objective function

The mathematical formula or metric that a model aims to optimize. For example, the objective function for linear regression is usually Mean Squared Loss. Therefore, when training a linear regression model, training aims to minimize Mean Squared Loss. In some cases, the goal is to maximize the objective function. For example, if the objective function is accuracy, the goal is to maximize accuracy. See also loss.

Practitioners refer to objective function when building, training, or evaluating machine learning systems. It appears in research papers, product documentation, and technical discussions about AI capabilities and limitations.