Decoder. plain-English AI glossary

Ensemble evaluation

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Using multiple evaluators (models or humans) to grade the same output and averaging their scores.

Think of it like

Having three teachers grade the same essay and averaging the scores.

Example

Running Claude, GPT-4, and Llama against your outputs and averaging their ratings of relevance from 1–10.

How it actually works

Ensemble eval reduces bias from any single grader. But it's expensive and sometimes the models agree because they're trained on similar data. For critical applications, combining automated scoring with human spot-checks is better than either alone.

For product teams

More reliable than single-judge evals but also more expensive. Use for milestones, not daily testing.

For engineers

Call multiple eval models, collect scores, return mean and std. Log disagreements for audit trails.

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