A heuristic is a practical method or rule of thumb used to solve a problem quickly or approximately when exact methods are too costly, slow, or unavailable. In AI and search, heuristics often guide decisions by trading some optimality, completeness, or precision for speed and usability.
A technique designed for solving a problem more quickly when classic methods are too slow, or for finding an approximate solution when classic methods fail to find any exact solution. This is achieved by trading optimality, completeness, accuracy, or precision for speed. In a way, it can be considered a shortcut. A heuristic function, also called simply a heuristic, is a function that ranks alternatives in search algorithms at each branching step based on available information to decide which branch to follow. For example, it may approximate the exact solution.
A simple and quickly implemented solution to a problem. For example, "With a heuristic, we achieved 86% accuracy. When we switched to a deep neural network, accuracy went up to 98%."
A simple and quickly implemented solution to a problem. For example, "With a heuristic, we achieved 86% accuracy. When we switched to a deep neural network, accuracy went up to 98%".