Is machine learning good or bad for science?
University of Nova Gorica invites to the public lecture Is machine learning good or bad for science? by Prof. Dr. David W. Hogg (New York University).
Lecture will take place on Tuesday, 27 May 2025, at 5 p.m. at the the Lanthieri mansion in Vipava.
Machine learning (ML) methods are having a huge impact across all of the sciences. However, ML has a strong ontology - in which only the data exist - and a strong epistemology - in which a model is considered good if it performs well on held-out training data. These philosophies are in strong conflict with both standard practices and key philosophies in the natural sciences. I identify some locations for ML in the natural sciences at which the ontology and epistemology are valuable. I also show that there are contexts in which the introduction of ML introduces strong, unwanted statistical biases. My partial answers I provide (to the question in my title) come from the particular perspective of physics.
Lecture will be in English.