👉 In the context of computer science, a "latent" or "latent variable" is an input parameter that has no direct effect on the output. Latent variables are often used in machine learning to avoid overfitting and improve generalization performance. The term originates from the fact that latent variables can be thought of as hidden variables or unknown parameters that influence the model's predictions, but have not yet been observed directly. Latent variables can be treated like features in a machine learning model, which