IR Exam 2 trivia

PageRank

An algorithm developed by Stanford graduate students Brin and Page to rank web pages based on their relevance.

Occam’s Razor

A problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.

David Hume

A Scottish Enlightenment philosopher known for discussing the problem of induction.

Spam

Originally a meat product that gained a secondary meaning as junk mail following a Monty Python sketch.

Backpropagation

A learning algorithm used in artificial neural networks, notably discussed in Geoffrey Hinton’s 1985 paper.

George Box's Quote

"All models are wrong, but some are useful" refers to the practical utility of probabilistic models despite their inaccuracies.

Claude Shannon

The first to propose the idea of a language model for predicting the next word, known as the father of information theory.

Betteridge’s Law

An adage stating that any headline ending in a question mark can be answered with 'no,' indicating uncertainty from the publisher.

Norton

A cybersecurity company known for acquiring Symantec, which developed grammar for natural language processing tasks.

Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD)

The process of determining which meaning of a word is used in a given context.

Grawlix

The use of symbols to represent profane words in writing.

Turkish Language

An agglomerative language known for its complex morphology.

Betteridge's Law Application Example

An example includes headlines such as 'Is it possible this will happen?' which do not imply certainty.