Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Classification

Definition

Classification is a type of supervised machine learning task where the goal is to predict a categorical output label. The model learns to assign a class label to an input example.

Why It Matters

Classification is used for problems like spam detection, image recognition, and medical diagnosis, where you need to assign an item to a predefined category.

Contextual Example

Determining whether an email is "spam" or "not spam" is a classification problem. The output is a discrete category.

Common Misunderstandings

  • It is one of the two main types of supervised learning, the other being regression.
  • Logistic regression, despite its name, is a classification algorithm.

Related Terms

Last Updated: December 19, 2025