SVM Kernels: What Do They Actually Do?

An intuitive visual explanation

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

You may have heard about the so-called kernel trick, a maneuver that allows support vector machines, or SVMs, to work well with non-linear data. The idea is to map the data into a high-dimensional space in which it becomes linear and then apply a simple, linear SVM. Sounds sophisticated and to some extent it is. However, while it might be hard…