what is false positive

A false positive is an error in binary classification where a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition when it is not present. In statistical hypothesis testing, a type I error is the mistaken rejection of a null hypothesis that is actually true, also known as a "false positive" finding or conclusion. False positives can occur in medical screening procedures, such as mammography, where the test reports indicate that a patient has a specific disease, but the patient is actually healthy. False positives can also occur in computer security, spam filtering, malware, and other computer applications. In machine learning, a false positive is an outcome where the model incorrectly predicts the positive class. False positives can be costly, as they can lead to unnecessary follow-up testing and treatment.