Inference
editInference
editThis functionality is in beta and is subject to change. The design and code is less mature than official GA features and is being provided as-is with no warranties. Beta features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.
Inference is a machine learning feature that enables you to use supervised machine learning processes – like Regression or Classification – not only as a batch analysis but in a continuous fashion. This means that inference makes it possible to use trained machine learning models against incoming data.
For instance, suppose you have an online service and you would like to predict whether a customer is likely to churn. You have an index with historical data – information on the customer behavior throughout the years in your business – and a classification model that is trained on this data. The new information comes into a destination index of a continuous transform. With inference, you can perform the classification analysis against the new data with the same input fields that you’ve trained the model on, and get a prediction.
Let’s take a closer look at the machinery behind inference.
Inference processor
editInference can be used as a processor specified in an ingest pipeline. It uses a trained model to infer against the data that is being ingested in the pipeline. The model is used on the ingest node. Inference pre-processes the data by using the model and provides a prediction. After the process, the pipeline continues executing (if there is any other processor in the pipeline), finally the new data together with the results are indexed into the destination index.
Check the inference processor and the machine learning data frame analytics API documentation to learn more about the feature.
Inference aggregation
editInference can also be used as a pipeline aggregation. You can reference a trained model in the aggregation to infer on the result field of the parent bucket aggregation. The inference aggregation uses the model on the results to provide a prediction. This aggregation enables you to run classification or regression analysis at search time. If you want to perform the analysis on a small set of data, this aggregation enables you to generate predictions without the need to set up a processor in the ingest pipeline.
Check the inference bucket aggregation and the machine learning data frame analytics API documentation to learn more about the feature.