What We Wish Algorithms Could Predict
In a recent AI Literacy workshop, I asked the prompt: *What do you wish an algorithm could predict?* As the answers moved from the practical towards bigger, harder questions, I arrived at a realization I haven’t been able to shake since.
Algorithms cannot predict anything subjective.
That sounds obvious when you say it like that. But the implications aren’t obvious at all, and I think they’re worth sitting with.
Prediction, in the algorithmic sense, requires a target -- some outcome the system can be trained against. Did the customer churn or not? Was the transaction fraudulent or not? Did the borrower default or not? These work as prediction tasks because there’s a definitive answer to check against. The algorithm learns by comparing what it guessed to what actually happened, and adjusting.