Label Errors

Encord Computer Vision Glossary

Label errors

In the field of machine learning (ML), label errors refer to incorrect or incorrect labels that are assigned to examples in a dataset. Label errors can occur for a variety of reasons, such as human annotation error, misclassification, or data corruption.

Label errors can have a significant impact on the performance of an ML model, particularly if the errors are systematic or if they are concentrated in certain classes or regions of the feature space. For example, if a dataset contains a large number of label errors for a particular class, the model may have difficulty learning the correct decision boundary for that class, leading to poor performance.

The problem of label errors in ML can be solved using a variety of strategies. One method is to estimate the generalization error of the model using methods like cross-validation or bootstrapping, which can assist to spot instances when the model is overfitting to the training data due to label mistakes.

Another strategy is to repair or improve the labels in the dataset using methods like active learning or self-training. With these techniques, the model is iteratively trained on a subset of the data, and the model's predictions are then used to spot and fix label problems in the remaining cases.

Overall, label errors can be difficult to deal with when creating machine learning models, but it is feasible to create models that are resilient to these kinds of errors using the appropriate methods and procedures.

Scale your annotation workflows and power your model performance with data-driven insights
medical banner

How do you solve label errors in computer vision datasets?

The problem of label errors in ML can be solved using a variety of strategies. One method is to estimate the generalization error of the model using methods like cross-validation or bootstrapping, which can assist to spot instances when the model is overfitting to the training data due to label mistakes.

Another strategy is to repair or improve the labels in the dataset using methods like active learning or self-training. With these techniques, the model is iteratively trained on a subset of the data, and the model's predictions are then used to spot and fix label problems in the remaining cases.

Overall, label errors can be difficult to deal with when creating machine learning models, but it is feasible to create models that are resilient to these kinds of errors using the appropriate methods and procedures.

cta banner

Discuss this blog on Slack

Join the Encord Developers community to discuss the latest in computer vision, machine learning, and data-centric AI

Join the community
cta banner

Automate 97% of your annotation tasks with 99% accuracy