Term: Training data
~6 min read
Estimated time: ~6 min read — for the in-app brief plus opening the primary source.
What this is
Training data is the set of examples a model learned from. Rights, bias, and staleness travel with those examples.
Everyday example
A model fine-tuned on five years of “who we hired” will learn those patterns — including ones you no longer want. The examples are the training data.
Training data is the examples the model learned from — quality and rights travel with those examples.
- Bias, stale process, and copyright all start here.
- You rarely see the full set for a foundation model; you can see it for a model you fine-tune.
- “We trained on the internet” is not a due-diligence answer.
- For your own models, data lineage is a Legal and Risk file.
Next action: For any model you customize, write down the source, rights, and refresh date of the examples.
What changes in how you lead
How decision rights, process, and ownership should change.
- Legal reviews training-data rights before a fine-tune, not after a complaint.
- HR does not train people-decisions on unexamined history.
Compare related ideas
Training data vs Fine-tuning
Training data is the examples. Fine-tuning is the extra training step that uses a new set of examples to shift the model.
Open Fine-tuningDeep dive
You rarely see the full set for a foundation model; you can control it when you fine-tune.
“We trained on the internet” is not due diligence.
For your own models, data lineage is a Legal and Risk file.
HR does not train people-decisions on unexamined history.