Spam filtering tech used to fight AIDS

This headline is a bit misleading when they say that spam filtering may lead scientists to AIDS vaccine. Technically spam filtering will have nothing at all to do with it. What they really mean of course is machine learning (and probably specifically Bayesian classification or at the very least Markov Matrix population if I had to guess), but that doesn't make for a headline.

Also note that in the article, they repeatedly make it sound as if the computer and/or program is thinking, when in reality it is just tracking the statistical likelihood that an event or characteristic shows up and then acting on that based on the probability of its occurrence.
Also annoying in that they repeatedly make it sound like the virus is purposely mutating by choice, when it is a random thing. It reproduces on a massive scale and with that many opportunities for error, sometimes an error works in its favor in that it allows it to mutate and spread more readily (avoiding drugs along the way). But there are plenty of mutations that cause it to die off immediately - we just don't care about those mutations since they work in our favor (it can't breed if it is dead).

Posted by Eric at February 23, 2005 10:56 AM | TrackBack