AI engineering glossary · Statistics inference
What is efficiency?
Efficiency: A measure of how small the variability of an unbiased estimator is compared with the best achievable. Between two unbiased estimators, the more efficient one has the smaller variance and so needs less data for the same precision.
Efficiency: an example
For normally distributed data the sample average has lower variance than the sample median, so it is the more efficient estimator of the centre.
Related terms
More Statistics inference terms
- Estimator
- F-test
- False discovery rate
- Family-wise error rate
- Fisher information
- Fisher's exact test
- Frequentist inference
- Generalised linear model
Where you learn it
Efficiency is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.