<s>
In	O
artificial	B-Application
intelligence	I-Application
(	O
AI	B-Application
)	O
,	O
particularly	O
machine	O
learning	O
(	O
ML	O
)	O
,	O
ablation	B-Algorithm
is	O
the	O
removal	O
of	O
a	O
component	O
of	O
an	O
AI	B-Application
system	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
ablation	B-Algorithm
study	I-Algorithm
investigates	O
the	O
performance	O
of	O
an	O
AI	B-Application
system	O
by	O
removing	O
certain	O
components	O
to	O
understand	O
the	O
contribution	O
of	O
the	O
component	O
to	O
the	O
overall	O
system	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
term	O
is	O
an	O
analogy	O
with	O
biology	O
(	O
removal	O
of	O
components	O
of	O
an	O
organism	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
is	O
particularly	O
used	O
in	O
the	O
analysis	O
of	O
artificial	B-Architecture
neural	I-Architecture
nets	I-Architecture
by	O
analogy	O
with	O
ablative	O
brain	O
surgery	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Ablation	B-Algorithm
studies	I-Algorithm
require	O
that	O
a	O
system	O
exhibit	O
graceful	B-General_Concept
degradation	I-General_Concept
:	O
the	O
system	O
must	O
continue	O
to	O
function	O
even	O
when	O
certain	O
components	O
are	O
missing	O
or	O
degraded	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
According	O
to	O
some	O
researchers	O
,	O
ablation	B-Algorithm
studies	I-Algorithm
have	O
been	O
deemed	O
a	O
convenient	O
technique	O
in	O
investigating	O
artificial	B-Application
intelligence	I-Application
and	O
its	O
durability	O
to	O
structural	O
damages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Ablation	B-Algorithm
studies	I-Algorithm
damage	O
and/or	O
remove	O
certain	O
components	O
in	O
a	O
controlled	O
setting	O
to	O
investigate	O
all	O
possible	O
outcomes	O
of	O
system	O
failure	O
;	O
this	O
characterizes	O
how	O
each	O
action	O
impacts	O
the	O
system	O
's	O
overall	O
performance	O
and	O
capabilities	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
ablation	B-Algorithm
process	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
test	O
systems	O
that	O
perform	O
tasks	O
such	O
as	O
speech	B-Application
recognition	I-Application
,	O
visual	O
object	O
recognition	O
,	O
and	O
robot	O
control	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
term	O
is	O
credited	O
to	O
Allen	O
Newell	O
,	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
founders	O
of	O
artificial	B-Application
intelligence	I-Application
,	O
who	O
used	O
it	O
in	O
his	O
1974	O
tutorial	O
on	O
speech	B-Application
recognition	I-Application
,	O
published	O
in	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
term	O
is	O
by	O
analogy	O
with	O
ablation	B-Algorithm
in	O
biology	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
this	O
in	O
thought	O
,	O
Newell	O
saw	O
both	O
as	O
knowledge	O
systems	O
whereas	O
procedures	O
such	O
as	O
ablation	B-Algorithm
can	O
be	O
performed	O
on	O
both	O
to	O
test	O
certain	O
hypotheses	O
.	O
</s>
