Machine Learning Crash Course  |  Google Developers

Machine Learning Crash Course
This glossary defines general machine learning terms as well as terms specific to TensorFlow.
A
A/B testing
A statistical way of comparing two (or more) techniques, typically an incumbent against a new rival. A/B testing aims to determine not only which technique performs better but also to understand whether the difference is statistically significant. A/B testing usually considers only two techniques using one measurement, but it can be applied to any finite number of techniques and measures.
accuracy
The fraction of predictions that a classification model got right. In multi-class classification , accuracy is defined as follows:
$$\text{Accuracy} = \frac{\text{Correct Predictions}} {\text{Total Number Of Examples}}$$
In binary classification , accuracy has the following definition:
$$\text{Accuracy} = \frac{\text{True Positives} + \text{True Negatives}} {\text{Total Number Of Examples}}$$
See true positive and true negative .
activation function
A function (for example, ReLU or sigmoid ) that takes in the weighted sum of all of the inputs from the previous layer and then generates and passes an output value (typically nonlinear) to the next layer.
AdaGrad
A sophisticated gradient descent algorithm that rescales the gradients of each parameter, effectively giving each parameter an independent learning rate . For a full explanation, see this paper .
AUC (Area under the ROC Curve)
An evaluation metric that considers all possible classification thresholds .
The Area Under the ROC curve is the probability that a classifier will be more confident that a randomly chosen positive example is actually positive than that a randomly chosen negative example is positive.
B
backpropagation
The primary algorithm for performing gradient descent on neural networks . First, the output values of each node are calculated (and cached) in a forward pass. Then, the partial derivative of the error with respect to each parameter is calculated in a backward pass through the graph.
baseline
A simple model or heuristic used as reference point for comparing how well a model is performing. A baseline helps model developers quantify the minimal, expected performance on a particular problem.
batch
See also batch size .
batch size
The number of examples in a batch . For example, the batch size of SGD is 1, while the batch size of a mini-batch is usually between 10 and 1000. Batch size is usually fixed during training and inference; however, TensorFlow does permit dynamic batch sizes.
bias
An intercept or offset from an origin. Bias (also known as the bias term) is referred to as b or w0 in machine learning models. For example, bias is the b in the following formula:
$$y' = b + w_1x_1 + w_2x_2 + … w_nx_n$$
Not to be confused with prediction bias .
binary classification
A type of classification task that outputs one of two mutually exclusive classes. For example, a machine learning model that evaluates email messages and outputs either "spam" or "not spam" is a binary classifier.
binning
See bucketing .
bucketing
Converting a (usually continuous ) feature into multiple binary features called buckets or bins, typically based on value range. For example, instead of representing temperature as a single continuous floating-point feature, you could chop ranges of temperatures into discrete bins. Given temperature data sensitive to a tenth of a degree, all temperatures between 0.0 and 15.0 degrees could be put into one bin, 15.1 to 30.0 degrees could be a second bin, and 30.1 to 50.0 degrees could be a third bin.
C
calibration layer
A post-prediction adjustment, typically to account for prediction bias . The adjusted predictions and probabilities should match the distribution of an observed set of labels.
candidate sampling
A training-time optimization in which a probability is calculated for all the positive labels, using, for example, softmax, but only for a random sample of negative labels. For example, if we have an example labeled beagle and dog candidate sampling computes the predicted probabilities and corresponding loss terms for the beagle and dog class outputs in addition to a random subset of the remaining classes (cat, lollipop, fence). The idea is that the negative classes can learn from less frequent negative reinforcement as long as positive classes always get proper positive reinforcement, and this is indeed observed empirically. The motivation for candidate sampling is a computational efficiency win from not computing predictions for all negatives.
categorical data
Features having a discrete set of possible values. For example, consider a categorical feature named house style, which has a discrete set of three possible values: Tudor, ranch, colonial. By representing house style as categorical data, the model can learn the separate impacts of Tudor, ranch, and colonial on house price.
Sometimes, values in the discrete set are mutually exclusive, and only one value can be applied to a given example. For example, a car maker categorical feature would probably permit only a single value (Toyota) per example. Other times, more than one value may be applicable. A single car could be painted more than one different color, so a car color categorical feature would likely permit a single example to have multiple values (for example, red and white).
Categorical features are sometimes called discrete features .
Contrast with numerical data .
centroid
The center of a cluster as determined by a k-means or k-median algorithm. For instance, if k is 3, then the k-means or k-median algorithm finds 3 centroids.
checkpoint
Data that captures the state of the variables of a model at a particular time. Checkpoints enable exporting model weights , as well as performing training across multiple sessions. Checkpoints also enable training to continue past errors (for example, job preemption). Note that the graph itself is not included in a checkpoint.
class
One of a set of enumerated target values for a label. For example, in a binary classification model that detects spam, the two classes are spam and not spam. In a multi-class classification model that identifies dog breeds, the classes would be poodle, beagle, pug, and so on.
class-imbalanced data set
A binary classification problem in which the labels for the two classes have significantly different frequencies. For example, a disease data set in which 0.0001 of examples have positive labels and 0.9999 have negative labels is a class-imbalanced problem, but a football game predictor in which 0.51 of examples label one team winning and 0.49 label the other team winning is not a class-imbalanced problem.
classification model
A type of machine learning model for distinguishing among two or more discrete classes. For example, a natural language processing classification model could determine whether an input sentence was in French, Spanish, or Italian. Compare with regression model .
classification threshold
A scalar-value criterion that is applied to a model's predicted score in order to separate the positive class from the negative class . Used when mapping logistic regression results to binary classification . For example, consider a logistic regression model that determines the probability of a given email message being spam. If the classification threshold is 0.9, then logistic regression values above 0.9 are classified as spam and those below 0.9 are classified as not spam.
clustering
Grouping related examples , particularly during unsupervised learning . Once all the examples are grouped, a human can optionally supply meaning to each cluster.
Many clustering algorithms exist. For example, the k-means algorithm clusters examples based on their proximity to a centroid , as in the following diagram:
A human researcher could then review the clusters and, for example, label cluster 1 as "dwarf trees" and cluster 2 as "full-size trees."
As another example, consider a clustering algorithm based on an example's distance from a center point, illustrated as follows:
collaborative filtering
Making predictions about the interests of one user based on the interests of many other users. Collaborative filtering is often used in recommendation systems.
confusion matrix
An NxN table that summarizes how successful a classification model's predictions were; that is, the correlation between the label and the model's classification. One axis of a confusion matrix is the label that the model predicted, and the other axis is the actual label. N represents the number of classes. In a binary classification problem, N=2. For example, here is a sample confusion matrix for a binary classification problem:
Tumor (predicted)
6
452
The preceding confusion matrix shows that of the 19 samples that actually had tumors, the model correctly classified 18 as having tumors (18 true positives), and incorrectly classified 1 as not having a tumor (1 false negative). Similarly, of 458 samples that actually did not have tumors, 452 were correctly classified (452 true negatives) and 6 were incorrectly classified (6 false positives).
The confusion matrix for a multi-class classification problem can help you determine mistake patterns. For example, a confusion matrix could reveal that a model trained to recognize handwritten digits tends to mistakenly predict 9 instead of 4, or 1 instead of 7.
Confusion matrices contain sufficient information to calculate a variety of performance metrics, including precision and recall .
continuous feature
A floating-point feature with an infinite range of possible values. Contrast with discrete feature .
convergence
Informally, often refers to a state reached during training in which training loss and validation loss change very little or not at all with each iteration after a certain number of iterations. In other words, a model reaches convergence when additional training on the current data will not improve the model. In deep learning, loss values sometimes stay constant or nearly so for many iterations before finally descending, temporarily producing a false sense of convergence.
See also Boyd and Vandenberghe, Convex Optimization .
convex function
A function in which the region above the graph of the function is a convex set . The prototypical convex function is shaped something like the letter U. For example, the following are all convex functions:
By contrast, the following function is not convex. Notice how the region above the graph is not a convex set:
Nonconvex function
L2 regularization
Many variations of gradient descent are guaranteed to find a point close to the minimum of a strictly convex function. Similarly, many variations of stochastic gradient descent have a high probability (though, not a guarantee) of finding a point close to the minimum of a strictly convex function.
The sum of two convex functions (for example, L2 loss + L1 regularization) is a convex function.
Deep models are never convex functions. Remarkably, algorithms designed for convex optimization tend to find reasonably good solutions on deep networks anyway, even though those solutions are not guaranteed to be a global minimum.
convex optimization
The process of using mathematical techniques such as gradient descent to find the minimum of a convex function . A great deal of research in machine learning has focused on formulating various problems as convex optimization problems and in solving those problems more efficiently.
For complete details, see Boyd and Vandenberghe, Convex Optimization .
convex set
A subset of Euclidean space such that a line drawn between any two points in the subset remains completely within the subset. For instance, the following two shapes are convex sets:
By contrast, the following two shapes are not convex sets:
convolution
In mathematics, casually speaking, a mixture of two functions. In machine learning, a convolution mixes the convolutional filter and the input matrix in order to train weights.
The term "convolution" in machine learning is often a shorthand way of referring to either convolutional operation or convolutional layer .
Without convolutions, a machine learning algorithm would have to learn a separate weight for every cell in a large tensor. For example, a machine learning algorithm training on 2K x 2K images would be forced to find 4M separate weights. Thanks to convolutions, a machine learning algorithm only has to find weights for every cell in the convolutional filter , dramatically reducing the memory needed to train the model. When the convolutional filter is applied, it is simply replicated across cells such that each is multiplied by the filter.
convolutional filter
One of the two actors in a convolutional operation . (The other actor is a slice of an input matrix.) A convolutional filter is a matrix having the same rank as the input matrix, but a smaller shape. For example, given a 28x28 input matrix, the filter could be any 2D matrix smaller than 28x28.
In photographic manipulation, all the cells in a convolutional filter are typically set to a constant pattern of ones and zeroes. In machine learning, convolutional filters are typically seeded with random numbers and then the network trains the ideal values.
convolutional layer
A layer of a deep neural network in which a convolutional filter passes along an input matrix. For example, consider the following 3x3 convolutional filter :
The following animation shows a convolutional layer consisting of 9 convolutional operations involving the 5x5 input matrix. Notice that each convolutional operation works on a different 3x3 slice of the input matrix. The resulting 3x3 matrix (on the right) consists of the results of the 9 convolutional operations:
convolutional neural network
A neural network in which at least one layer is a convolutional layer . A typical convolutional neural network consists of some combination of the following layers:
convolutional layers
Convolutional neural networks have had great success in certain kinds of problems, such as image recognition.
convolutional operation
The following two-step mathematical operation:
Element-wise multiplication of the convolutional filter and a slice of an input matrix. (The slice of the input matrix has the same rank and size as the convolutional filter.)
Summation of all the values in the resulting product matrix.
For example, consider the following 5x5 input matrix:
Now imagine the following 2x2 convolutional filter:
Each convolutional operation involves a single 2x2 slice of the input matrix. For instance, suppose we use the 2x2 slice at the top-left of the input matrix. So, the convolution operation on this slice looks as follows:
A convolutional layer consists of a series of convolutional operations, each acting on a different slice of the input matrix.
cost
Synonym for loss .
cross-entropy
A generalization of Log Loss to multi-class classification problems . Cross-entropy quantifies the difference between two probability distributions. See also perplexity .
custom Estimator
D
data analysis
Obtaining an understanding of data by considering samples, measurement, and visualization. Data analysis can be particularly useful when a data set is first received, before one builds the first model. It is also crucial in understanding experiments and debugging problems with the system.
DataFrame
A popular datatype for representing data sets in Pandas. A DataFrame is analogous to a table. Each column of the DataFrame has a name (a header), and each row is identified by a number.
data set
A collection of examples .
Dataset API (tf.data)
A high-level TensorFlow API for reading data and transforming it into a form that a machine learning algorithm requires. A tf.data.Dataset object represents a sequence of elements, in which each element contains one or more Tensors . A tf.data.Iterator object provides access to the elements of a Dataset.
For details about the Dataset API, see Importing Data in the TensorFlow Programmer's Guide.
decision boundary
The separator between classes learned by a model in a binary class or multi-class classification problems . For example, in the following image representing a binary classification problem, the decision boundary is the frontier between the orange class and the blue class:
dense layer
Contrast with wide model .
dense feature
A feature in which most values are non-zero, typically a Tensor of floating-point values. Contrast with sparse feature .
device
A category of hardware that can run a TensorFlow session, including CPUs, GPUs, and TPUs.
discrete feature
A feature with a finite set of possible values. For example, a feature whose values may only be animal, vegetable, or mineral is a discrete (or categorical) feature. Contrast with continuous feature .
dropout regularization
A form of regularization useful in training neural networks . Dropout regularization works by removing a random selection of a fixed number of the units in a network layer for a single gradient step. The more units dropped out, the stronger the regularization. This is analogous to training the network to emulate an exponentially large ensemble of smaller networks. For full details, see Dropout: A Simple Way to Prevent Neural Networks from Overfitting .
dynamic model
A model that is trained online in a continuously updating fashion. That is, data is continuously entering the model.
E
early stopping
A method for regularization that involves ending model training before training loss finishes decreasing. In early stopping, you end model training when the loss on a validation data set starts to increase, that is, when generalization performance worsens.
embeddings
A categorical feature represented as a continuous-valued feature. Typically, an embedding is a translation of a high-dimensional vector into a low-dimensional space. For example, you can represent the words in an English sentence in either of the following two ways:
As a million-element (high-dimensional) sparse vector in which all elements are integers. Each cell in the vector represents a separate English word; the value in a cell represents the number of times that word appears in a sentence. Since a single English sentence is unlikely to contain more than 50 words, nearly every cell in the vector will contain a 0. The few cells that aren't 0 will contain a low integer (usually 1) representing the number of times that word appeared in the sentence.
As a several-hundred-element (low-dimensional) dense vector in which each element holds a floating-point value between 0 and 1. This is an embedding.
In TensorFlow, embeddings are trained by backpropagating loss just like any other parameter in a neural network .
empirical risk minimization (ERM)
Choosing the function that minimizes loss on the training set. Contrast with structural risk minimization .
ensemble
A merger of the predictions of multiple models . You can create an ensemble via one or more of the following:
different initializations
Deep and wide models are a kind of ensemble.
epoch
A full training pass over the entire data set such that each example has been seen once. Thus, an epoch represents N/ batch size training iterations , where N is the total number of examples.
Estimator
An instance of the tf.Estimator class, which encapsulates logic that builds a TensorFlow graph and runs a TensorFlow session. You may create your own custom Estimators (as described here ) or instantiate pre-made Estimators created by others.
example
One row of a data set. An example contains one or more features and possibly a label . See also labeled example and unlabeled example .
F
false negative (FN)
An example in which the model mistakenly predicted the negative class . For example, the model inferred that a particular email message was not spam (the negative class), but that email message actually was spam.
false positive (FP)
An example in which the model mistakenly predicted the positive class . For example, the model inferred that a particular email message was spam (the positive class), but that email message was actually not spam.
false positive rate (FP rate)
The x-axis in an ROC curve . The FP rate is defined as follows:
$$\text{False Positive Rate} = \frac{\text{False Positives}}{\text{False Positives} + \text{True Negatives}}$$
feature
An input variable used in making predictions .
Feature column (tf.feature_column)
A function that specifies how a model should interpret a particular feature. A list that collects the output returned by calls to such functions is a required parameter to all Estimators constructors.
The tf.feature_column functions enable models to easily experiment with different representations of input features. For details, see the Feature Columns chapter of the TensorFlow Programmers Guide.
"Feature column" is Google-specific terminology. A feature column is referred to as a "namespace" in the VW system (at Yahoo/Microsoft), or a field .
feature cross
A synthetic feature formed by crossing (multiplying or taking a Cartesian product of) individual features. Feature crosses help represent nonlinear relationships.
feature engineering
The process of determining which features might be useful in training a model, and then converting raw data from log files and other sources into said features. In TensorFlow, feature engineering often means converting raw log file entries to tf.Example protocol buffers. See also tf.Transform .
Feature engineering is sometimes called feature extraction.
feature set
The group of features your machine learning model trains on. For example, postal code, property size, and property condition might comprise a simple feature set for a model that predicts housing prices.
feature spec
Describes the information required to extract features data from the tf.Example protocol buffer. Because the tf.Example protocol buffer is just a container for data, you must specify the following:
the data to extract (that is, the keys for the features)
the data type (for example, float or int)
The length (fixed or variable)
The Estimator API provides facilities for producing a feature spec from a list of FeatureColumns .
few-shot learning
A machine learning approach, often used for object classification, designed to learn effective classifiers from only a small number of training examples.
See softmax . Contrast with candidate sampling .
fully connected layer
A hidden layer in which each node is connected to every node in the subsequent hidden layer.
A fully connected layer is also known as a dense layer .
G
generalization
Refers to your model's ability to make correct predictions on new, previously unseen data as opposed to the data used to train the model.
generalized linear model
A generalization of least squares regression models, which are based on Gaussian noise , to other types of models based on other types of noise, such as Poisson noise or categorical noise. Examples of generalized linear models include:
The parameters of a generalized linear model can be found through convex optimization .
Generalized linear models exhibit the following properties:
The average prediction of the optimal least squares regression model is equal to the average label on the training data.
The average probability predicted by the optimal logistic regression model is equal to the average label on the training data.
The power of a generalized linear model is limited by its features. Unlike a deep model, a generalized linear model cannot "learn new features."
gradient
The vector of partial derivatives with respect to all of the independent variables. In machine learning, the gradient is the the vector of partial derivatives of the model function. The gradient points in the direction of steepest ascent.
gradient clipping
Capping gradient values before applying them. Gradient clipping helps ensure numerical stability and prevents exploding gradients .
gradient descent
A technique to minimize loss by computing the gradients of loss with respect to the model's parameters, conditioned on training data. Informally, gradient descent iteratively adjusts parameters, gradually finding the best combination of weights and bias to minimize loss.
graph
In TensorFlow, a computation specification. Nodes in the graph represent operations. Edges are directed and represent passing the result of an operation (a Tensor ) as an operand to another operation. Use TensorBoard to visualize a graph.
H
heuristic
A practical and nonoptimal solution to a problem, which is sufficient for making progress or for learning from.
hidden layer
A synthetic layer in a neural network between the input layer (that is, the features) and the output layer (the prediction). A neural network contains one or more hidden layers.
hinge loss
A family of loss functions for classification designed to find the decision boundary as distant as possible from each training example, thus maximizing the margin between examples and the boundary. KSVMs use hinge loss (or a related function, such as squared hinge loss). For binary classification, the hinge loss function is defined as follows:
$$\text{loss} = \text{max}(0, 1 - (y' * y))$$
where y' is the raw output of the classifier model:
$$y' = b + w_1x_1 + w_2x_2 + … w_nx_n$$
and y is the true label, either -1 or +1.
Consequently, a plot of hinge loss vs. (y * y') looks as follows:
Hinge loss vs. (y * y')
A plot of hinge loss vs. raw classifier score shows a distinct hinge at the coordinate (1,0).
0
(y * y')
holdout data
Examples intentionally not used ("held out") during training. The validation data set and test data set are examples of holdout data. Holdout data helps evaluate your model's ability to generalize to data other than the data it was trained on. The loss on the holdout set provides a better estimate of the loss on an unseen data set than does the loss on the training set.
hyperparameter
The "knobs" that you tweak during successive runs of training a model. For example, learning rate is a hyperparameter.
Contrast with parameter .
hyperplane
A boundary that separates a space into two subspaces. For example, a line is a hyperplane in two dimensions and a plane is a hyperplane in three dimensions. More typically in machine learning, a hyperplane is the boundary separating a high-dimensional space. Kernel Support Vector Machines use hyperplanes to separate positive classes from negative classes, often in a very high-dimensional space.
I
independently and identically distributed (i.i.d)
Data drawn from a distribution that doesn't change, and where each value drawn doesn't depend on values that have been drawn previously. An i.i.d. is the ideal gas of machine learning—a useful mathematical construct but almost never exactly found in the real world. For example, the distribution of visitors to a web page may be i.i.d. over a brief window of time; that is, the distribution doesn't change during that brief window and one person's visit is generally independent of another's visit. However, if you expand that window of time, seasonal differences in the web page's visitors may appear.
inference
In machine learning, often refers to the process of making predictions by applying the trained model to unlabeled examples . In statistics, inference refers to the process of fitting the parameters of a distribution conditioned on some observed data. (See the Wikipedia article on statistical inference .)
input function
In TensorFlow, a function that returns input data to the training, evaluation, or prediction method of an Estimator . For example, the training input function returns a batch of features and labels from the training set .
input layer
The first layer (the one that receives the input data) in a neural network .
instance
Synonym for example .
interpretability
The degree to which a model's predictions can be readily explained. Deep models are often non-interpretable; that is, a deep model's different layers can be hard to decipher. By contrast, linear regression models and wide models are typically far more interpretable.
inter-rater agreement
A measurement of how often human raters agree when doing a task. If raters disagree, the task instructions may need to be improved. Also sometimes called inter-annotator agreement or inter-rater reliability. See also Cohen's kappa , which is one of the most popular inter-rater agreement measurements.
iteration
A single update of a model's weights during training. An iteration consists of computing the gradients of the parameters with respect to the loss on a single batch of data.
K
k-means
A popular clustering algorithm that groups examples in unsupervised learning. The k-means algorithm basically does the following:
Iteratively determines the best k center points (known as centroids ).
Assigns each example to the closest centroid. Those examples nearest the same centroid belong to the same group.
The k-means algorithm picks centroid locations to minimize the cumulative square of the distances from each example to its closest centroid.
For example, consider the following plot of dog height to dog width:
If k=3, the k-means algorithm will determine three centroids. Each example is assigned to its closest centroid, yielding three groups:
Imagine that a manufacturer wants to determine the ideal sizes for small, medium, and large sweaters for dogs. The three centroids identify the mean height and mean width of each dog in that cluster. So, the manufacturer should probably base sweater sizes on those three centroids. Note that the centroid of a cluster is typically not an example in the cluster.
The preceding illustrations shows k-means for examples with only two features (height and width). Note that k-means can group examples across many features.
k-median
A clustering algorithm closely related to k-means . The practical difference between the two is as follows:
In k-means, centroids are determined by minimizing the sum of the squares of the distance between a centroid candidate and each of its examples.
In k-median, centroids are determined by minimizing the sum of the distance between a centroid candidate and each of its examples.
Note that the definitions of distance are also different:
k-means relies on the Euclidean distance from the centroid to an example. (In two dimensions, the Euclidean distance means using the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the hypotenuse.) For example, the k-means distance between (2,2) and (5,-2) would be:
$$ {\text{Euclidean distance}} = {\sqrt {(2-5)^2 + (2--2)^2}} = 5 $$
k-median relies on the Manhattan distance from the centroid to an example. This distance is the sum of the absolute deltas in each dimension. For example, the k-median distance between (2,2) and (5,-2) would be:
$$ {\text{Manhattan distance}} = \lvert 2-5 \rvert + \lvert 2--2 \rvert = 7 $$
Keras
A popular Python machine learning API. Keras runs on several deep learning frameworks, including TensorFlow, where it is made available as tf.keras .
Kernel Support Vector Machines (KSVMs)
A classification algorithm that seeks to maximize the margin between positive and negative classes by mapping input data vectors to a higher dimensional space. For example, consider a classification problem in which the input data set consists of a hundred features. In order to maximize the margin between positive and negative classes, KSVMs could internally map those features into a million-dimension space. KSVMs uses a loss function called hinge loss .
L
L1 loss
Loss function based on the absolute value of the difference between the values that a model is predicting and the actual values of the labels . L1 loss is less sensitive to outliers than L2 loss .
L1 regularization
A type of regularization that penalizes weights in proportion to the sum of the absolute values of the weights. In models relying on sparse features , L1 regularization helps drive the weights of irrelevant or barely relevant features to exactly 0, which removes those features from the model. Contrast with L2 regularization .
L2 loss
See squared loss .
L2 regularization
A type of regularization that penalizes weights in proportion to the sum of the squares of the weights. L2 regularization helps drive outlier weights (those with high positive or low negative values) closer to 0 but not quite to 0. (Contrast with L1 regularization .) L2 regularization always improves generalization in linear models.
label
In supervised learning, the "answer" or "result" portion of an example . Each example in a labeled data set consists of one or more features and a label. For instance, in a housing data set, the features might include the number of bedrooms, the number of bathrooms, and the age of the house, while the label might be the house's price. In a spam detection dataset, the features might include the subject line, the sender, and the email message itself, while the label would probably be either "spam" or "not spam."
labeled example
An example that contains features and a label . In supervised training, models learn from labeled examples.
lambda
(This is an overloaded term. Here we're focusing on the term's definition within regularization .)
layer
A set of neurons in a neural network that process a set of input features, or the output of those neurons.
Also, an abstraction in TensorFlow. Layers are Python functions that take Tensors and configuration options as input and produce other tensors as output. Once the necessary Tensors have been composed, the user can convert the result into an Estimator via a model function .
Layers API (tf.layers)
A TensorFlow API for constructing a deep neural network as a composition of layers. The Layers API enables you to build different types of layers , such as:
tf.layers.Dense for a fully-connected layer .
tf.layers.Conv2D for a convolutional layer.
When writing a custom Estimator , you compose Layers objects to define the characteristics of all the hidden layers .
The Layers API follows the Keras layers API conventions. That is, aside from a different prefix, all functions in the Layers API have the same names and signatures as their counterparts in the Keras layers API.
learning rate
A scalar used to train a model via gradient descent. During each iteration, the gradient descent algorithm multiplies the learning rate by the gradient. The resulting product is called the gradient step.
Learning rate is a key hyperparameter .
least squares regression
A linear regression model trained by minimizing L2 Loss .
linear regression
A type of regression model that outputs a continuous value from a linear combination of input features.
logistic regression
A model that generates a probability for each possible discrete label value in classification problems by applying a sigmoid function to a linear prediction. Although logistic regression is often used in binary classification problems, it can also be used in multi-class classification problems (where it becomes called multi-class logistic regression or multinomial regression).
logits
The vector of raw (non-normalized) predictions that a classification model generates, which is ordinarily then passed to a normalization function. If the model is solving a multi-class classification problem, logits typically become an input to the softmax function . The softmax function then generates a vector of (normalized) probabilities with one value for each possible class.
In addition, logits sometimes refer to the element-wise inverse of the sigmoid function . For more information, see tf.nn.sigmoid_cross_entropy_with_logits .
Log Loss
The loss function used in binary logistic regression .
log-odds
The logarithm of the odds of some event.
If the event refers to a binary probability, then odds refers to the ratio of the probability of success (p) to the probability of failure (1-p). For example, suppose that a given event has a 90% probability of success and a 10% probability of failure. In this case, odds is calculated as follows:
$$ {\text{odds}} = \frac{\text{p}} {\text{(1-p)}} = \frac{.9} {.1} = {\text{9}} $$
The log-odds is simply the logarithm of the odds. By convention, "logarithm" refers to natural logarithm, but logarithm could actually be any base greater than 1. Sticking to convention, the log-odds of our example is therefore:
$$ {\text{log-odds}} = ln(9) ~= 2.2 $$
The log-odds are the inverse of the sigmoid function .
loss
A measure of how far a model's predictions are from its label . Or, to phrase it more pessimistically, a measure of how bad the model is. To determine this value, a model must define a loss function. For example, linear regression models typically use mean squared error for a loss function, while logistic regression models use Log Loss .
M
machine learning
A program or system that builds (trains) a predictive model from input data. The system uses the learned model to make useful predictions from new (never-before-seen) data drawn from the same distribution as the one used to train the model. Machine learning also refers to the field of study concerned with these programs or systems.
Mean Squared Error (MSE)
The average squared loss per example. MSE is calculated by dividing the squared loss by the number of examples . The values that TensorFlow Playground displays for "Training loss" and "Test loss" are MSE.
metric
A number that you care about. May or may not be directly optimized in a machine-learning system. A metric that your system tries to optimize is called an objective .
Metrics API (tf.metrics)
A TensorFlow API for evaluating models. For example, tf.metrics.accuracy determines how often a model's predictions match labels. When writing a custom Estimator , you invoke Metrics API functions to specify how your model should be evaluated.
mini-batch
A small, randomly selected subset of the entire batch of examples run together in a single iteration of training or inference. The batch size of a mini-batch is usually between 10 and 1,000. It is much more efficient to calculate the loss on a mini-batch than on the full training data.
mini-batch stochastic gradient descent (SGD)
A gradient descent algorithm that uses mini-batches . In other words, mini-batch SGD estimates the gradient based on a small subset of the training data. Vanilla SGD uses a mini-batch of size 1.
ML
Abbreviation for machine learning .
model
The representation of what an ML system has learned from the training data. This is an overloaded term, which can have either of the following two related meanings:
The TensorFlow graph that expresses the structure of how a prediction will be computed.
The particular weights and biases of that TensorFlow graph, which are determined by training .
model function
The function within an Estimator that implements ML training, evaluation, and inference. For example, the training portion of a model function might handle tasks such as defining the topology of a deep neural network and identifying its optimizer function. When using pre-made Estimators , someone has already written the model function for you. When using custom Estimators , you must write the model function yourself.
For details about writing a model function, see Creating Custom Estimators .
model training
The process of determining the best model .
Momentum
A sophisticated gradient descent algorithm in which a learning step depends not only on the derivative in the current step, but also on the derivatives of the step(s) that immediately preceded it. Momentum involves computing an exponentially weighted moving average of the gradients over time, analogous to momentum in physics. Momentum sometimes prevents learning from getting stuck in local minima.
multi-class classification
Classification problems that distinguish among more than two classes. For example, there are approximately 128 species of maple trees, so a model that categorized maple tree species would be multi-class. Conversely, a model that divided emails into only two categories (spam and not spam) would be a binary classification model .
multinomial classification
N
NaN trap
When one number in your model becomes a NaN during training, which causes many or all other numbers in your model to eventually become a NaN.
NaN is an abbreviation for "Not a Number."
negative class
In binary classification , one class is termed positive and the other is termed negative. The positive class is the thing we're looking for and the negative class is the other possibility. For example, the negative class in a medical test might be "not tumor." The negative class in an email classifier might be "not spam." See also positive class .
neural network
A model that, taking inspiration from the brain, is composed of layers (at least one of which is hidden ) consisting of simple connected units or neurons followed by nonlinearities.
neuron
A node in a neural network , typically taking in multiple input values and generating one output value. The neuron calculates the output value by applying an activation function (nonlinear transformation) to a weighted sum of input values.
node
A neuron in a hidden layer .
An operation in a TensorFlow graph .
normalization
The process of converting an actual range of values into a standard range of values, typically -1 to +1 or 0 to 1. For example, suppose the natural range of a certain feature is 800 to 6,000. Through subtraction and division, you can normalize those values into the range -1 to +1.
See also scaling .
numerical data
Features represented as integers or real-valued numbers. For example, in a real estate model, you would probably represent the size of a house (in square feet or square meters) as numerical data. Representing a feature as numerical data indicates that the feature's values have a mathematical relationship to each other and possibly to the label. For example, representing the size of a house as numerical data indicates that a 200 square-meter house is twice as large as a 100 square-meter house. Furthermore, the number of square meters in a house probably has some mathematical relationship to the price of the house.
Not all integer data should be represented as numerical data. For example, postal codes in some parts of the world are integers; however, integer postal codes should not be represented as numerical data in models. That's because a postal code of 20000 is not twice (or half) as potent as a postal code of 10000. Furthermore, although different postal codes do correlate to different real estate values, we can't assume that real estate values at postal code 20000 are twice as valuable as real estate values at postal code 10000. Postal codes should be represented as categorical data instead.
Numerical features are sometimes called continuous features .
numpy
An open-source math library that provides efficient array operations in Python. pandas is built on numpy.
O
A metric that your algorithm is trying to optimize.
offline inference
Generating a group of predictions , storing those predictions, and then retrieving those predictions on demand. Contrast with online inference .
one-hot encoding
A sparse vector in which:
One element is set to 1.
All other elements are set to 0.
One-hot encoding is commonly used to represent strings or identifiers that have a finite set of possible values. For example, suppose a given botany data set chronicles 15,000 different species, each denoted with a unique string identifier. As part of feature engineering, you'll probably encode those string identifiers as one-hot vectors in which the vector has a size of 15,000.
one-shot learning
A machine learning approach, often used for object classification, designed to learn effective classifiers from a single training example.
See also few-shot learning .
one-vs.-all
Given a classification problem with N possible solutions, a one-vs.-all solution consists of N separate binary classifiers —one binary classifier for each possible outcome. For example, given a model that classifies examples as animal, vegetable, or mineral, a one-vs.-all solution would provide the following three separate binary classifiers:
animal vs. not animal
more complex math ( Proximal , and others)
You might even imagine an NN-driven optimizer .
outliers
Values distant from most other values. In machine learning, any of the following are outliers:
Weights with high absolute values.
Predicted values relatively far away from the actual values.
Input data whose values are more than roughly 3 standard deviations from the mean.
Outliers often cause problems in model training.
output layer
The "final" layer of a neural network. The layer containing the answer(s).
overfitting
Creating a model that matches the training data so closely that the model fails to make correct predictions on new data.
P
pandas
A column-oriented data analysis API. Many ML frameworks, including TensorFlow, support pandas data structures as input. See pandas documentation .
parameter
A variable of a model that the ML system trains on its own. For example, weights are parameters whose values the ML system gradually learns through successive training iterations. Contrast with hyperparameter .
Parameter Server (PS)
A job that keeps track of a model's parameters in a distributed setting.
parameter update
The operation of adjusting a model's parameters during training, typically within a single iteration of gradient descent .
partial derivative
A derivative in which all but one of the variables is considered a constant. For example, the partial derivative of f(x, y) with respect to x is the derivative of f considered as a function of x alone (that is, keeping y constant). The partial derivative of f with respect to x focuses only on how x is changing and ignores all other variables in the equation.
partitioning strategy
The algorithm by which variables are divided across parameter servers .
performance
Overloaded term with the following meanings:
The traditional meaning within software engineering. Namely: How fast (or efficiently) does this piece of software run?
The meaning within ML. Here, performance answers the following question: How correct is this model ? That is, how good are the model's predictions?
perplexity
One measure of how well a model is accomplishing its task. For example, suppose your task is to read the first few letters of a word a user is typing on a smartphone keyboard, and to offer a list of possible completion words. Perplexity, P, for this task is approximately the number of guesses you need to offer in order for your list to contain the actual word the user is trying to type.
Perplexity is related to cross-entropy as follows:
$$P= 2^{-\text{cross entropy}}$$
pipeline
The infrastructure surrounding a machine learning algorithm. A pipeline includes gathering the data, putting the data into training data files, training one or more models, and exporting the models to production.
pooling
Reducing a matrix (or matrices) created by an earlier convolutional layer to a smaller matrix. Pooling usually involves taking either the maximum or average value across the pooled area. For example, suppose we have the following 3x3 matrix:
A pooling operation, just like a convolutional operation, divides that matrix into slices and then slides that convolutional operation by strides . For example, suppose the pooling operation divides the convolutional matrix into 2x2 slices with a 1x1 stride. As the following diagram illustrates, four pooling operations take place. Imagine that each pooling operation picks the maximum value of the four in that slice:
Pooling helps enforce translational invariance in the input matrix.
Pooling for vision applications is known more formally as spatial pooling. Time-series applications usually refer to pooling as temporal pooling. Less formally, pooling is often called subsampling or downsampling.
positive class
In binary classification , the two possible classes are labeled as positive and negative. The positive outcome is the thing we're testing for. (Admittedly, we're simultaneously testing for both outcomes, but play along.) For example, the positive class in a medical test might be "tumor." The positive class in an email classifier might be "spam."
Contrast with negative class .
precision
A metric for classification models . Precision identifies the frequency with which a model was correct when predicting the positive class . That is:
$$\text{Precision} = \frac{\text{True Positives}} {\text{True Positives} + \text{False Positives}}$$
prediction
A model's output when provided with an input example .
prediction bias
A value indicating how far apart the average of predictions is from the average of labels in the data set.
pre-made Estimator
An Estimator that someone has already built. TensorFlow provides several pre-made Estimators, including DNNClassifier, DNNRegressor, and LinearClassifier. You may build your own pre-made Estimators by following these instructions .
pre-trained model
Models or model components (such as embeddings ) that have been already been trained. Sometimes, you'll feed pre-trained embeddings into a neural network . Other times, your model will train the embeddings itself rather than rely on the pre-trained embeddings.
prior belief
What you believe about the data before you begin training on it. For example, L2 regularization relies on a prior belief that weights should be small and normally distributed around zero.
Q
A TensorFlow Operation that implements a queue data structure. Typically used in I/O.
R
rank
Overloaded term in ML that can mean either of the following:
The number of dimensions in a Tensor . For instance, a scalar has rank 0, a vector has rank 1, and a matrix has rank 2.
The ordinal position of a class in an ML problem that categorizes classes from highest to lowest. For example, a behavior ranking system could rank a dog's rewards from highest (a steak) to lowest (wilted kale).
rater
A human who provides labels in examples . Sometimes called an "annotator."
recall
A metric for classification models that answers the following question: Out of all the possible positive labels, how many did the model correctly identify? That is:
$$\text{Recall} = \frac{\text{True Positives}} {\text{True Positives} + \text{False Negatives}} $$
Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU)
An activation function with the following rules:
If input is negative or zero, output is 0.
If input is positive, output is equal to input.
regression model
A type of model that outputs continuous (typically, floating-point) values. Compare with classification models , which output discrete values, such as "day lily" or "tiger lily."
regularization
early stopping (this is not a formal regularization method, but can effectively limit overfitting)
regularization rate
A scalar value, represented as lambda, specifying the relative importance of the regularization function. The following simplified loss equation shows the regularization rate's influence:
$$\text{minimize(loss function + }\lambda\text{(regularization function))}$$
Raising the regularization rate reduces overfitting but may make the model less accurate .
representation
The process of mapping data to useful features .
ROC (receiver operating characteristic) Curve
A curve of true positive rate vs. false positive rate at different classification thresholds . See also AUC .
root directory
The directory you specify for hosting subdirectories of the TensorFlow checkpoint and events files of multiple models.
Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE)
The square root of the Mean Squared Error .
rotational invariance
In an image classification problem, an algorithm's ability to successfully classify images even when the orientation of the image changes. For example, the algorithm can still identify a tennis racket whether it is pointing up, sideways, or down. Note that rotational invariance is not always desirable; for example, an upside-down 9 should not be classified as a 9.
S
SavedModel
The recommended format for saving and recovering TensorFlow models. SavedModel is a language-neutral, recoverable serialization format, which enables higher-level systems and tools to produce, consume, and transform TensorFlow models.
See Saving and Restoring in the TensorFlow Programmer's Guide for complete details.
Saver
A TensorFlow object responsible for saving model checkpoints.
scaling
A commonly used practice in feature engineering to tame a feature's range of values to match the range of other features in the data set. For example, suppose that you want all floating-point features in the data set to have a range of 0 to 1. Given a particular feature's range of 0 to 500, you could scale that feature by dividing each value by 500.
A popular open-source ML platform. See www.scikit-learn.org .
semi-supervised learning
Training a model on data where some of the training examples have labels but others don’t. One technique for semi-supervised learning is to infer labels for the unlabeled examples, and then to train on the inferred labels to create a new model. Semi-supervised learning can be useful if labels are expensive to obtain but unlabeled examples are plentiful.
sequence model
A model whose inputs have a sequential dependence. For example, predicting the next video watched from a sequence of previously watched videos.
session (tf.session)
An object that encapsulates the state of the TensorFlow run time and runs all or part of a graph . When using the low-level TensorFlow APIs, you instantiate and manage one or more tf.session objects directly. When using the Estimators API, Estimators instantiate session objects for you.
sigmoid function
A function that maps logistic or multinomial regression output (log odds) to probabilities, returning a value between 0 and 1. The sigmoid function has the following formula:
$$y = \frac{1}{1 + e^{-\sigma}}$$
where \(\sigma\) in logistic regression problems is simply:
$$\sigma = b + w_1x_1 + w_2x_2 + … w_nx_n$$
In other words, the sigmoid function converts \(\sigma\) into a probability between 0 and 1.
In some neural networks , the sigmoid function acts as the activation function .
size invariance
In an image classification problem, an algorithm's ability to successfully classify images even when the size of the image changes. For example, the algorithm can still identify a cat whether it consumes 2M pixels or 200K pixels. Note that even the best image classification algorithms still have practical limits on size invariance. For example, an algorithm (or human) is unlikely to correctly classify a cat image consuming only 20 pixels.
See also translational invariance and rotational invariance .
softmax
A function that provides probabilities for each possible class in a multi-class classification model . The probabilities add up to exactly 1.0. For example, softmax might determine that the probability of a particular image being a dog at 0.9, a cat at 0.08, and a horse at 0.02. (Also called full softmax.)
Contrast with candidate sampling .
sparse feature
Feature vector whose values are predominately zero or empty. For example, a vector containing a single 1 value and a million 0 values is sparse. As another example, words in a search query could also be a sparse feature—there are many possible words in a given language, but only a few of them occur in a given query.
sparse representation
A representation of a tensor that only stores nonzero elements.
For example, the English language consists of about a million words. Consider two ways to represent a count of the words used in one English sentence:
A dense representation of this sentence must set an integer for all one million cells, placing a 0 in most of them, and a low integer into a few of them.
A sparse representation of this sentence stores only those cells symbolizing a word actually in the sentence. So, if the sentence contained only 20 unique words, then the sparse representation for the sentence would store an integer in only 20 cells.
For example, consider two ways to represent the sentence, "Dogs wag tails." As the following figure shows, the dense representation consumes about a million cells; the sparse representation consumes only 3 cells:
sparsity
The number of elements set to zero (or null) in a vector or matrix divided by the total number of entries in that vector or matrix. For example, consider a 10x10 matrix in which 98 cells contain zero. The calculation of sparsity is as follows:
$$ {\text{sparsity}} = \frac{\text{98}} {\text{100}} = {\text{0.98}} $$
Feature sparsity refers to the sparsity of a feature vector; model sparsity refers to the sparsity of the model weights.
spatial pooling
See pooling .
squared hinge loss
The square of the hinge loss . Squared hinge loss penalizes outliers more harshly than regular hinge loss.
squared loss
The loss function used in linear regression . (Also known as L2 Loss.) This function calculates the squares of the difference between a model's predicted value for a labeled example and the actual value of the label . Due to squaring, this loss function amplifies the influence of bad predictions. That is, squared loss reacts more strongly to outliers than L1 loss .
static model
A model that is trained offline.
stationarity
A property of data in a data set, in which the data distribution stays constant across one or more dimensions. Most commonly, that dimension is time, meaning that data exhibiting stationarity doesn't change over time. For example, data that exhibits stationarity doesn't change from September to December.
step
A forward and backward evaluation of one batch .
step size
Synonym for learning rate .
stochastic gradient descent (SGD)
A gradient descent algorithm in which the batch size is one. In other words, SGD relies on a single example chosen uniformly at random from a data set to calculate an estimate of the gradient at each step.
structural risk minimization (SRM)
An algorithm that balances two goals:
The desire to build the most predictive model (for example, lowest loss).
The desire to keep the model as simple as possible (for example, strong regularization).
For example, a function that minimizes loss+regularization on the training set is a structural risk minimization algorithm.
For more information, see http://www.svms.org/srm/ .
Contrast with empirical risk minimization .
stride
In a convolutional operation or pooling, the delta in each dimension of the next series of input slices. For example, the following animation demonstrates a (1,1) stride during a convolutional operation. Therefore, the next input slice starts one position to the right of the previous input slice. When the operation reaches the right edge, the next slice is all the way over to the left but one position down.
The preceding example demonstrates a two-dimensional stride. If the input matrix is three-dimensional, the stride would also be three-dimensional.
subsampling
See pooling .
summary
In TensorFlow, a value or set of values calculated at a particular step , usually used for tracking model metrics during training.
supervised machine learning
Training a model from input data and its corresponding labels . Supervised machine learning is analogous to a student learning a subject by studying a set of questions and their corresponding answers. After mastering the mapping between questions and answers, the student can then provide answers to new (never-before-seen) questions on the same topic. Compare with unsupervised machine learning .
synthetic feature
A feature not present among the input features, but created from one or more of them. Kinds of synthetic features include the following:
Bucketing a continuous feature into range bins.
Multiplying (or dividing) one feature value by other feature value(s) or by itself.
Features created by normalizing or scaling alone are not considered synthetic features.
T
Synonym for label .
temporal data
Data recorded at different points in time. For example, winter coat sales recorded for each day of the year would be temporal data.
Tensor
The primary data structure in TensorFlow programs. Tensors are N-dimensional (where N could be very large) data structures, most commonly scalars, vectors, or matrices. The elements of a Tensor can hold integer, floating-point, or string values.
Tensor Processing Unit (TPU)
An ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) that optimizes the performance of TensorFlow programs.
Tensor rank
See rank .
Tensor shape
The number of elements a Tensor contains in various dimensions. For example, a [5, 10] Tensor has a shape of 5 in one dimension and 10 in another.
Tensor size
The total number of scalars a Tensor contains. For example, a [5, 10] Tensor has a size of 50.
TensorBoard
The dashboard that displays the summaries saved during the execution of one or more TensorFlow programs.
TensorFlow
A large-scale, distributed, machine learning platform. The term also refers to the base API layer in the TensorFlow stack, which supports general computation on dataflow graphs.
Although TensorFlow is primarily used for machine learning, you may also use TensorFlow for non-ML tasks that require numerical computation using dataflow graphs.
TensorFlow Playground
A program that visualizes how different hyperparameters influence model (primarily neural network) training. Go to http://playground.tensorflow.org to experiment with TensorFlow Playground.
TensorFlow Serving
A platform to deploy trained models in production.
test set
The subset of the data set that you use to test your model after the model has gone through initial vetting by the validation set.
A standard protocol buffer for describing input data for machine learning model training or inference.
time series analysis
A subfield of machine learning and statistics that analyzes temporal data . Many types of machine learning problems require time series analysis, including classification, clustering, forecasting, and anomaly detection. For example, you could use time series analysis to forecast the future sales of winter coats by month based on historical sales data.
training
The process of determining the ideal parameters comprising a model.
training set
Contrast with validation set and test set .
transfer learning
Transferring information from one machine learning task to another. For example, in multi-task learning, a single model solves multiple tasks, such as a deep model that has different output nodes for different tasks. Transfer learning might involve transferring knowledge from the solution of a simpler task to a more complex one, or involve transferring knowledge from a task where there is more data to one where there is less data.
Most machine learning systems solve a single task. Transfer learning is a baby step towards artificial intelligence in which a single program can solve multiple tasks.
translational invariance
In an image classification problem, an algorithm's ability to successfully classify images even when the position of objects within the image changes. For example, the algorithm can still identify a dog, whether it is in the center of the frame or at the left end of the frame.
See also size invariance and rotational invariance .
true negative (TN)
An example in which the model correctly predicted the negative class . For example, the model inferred that a particular email message was not spam, and that email message really was not spam.
true positive (TP)
An example in which the model correctly predicted the positive class . For example, the model inferred that a particular email message was spam, and that email message really was spam.
true positive rate (TP rate)
Synonym for recall . That is:
$$\text{True Positive Rate} = \frac{\text{True Positives}} {\text{True Positives} + \text{False Negatives}}$$
True positive rate is the y-axis in an ROC curve .
U
unlabeled example
An example that contains features but no label . Unlabeled examples are the input to inference . In semi-supervised and unsupervised learning, unlabeled examples are used during training.
unsupervised machine learning
Training a model to find patterns in a data set, typically an unlabeled data set.
The most common use of unsupervised machine learning is to cluster data into groups of similar examples. For example, an unsupervised machine learning algorithm can cluster songs together based on various properties of the music. The resulting clusters can become an input to other machine learning algorithms (for example, to a music recommendation service). Clustering can be helpful in domains where true labels are hard to obtain. For example, in domains such as anti-abuse and fraud, clusters can help humans better understand the data.
Another example of unsupervised machine learning is principal component analysis (PCA) . For example, applying PCA on a data set containing the contents of millions of shopping carts might reveal that shopping carts containing lemons frequently also contain antacids.
V
validation set
A subset of the data set—disjunct from the training set—that you use to adjust hyperparameters .
W
weight
A coefficient for a feature in a linear model, or an edge in a deep network. The goal of training a linear model is to determine the ideal weight for each feature. If a weight is 0, then its corresponding feature does not contribute to the model.
wide model
A linear mo