What is regularization (L1 vs L2)?

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🔹 What is Regularization?

Regularization is a technique in machine learning used to reduce overfitting by adding a penalty to the loss function. Overfitting happens when a model learns noise or irrelevant patterns from training data, performing poorly on unseen data.

Regularization discourages the model from fitting overly complex functions by shrinking the size of model weights (coefficients).

🔹 Types of Regularization

1. L1 Regularization (Lasso)

  • Adds the absolute value of weights to the loss function:

    Loss=Error+λwiLoss = Error + \lambda \sum |w_i|
  • Encourages sparsity: some weights become exactly zero.

  • Good for feature selection, since irrelevant features are eliminated.

  • Example: Lasso Regression.

2. L2 Regularization (Ridge)

  • Adds the squared value of weights to the loss function:

    Loss=Error+λwi2Loss = Error + \lambda \sum w_i^2
  • Encourages small weights but rarely zero.

  • Helps distribute importance across features instead of eliminating them.

  • Example: Ridge Regression.

🔹 Key Differences

AspectL1 (Lasso)L2 (Ridge)
Penalty term(\sumw_i
Effect on weightsShrinks some to zeroShrinks but not zero
Feature selectionYes (selects subset of features)No
StabilityLess stable if features are correlatedMore stable with correlated features
Use caseWhen many irrelevant features existWhen all features may matter

👉 In short:

  • L1 (Lasso) → Makes models simpler by eliminating irrelevant features.

  • L2 (Ridge) → Keeps all features but reduces their influence to prevent overfitting.

  • Sometimes, a mix of both is used (Elastic Net).

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