Gradient Boosting

Definition of Gradient Boosting

Gradient Boosting: Gradient boosting is a machine learning technique that combines a number of weaker models to produce a stronger model. It does this by constructing a model that takes into account the predictions of the weaker models, and uses this information to make its own predictions.

What is Gradient Boosting used for?

Gradient Boosting is a powerful machine learning algorithm that is used to generate predictive models in areas such as regression and classification. It is an ensemble approach, which means it combines the output of multiple base learners to form a single unified model. The method works by sequentially training the model on multiple weak learners (base learners) and updating the model with new information after each iteration. Gradient Boosting uses gradient descent algorithms to find the optimal combination of parameters for each weak learner. To prevent overfitting, Gradient Boosting implements regularization techniques like shrinkage and feature selection. During training, Gradient Boosting utilizes a cost function such as least squares error (LSE) or cross-entropy loss to optimize the model’s prediction performance. By minimizing this cost function at each stage of the sequential process, Gradient Boosting produces a strong final model that has good generalization ability and low bias. Gradient Boosting can be used for both supervised and unsupervised learning problems such as image recognition, text classification, object detection, time series forecasting and anomaly detection. With its flexibility in handling various types of data and learning objectives, Gradient Boosting has become one of the most popular state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms in recent years.