AI Glossary Term

What does “Data Lineage” mean?

Definition

A record of where data came from, how it was transformed, and where it is used.

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How Data Lineage works

Example

If a model starts giving odd results, lineage records let the team trace the training data back through each transformation to the original source and find where bad values entered.

Why it matters

Lineage supports debugging, audits, and compliance. Without it, it is hard to know what data shaped a decision.

Common questions

Lineage vs provenance?

Lineage tracks the path and transformations of data; provenance records its origin and ownership. They overlap.

How is it recorded?

Through data catalogs, pipeline tools, and metadata logging.

Why do regulators care?

Some rules require organizations to show where data came from and how it was used.

Self-Supervised LearningLearning representations from unlabeled data by predicting masked or transformed parts.AI GovernancePolicies, standards, and oversight mechanisms that guide how AI is developed and used in society.Algorithmic TransparencyHow clearly an AI system's logic, data sources, and limitations are documented and understandable.Continual LearningTraining approaches that let a model keep learning from new data without forgetting prior knowledge.GeneralizationHow well a model performs on new, unseen data outside the training set.Machine Learning (ML)Methods that allow systems to learn patterns from data and improve over time.

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