Balancing feature distributions using an importance factor

Abstract

Herein are machine learning techniques that adjust reconstruction loss of a reconstructive model such as an autoencoder based on importances of values of features. In an embodiment and before, during, or after training, the reconstructive model that more or less accurately reconstructs its input, a computer measures, for each distinct value of each feature, a respective importance that is not based on the reconstructive model. For example, importance may be based solely on a training corpus. For each feature during or after training, a respective original loss from the reconstructive model measures a difference between a value of the feature in an input and a reconstructed value of the feature generated by the reconstructive model. For each feature, the respective importance of the input value of the feature is applied to the respective original loss to generate a respective weighted loss. The weighted losses of the features of the input are collectively detected as anomalous or non-anomalous.