A research team from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) has successfully developed a new method for machine learning that allows an AI to make classifications without what is known as “negative data,” a finding which could lead to wider application to a variety of classification tasks.

Credit: Riken

According to lead author Takashi Ishida from RIKEN AIP, “Previous classification methods could not cope with the situation where negative data were not available, but we have made it possible for computers to learn with only positive data, as long as we have a confidence score for our positive data, constructed from information such as buying intention or the active rate of app users. Using our new method, we can let computers learn a classifier only from positive data equipped with confidence.”

Ishida proposed, together with researcher Niu Gang from his group and team leader Masashi Sugiyama, that they let computers learn well by adding the confidence score, which mathematically corresponds to the probability whether the data belongs to a positive class or not. They succeeded in developing a method that can let computers learn a classification boundary only from positive data and information on its confidence (positive reliability) against classification problems of machine learning that divide data positively and negatively.

To see how well the system functioned, they used it on a set of photos that contains various labels of fashion items. For example, they chose “T-shirt,” as the positive class and one other item, e.g., “sandal,” as the negative class. Then they attached a confidence score to the “T-shirt” photos. They found that without accessing the negative data (e.g., “sandal” photos), in some cases, their method was just as good as a method that involves using positive and negative data.

According to Ishida, “This discovery could expand the range of applications where classification technology can be used. Even in fields where machine learning has been actively used, our classification technology could be used in new situations where only positive data can be gathered due to data regulation or business constraints. In the near future, we hope to put our technology to use in various research fields, such as natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and bioinformatics.”

Read more here (RIKEN. “Smarter AI: Machine learning without negative data.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 November 2018.)