What Is Argmax in Machine Learning?

Last Updated on August 19, 2020

Argmax is a mathematical function that you may encounter in applied machine learning.

For example, you may see “argmax” or “arg max” used in a research paper used to describe an algorithm. You may also be instructed to use the argmax function in your algorithm implementation.

This may be the first time that you encounter the argmax function and you may wonder what it is and how it works.

In this tutorial, you will discover the argmax function and how it is used in machine learning.

After completing this tutorial, you will know:

  • Argmax is an operation that finds the argument that gives the maximum value from a target function.
  • Argmax is most commonly used in machine learning for finding the class with the largest predicted probability.
  • Argmax can be implemented manually, although the argmax() NumPy function is preferred in practice.

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