Meta-Modelling Meta-Learning

Abstract

Although artificial intelligence and machine learning are currently extremely fashionable, applying machine learning on real-life problems remains very challenging. Data scientists need to evaluate various learning algorithms and tune their numerous parameters, based on their assumptions and experience, against concrete problems and training data sets. This is a long, tedious, and resource expensive task. Meta-learning is a recent technique to overcome, i.e. automate this problem. It aims at using machine learning itself to automatically learn the most appropriate algorithms and parameters for a machine learning problem. As it turns out, there are many parallels between meta-modelling—in the sense of model-driven engineering—and meta-learning. Both rely on abstractions, the meta data, to model a predefined class of problems and to define the variabilities of the models conforming to this definition. Both are used to define the output and input relationships and then fitting the right models to represent that behaviour. In this paper, we envision how a meta-model for meta-learning can look like. We discuss possible variabilities, for what types of learning it could be appropriate for, how concrete learning models can be generated from it, and how models can be finally selected. Last but not least, we discuss a possible integration into existing modelling tools.