Parametric and Nonparametric Machine Learning Algorithms
Last Updated on August 15, 2020
What is a parametric machine learning algorithm and how is it different from a nonparametric machine learning algorithm?
In this post you will discover the difference between parametric and nonparametric machine learning algorithms.
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Parametric and Nonparametric Machine Learning Algorithms
Photo by John M., some rights reserved.
Learning a Function
Machine learning can be summarized as learning a function (f) that maps input variables (X) to output variables (Y).
Y = f(x)
An algorithm learns this target mapping function from training data.
The form of the function is unknown, so our job as machine learning practitioners is to evaluate different machine learning algorithms and see which is better at approximating the underlying function.
Different algorithms make different assumptions or biases about the form of the function and how it can be learned.