Now That Machines Can Learn, Can They Unlearn?

Companies of all kinds use machine learning to analyze people's desires, dislikes, or faces. Some researchers are now asking a different question: How can we make machines forget? A nascent area of computer science dubbed machine unlearning seeks ways to induce selective amnesia in artificial intelligence software. The goal is to remove all trace of a particular person or data point from a machine learning system, without affecting its performance. If made practical, the concept could give people more control over their data and the value derived from it.