AI Glossary

Synthetic data

What does “Synthetic data” mean?

Synthetic data: Data generated by software, often another AI model, instead of being collected from the real world. It can fill gaps, cover rare cases or protect privacy. However, errors and biases in the generator can carry over into the model trained on it.

Synthetic data visual guide: Data generated by software, often another AI model, instead of being collected from the real world. It can fill gaps, cover rare cases or protect privacy. However, errors and biases in the generator can carry over into the model trained on it.
Visual guide Open full size (new tab)

What is an example of “Synthetic data”?

A team might have a strong model write thousands of practice math problems with checked solutions, then use them to train a smaller model.