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Year 9 · Spring 1 · Data Science and AI

How machine learning learns, and where bias comes from

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What this lesson covers

Topic 18 Data, spreadsheets and AI

KS3 Computing · Data is raw facts. Information is data with meaning. Spreadsheets calculate, databases store and search, and AI learns patterns from examples.

Managing Data Computational ThinkingCambridge Lower Secondary Computing 0860

You will learn to

  • Explain the difference between a human writing the rules and machine learning, which finds rules from examples.
  • Write a rule that sorts 20 example cards, then test it on cards it has not seen.
  • Explain why the rule changed when the examples changed.
  • Explain how biased training data leads to unfair answers, with an example.

Success criteria

  • I can write a sorting rule from the examples and test it on new cards.
  • I can say what went wrong when our rule met an unusual card.
  • I can give one real example where AI bias could be unfair to people.

Key words

Say each word, then read what it means. Every one is in the glossary too.

Machine learning
The computer finds rules itself from labelled examples.
Formula
A spreadsheet calculation. Always starts with =.
Function
A subroutine that returns a value.
Record / field
One row in a database table: everything stored about one thing.
Primary key
A field whose value is unique for every record.
SQL
Structured Query Language: asks databases questions.

The explanation

Read it here, or open the study page below to go one step at a time with things to try.

AI and machine learning

  • Normal programming: a human writes the rules.
  • Machine learning: you give thousands of labelled examples; the computer finds the rules itself.
  1. Collect training data.
  2. Train: adjust until guesses are mostly right.
  3. Test on examples it hasn't seen.
  4. Use it on new data.
!Watch out

Bias: a model learns whatever is in its examples, including unfairness. Unfair data in, unfair decisions out.

e.g.Example

Chatbots predict likely next words. Very useful, but they can be confidently wrong, so check them.

Study it

Open the study page and go one step at a time.

Topic 18 · Year 7

Data, spreadsheets and AI

Data is raw facts. Information is data with meaning. Spreadsheets calculate, databases store and search, AI learns patterns from examples.

Check yourself

One question at a time. The reason shows after each answer.

Saved on this device.