitable for the application:
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Accuracy performance
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Number of mistakes
Mean Square Error
Solution quality (length, efficiency)
Speed of performance
…
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Curse of Dimensionality
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Curse of Dimensionality
Imagine a learning task, such as recognizing printed
characters.
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Intuitively, adding more attributes would help the learner,
as more information never hurts, right?
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In fact, sometimes it does, due to what is called
curse of dimensionality
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it can be summarized as the situation where the available data
may not be sufficient to compensate for the increased number of
parameters that comes with increased dimensionality
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Polynomial Curve Fitting
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Sum-of-Squares Error Function
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0th Order Polynomial
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1st Order Polynomial
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3rd Order Polynomial
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9th Order Polynomial
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Over-fitting
Root-Mean-Square (RMS) Error:
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Data Set Size:
9th Order Polynomial
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Data Set Size:
9th Order Polynomial
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Issues in Machine Learning
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Training Experience
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Target Function
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When and how can prior knowledge guide the learning process?
Evaluation:
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How much training data is sufficient?
How does number of training examples influence accuracy?
What is the best strategy for choosing a useful next training experience? How it affects complexity?
Prior Knowledge/Domain Knowledge:
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What learning algorithms exist for learning general target functions from specific training examples?
Which algorithms can approximate functions well (and when)?
How does noisy data influence accuracy?
How does number of training samples influence accuracy?
Training Data:
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What should we aim to learn?
What should the representation of the target function be (features, hypothesis class,…)
Learning:
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What can be the training experience (labelled samples, self-play,…)
What specific target functions/performance measure should the system attempt to learn?
…
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