Conor

Label your image data using a mouse or keyboardPhoto by Matt Briney on UnsplashLabeling data is a pain. Yet, accurately labeled data underpins data science and machine learning. So, let’s see how we can speed up the process with Python.We will build two types of labelers that record:The position of a mouse clickThe keys pressed on a keyboardThese can be used to label images directly in a notebook. We’ll discuss the code used to create these and you can also find it on GitHub.To start, we’ll use the imports below. We have…

While time traveling to hang out with your younger self may only seem possible in movies like The Adam Project, a real-life photographer and musician in Montreal has come pretty close to pulling it off. Unlike in the film, Conor Nickerson didn’t bring together his adult and younger selves to save the world—he simply thought it would be an interesting art project.Nickerson got the idea to travel back in time using Photoshop five years ago when he was visiting home and looking through old photos. He had recently created a…

How SHAP is impacted by feature dependencies, causal inference and human biasesPhoto by Vicky Sim on UnsplashSHAP is the most popular IML/XAI method. It is a powerful method used to understand how our models make predictions.But don’t let the popularity persuade you.SHAP still has limitations. You need to keep them in mind when making conclusions using the method.We will discuss 3 significant limitations:The first comes from how SHAP values are calculated — we assume feature independenceThe second comes from how we can…

An introduction to IML — the field aimed at making machine learning models understandable to humans(created with DALLE Mini)Should we always trust a model that performs well?A model could reject your application for a mortgage or diagnose you with cancer. These decisions have consequences. Serious consequences. Even if they are correct, we would expect an explanation.A human could give one. A human would be able to tell you that your income is too low or that a cluster of cells is malignant. To get similar explanations…

The differences in culture, workload, mentorship, learning rate and access to data and toolsPhoto by David Schultz on UnsplashWalking into the office looked more like a day at the beach. Shorts and flip-flops. Was this startup culture or just Cape Town? From the CEO to the new hire (me), the entire 8-person team worked from the same room.During my time there, I briefly consulted for one of South Africa’s telecommunications companies. The contrast was stark. I spent time at the head office in Johannesburg. 100 people in…

Using a heatmap to visualise a confusion matrix, time-series movements, temperature changes, correlation matrix and SHAP interaction values(Source: flaticon)Heatmaps can bring your data to life. Versatile and eye-catching. There are many situations where they can highlight important relationships in your data. Specifically, we will discuss how you can use them to visualise:A confusion matrix for model accuracyTime-series data to show movement between groupsTime-series data to show temperature changesA correlation…

An overview of how SHAP feature contributions are calculatedPhoto by Klara Kulikova on UnsplashSuppose you (Player 1) and a friend (Player 2) enter a Kaggle contest. You end up winning the first prize of $10,000. Now, you want to split the money fairly. Your friend suggests that you just split it equally. However, your hyperparameter tuning skills are superior. You believe you deserve a larger share as you contributed more to the team. With this in mind, how can you divide the money up fairly?Conveniently, your friend…

Why my first job in data science was not what I expectedPhoto by Andre Taissin on UnsplashNew shirt, new shoes. I was ready for my first job in one of Ireland’s biggest banks. I was excited. Looking back, I had good reason to be. I was able to work on impactful projects and I learned an immense amount. In fact, the biggest lesson was:Data science was not what I expected.I expected to work on the forefront of computer science, statistics and machine learning. Applying new methods to drive unique insights. Automating…

Avoid post-processing the SHAP values of categorical featuresPhoto by Andrew Ridley on UnsplashTypically, to model a categorical feature it first needs to be transformed using one-hot encodings. We end up with a binary variable for each category. The problem with this is that each variable will have its own SHAP value. This makes it difficult to see the overall contribution of the original categorical feature. In a previous article, we explored a solution to this. It involved digging into the SHAP values object and…

Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images For Chopard UFC champion and person you don’t want to argue with in a bar Conor McGregor will be making his feature film acting debut in the just-announced and buzzy remake of the archetypal bar fight movie Road House. This means that we’ll see McGregor alongside the recently-announced lead Jake Gyllenhaal. Dublin native McGregor will join a cast that already features a number of actors including Beau Knapp, Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage and Daniela Melchior, according to…