Interpreting Machine Learning

“You’ve probably heard by now that machine learning algorithms can use big data to predict whether a donor will give to a charity, whether an infant in a NICU will develop sepsis, whether a customer will respond to an ad, and on and on. Machine learning can even drive cars and predict elections. … Err, wait. Can it? I believe it can, but these recent high-profile hiccups should leave everyone who works with data (big or not) and machine learning algorithms asking themselves some very hard questions: do I understand my data? Do I understand the model and answers my machine learning algorithm is giving me? And do I trust these answers?” Patrick Hall published an article that presents several approaches beyond the usual error measures and assessment plots for visualizing data and interpreting machine learning models and results.