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AI - Logistic Regression

Logistic Regression is a statistical method used for binary classification problems. It predicts the probability that a given input belongs to a particular class. Unlike linear regression, which predicts continuous values, logistic regression is used to predict categorical outcomes, typically binary outcomes such as 0 or 1, true or false, yes or no.

Key Components

Binary Classification:

  • Logistic regression is primarily used for binary classification, where the target variable has two possible outcomes.

Logistic Function (Sigmoid Function):

  • The logistic function, also known as the sigmoid function, is used to map predicted values to probabilities. It has the form:
(1)σ(z)=11+ez
  • The output of the sigmoid function is always between 0 and 1, making it suitable for probability estimation.

Model Equation:

  • The logistic regression model estimates the probability P(Y=1) as:

(2)P(Y=1X)=σ(β0+β1X1+β2X2++βnXn)

Here, (β0) is the intercept, and (β1,β2,,βn) are the coefficients for the predictor variables (X1,X2,,Xn).

Decision Boundary:

  • The decision boundary is determined by the threshold value (commonly 0.5). If the predicted probability is greater than or equal to 0.5, the output is classified as 1; otherwise, it is classified as 0.

Gradient Descent:

  • Gradient descent is often used to find the optimal parameters (coefficients) that minimize the cost function. The cost function in logistic regression is the log-loss or binary cross-entropy.

Applications

  • Medical Diagnosis: Predicting the presence or absence of a disease.
  • Spam Detection: Classifying emails as spam or not spam.
  • Customer Churn: Predicting whether a customer will stay or leave a service.
  • Credit Scoring: Assessing the probability of a customer defaulting on a loan.

Conclusion

Logistic regression is a simple yet powerful tool for binary classification problems. It provides probabilities and a clear decision boundary, making it useful for many real-world applications. Its foundation in statistics and straightforward implementation make it a popular choice for binary classification tasks in machine learning.

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