Radical Empiricism and Machine Learning Research

DSA ADS Course - 2021

Machine Learning, Causality, Causal Models, Knowledge Representation

Discuss “data fitting” vs “data interpreting” approaches to data science along three dimensions: Expediency, Transparency, and Explainability. 

Radical Empiricism and Machine Learning Research - May, 2021 by Judea Pearl

Abstract

I contrast the “data fitting” vs “data interpreting” approaches to data science along three dimensions: Expediency, Transparency, and Explainability. “Data fitting” is driven by the faith that the secret to rational decisions lies in the data itself. In contrast, the data-interpreting school views data, not as a sole source of knowledge but as an auxiliary means for interpreting reality, and “reality” stands for the processes that generate the data. I argue for restoring balance to data science through a task-dependent symbiosis of fitting and interpreting, guided by the Logic of Causation.