AI engineering glossary · ML fundamentals
What is baseline model?
Baseline model (also called Reference model): A simple reference model used to judge whether a more complex approach is actually worth it. It might predict the most common class or the average value, or use a basic rule. Any serious model has to beat it clearly, and comparing against it prevents self-deception.
Baseline model: an example
On a dataset where 92% of transactions are genuine, always predicting 'genuine' gives 92% accuracy; a fraud model must be judged against that.
Related terms
More ML fundamentals terms
- Bayesian information criterion
- Bias error
- Bias-variance tradeoff
- Classification
- Concept drift
- Cost-sensitive learning
- Covariate shift
- Cross-validation
Where you learn it
Baseline model is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.