No Labels, Just Regulars

The lesson

The crowd sorts itself

The crowd sorts itself before I ever lift a finger. Come to my pub any Friday night and watch. The after-work uncles gather by the window. The families take the big table at the back. The students take the corner near the door. Nobody puts up a sign. Nobody tells them where to sit. It just happens, week after week, and the groups tell me things I never asked about.

Learning with no answer key

All my other learners needed labels. Carrot: fresh or spoiled. Friday: how many bowls. Somebody had to name the answer first. But there is a third kind of learning, where nobody names anything. The machine looks at many examples, finds what they share, and groups them by itself. No answer key. Just patterns. The groups come out without names, and the names come later, when a human looks at them and says what each pile means. Nobody told the machine the group exists. The machine found the group.

Groups the shop never named

This is not a pub thing. A shop’s loyalty app groups shoppers who buy the same things at the same times, so the offers match the crowd. The machine never labelled anyone. It found the groups. A streaming app groups the songs you play together, and the next playlist you are offered was built from a pile nobody named.

Sit at my corner table

Sit at my corner table for one evening. Three piles form by themselves. Pile one arrives at noon, orders one bowl and a tea, and is back in the office in 40 minutes. Pile two arrives at 7 with children, orders two bowls and extra bread. Pile three arrives at 9, tea only, and stays till closing. Name the three groups. I give you three seconds.

Pause here for three seconds.

You named them, and your names are good. But the machine never needed your names. It made the piles. You just put words on them.