What is the training phase in artificial intelligence

Christian Baghai
3 min readJan 8, 2023

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Photo by DeepMind on Unsplash

The training phase in artificial intelligence refers to the process of using data to optimize the parameters of an AI model. This is typically done using a dataset and an optimization algorithm, such as gradient descent. The goal of training is to find the set of model parameters that minimizes the error between the model’s predictions and the true values in the dataset.

During training, the model is presented with input data and makes predictions based on its current set of parameters. The error between the predicted values and the true values is then calculated, and the optimization algorithm adjusts the model’s parameters to reduce this error. This process is repeated for many rounds, until the model’s error is minimized to a satisfactory level.

Once the model has been trained, it can be used to make predictions on new data. In this way, the training phase is an essential part of the development of many AI systems, as it enables the model to learn from data and make informed predictions.

How to measure errors during the training phase in artificial intelligence

There are many ways to measure errors during the training phase in artificial intelligence. One common approach is to use a metric called the loss function, which is a measure of the difference between the model’s predictions and the true values in the dataset. The loss function is a scalar value that is calculated for each example in the dataset, and the overall error of the model is obtained by averaging the loss over all examples.

Different types of loss functions are used depending on the type of task being performed. For example, in a classification task, where the model is trying to predict a class label, the cross-entropy loss is often used. In a regression task, where the model is trying to predict a continuous value, the mean squared error is a common choice.

Another way to measure errors during training is to calculate the model’s accuracy, which is the percentage of examples in the dataset for which the model’s predictions are correct. Accuracy can be a useful metric for evaluating the performance of a model, but it can be misleading if the dataset is imbalanced (e.g., if one class is much more common than others). In this case, other metrics, such as precision and recall, may be more informative.

Here are some examples of common loss functions used in artificial intelligence:

Mean Squared Error (MSE) is a loss function used for regression tasks. It is calculated as the mean of the squared difference between the model’s predictions and the true values. MSE is defined as:

Loss = (1/N) * ∑(y_pred — y_true)²

where N is the number of examples in the dataset and y_pred and y_true are the model’s predictions and the true values, respectively.

Cross-Entropy Loss (also called log loss) is a loss function used for classification tasks. It is calculated as the negative log probability of the true class, given the model’s predicted probabilities. Cross-entropy loss is defined as:

Loss = -∑(y_true * log(y_pred) + (1 — y_true) * log(1 — y_pred))

where y_pred and y_true are the model’s predicted and true class probabilities, respectively.

Hinge Loss is a loss function used for training support vector machines (SVMs). It is calculated as the maximum of 0 and the margin between the model’s predictions and the true values. Hinge loss is defined as:

Loss = max(0, 1 — y_pred * y_true)

where y_pred and y_true are the model’s predictions and the true values, respectively.

Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KL Divergence) is a loss function used to compare two probability distributions. It is calculated as the difference between the model’s predicted probabilities and the true probabilities. KL divergence is defined as:

Loss = ∑(y_pred * log(y_pred / y_true))

where y_pred and y_true are the model’s predicted and true class probabilities, respectively.

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Christian Baghai
Christian Baghai

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