Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Inference
Definition
Inference is the process of using a trained machine learning model to make a prediction on new, unseen data. It is the "application" phase, where the model puts its learning into practice.
Why It Matters
Inference is what provides the actual value from a machine learning model in a production application. While training can be slow and expensive, inference needs to be fast and efficient to provide a good user experience.
Contextual Example
You take a picture of a flower with your phone. The phone sends the image to a trained image recognition model (inference). The model processes the image and returns a prediction: "Daisy."
Common Misunderstandings
- Inference is also known as "prediction" or "scoring".
- It is computationally much cheaper than training.