AI engineering glossary · ML fundamentals
What is shortcut learning?
Shortcut learning: When a model solves a benchmark by using easy but unintended cues in the data rather than the skill the designers wanted, and then fails in slightly different settings. It is a common cause of impressive tests but disappointing real-world results.
Shortcut learning: an example
A model identifies cows only by the green grass background and fails on a cow on a beach.
Related terms
More ML fundamentals terms
- Spurious correlation
- Stratified k-fold
- Structural risk minimisation
- Supervised learning
- Target leakage
- Temporal leakage
- Test set
- Time-series split
Where you learn it
Shortcut learning is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.