Previewing XGBoost
Machine learning gained recognition with the first neural network in the 1940s, followed by the first machine learning checker champion in the 1950s. After some quiet decades, the field of machine learning took off when Deep Blue famously beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov in the 1990s. With a surge in computational power, the 1990s and early 2000s produced a plethora of academic papers revealing new machine learning algorithms such as random forests and AdaBoost.
The general idea behind boosting is to transform weak learners into strong learners by iteratively improving upon errors. The key idea behind gradient boosting is to use gradient descent to minimize the errors of the residuals. This evolutionary strand, from standard machine learning algorithms to gradient boosting, is the focus of the first four chapters of this book.
XGBoost is short for Extreme Gradient Boosting. The Extreme part refers to pushing the limits of computation to achieve gains in accuracy and speed. XGBoost's surging popularity is largely due to its unparalleled success in Kaggle competitions. In Kaggle competitions, competitors build machine learning models in attempts to make the best predictions and win lucrative cash prizes. In comparison to other models, XGBoost has been crushing the competition.
Understanding the details of XGBoost requires understanding the landscape of machine learning within the context of gradient boosting. In order to paint a full picture, we start at the beginning, with the basics of machine learning.
What is machine learning?
Machine learning is the ability of computers to learn from data. In 2020, machine learning predicts human behavior, recommends products, identifies faces, outperforms poker professionals, discovers exoplanets, identifies diseases, operates self-driving cars, personalizes the internet, and communicates directly with humans. Machine learning is leading the artificial intelligence revolution and affecting the bottom line of nearly every major corporation.
In practice, machine learning means implementing computer algorithms whose weights are adjusted when new data comes in. Machine learning algorithms learn from datasets to make predictions about species classification, the stock market, company profits, human decisions, subatomic particles, optimal traffic routes, and more.
Machine learning is the best tool at our disposal for transforming big data into accurate, actionable predictions. Machine learning, however, does not occur in a vacuum. Machine learning requires rows and columns of data.
