Machine learning is a vibrant, fast-growing branch of artificial intelligence. It aims to make reliable decisions with real-world data, without needing to be manually programmed by a human. The algorithms involved can be trained for specific tasks by analysing large amounts of data with some basic rules, and picking out any recurring patterns. From this analysis, they can build models that help them to identify similar patterns in new, unfamiliar data. Whether used in voice recognition, or to identify important features in medical images -- like telling skin cancer from a benign mole -- machine learning is already being rolled out in many real-world applications, and its influence on our everyday lives is only set to grow in the coming years. When trained, the models may pick up on different patterns than those a human would find important or relevant.

In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated. Models are commonly trained using millions of data inputs, making it almost impossible for a human to evaluate enough decisions to identify patterns. Now, researchers at MIT and IBM Research have created a method that enables a user to aggregate, sort, and rank these individual explanations to rapidly analyze a machine-learning model's behavior.

In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated. Models are commonly trained using millions of data inputs, making it almost impossible for a human to evaluate enough decisions to identify patterns. Now, researchers at MIT and IBM Research have created a method that enables a user to aggregate, sort, and rank these individual explanations to rapidly analyze a machine-learning model's behavior.

A new technique compares the reasoning of a machine-learning model to that of a human, so the user can see patterns in the model's behavior. In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated. Models are commonly trained using millions of data inputs, making it almost impossible for a human to evaluate enough decisions to identify patterns.

A new technique that measures the reasoning power of artificial intelligence (AI) shows that machines are catching up to humans in their abilities to think, experts say. Researchers at MIT and IBM Research have created a method that enables a user to rank the results of a machine-learning model's behavior. Their technique, called Shared Interest, incorporates metrics that compare how well a model's thinking matches people's. "Today, AI is capable of reaching (and, in some cases, exceeding) human performance in specific tasks, including image recognition and language understanding," Pieter Buteneers, director of engineering in machine learning and AI at the communications company Sinch, told Lifewire in an email interview. "With natural language processing (NLP), AI systems can interpret, write and speak languages as well as humans, and the AI can even adjust its dialect and tone to align with its human peers."

MIT researchers developed a method that helps a user understand a machine-learning model's reasoning, and how that reasoning compares to that of a human. A new technique compares the reasoning of a machine-learning model to that of a human, so the user can see patterns in the model's behavior. In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated.

In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated. Models are commonly trained using millions of data inputs, making it almost impossible for a human to evaluate enough decisions to identify patterns. Now, researchers at MIT and IBM Research have created a method that enables a user to aggregate, sort, and rank these individual explanations to rapidly analyze a machine-learning model's behavior.

In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated. Models are commonly trained using millions of data inputs, making it almost impossible for a human to evaluate enough decisions to identify patterns. Now, researchers at MIT and IBM Research have created a method that enables a user to aggregate, sort, and rank these individual explanations to rapidly analyze a machine-learning model's behavior.

In machine learning, understanding why a model makes certain decisions is often just as important as whether those decisions are correct. For instance, a machine-learning model might correctly predict that a skin lesion is cancerous, but it could have done so using an unrelated blip on a clinical photo. While tools exist to help experts make sense of a model's reasoning, often these methods only provide insights on one decision at a time, and each must be manually evaluated. Models are commonly trained using millions of data inputs, making it almost impossible for a human to evaluate enough decisions to identify patterns. Now, researchers at MIT and IBM Research have created a method that enables a user to aggregate, sort, and rank these individual explanations to rapidly analyze a machine-learning model's behavior.