AI Glossary Term
What does “Classification” mean?
A task where a model assigns an input to one or more predefined categories.
How Classification works
Example
An email service reads each incoming message and assigns it to a category: spam or not spam. The same idea works for sorting support tickets by topic or labeling photos as cat, dog, or other.
Why it matters
Classification is one of the most common machine learning tasks, and many products rely on it. Knowing how it works helps you interpret accuracy, errors, and trade-offs.
Common questions
What is the difference between classification and regression?
Classification predicts a category, such as spam or not spam. Regression predicts a number, such as a house price.
Can an item belong to more than one class?
Yes. In multi-label classification, an item can carry several labels at once, such as a movie tagged both comedy and romance.
How is a classification model judged?
Common measures are accuracy, precision, and recall, chosen based on which kinds of mistakes matter most.