hash

Definition

A function mapping arbitrary data to a short fixed-size value, and the value itself. In ML it enables memory-bounded lookups: hashing embeddings so an unbounded vocabulary fits a fixed table, locality-sensitive hashing so similar vectors land in the same bucket for fast approximate nearest-neighbour search, and multiresolution hash grids for compact 3D scene representations. The common bargain is accepting collisions in exchange for bounded memory and speed.

Explainers using this term

• Probabilistic Data Structures — Counting Without CountingSpace/Time Trade-offs in Hash Coding with Allowable Errors (Bloom