Step 3: Spot the Difference

Models see differences, not images

1 ExplorePlay below
2 ReadUnderstand
3 BuildHands-on lab
4 CompareSolution
💡 ReflectThink deeper

Compare two digit prototypes

Each image is the average of all samples for that digit. The Difference panel is the one that matters — it shows where the two digits disagree, and those are the only pixels a model can use. Fewer bright cells = harder job.

Average 3
Average 8
Difference model's tells
Brighter cell = bigger gap between A and B at that pixel.
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Think Deeper

In the Explore tab, find the digit pair with the highest similarity. Now find the pair with the lowest. Why?

Digits that share structural elements (like 3 and 8 — both have curves) are hard to separate. Digits that are structurally different (like 0 and 1) are easy. A model's confusion matrix mirrors this.
Cybersecurity tie-in: When two prototypes look alike, the model struggles to separate them — just like distinguishing legitimate HTTPS traffic from C2 beaconing. The more overlap between classes, the harder the classification task.

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