# Objective Function > However, before we throw out the baby with the bath water, let’s examine the purpose of the objective function from a more general perspective. The objective function is a measure of how accurate an automation’s internal model is in predicting its environment. The purpose of any intelligent automation is to formulate an accurate internal model. However, there is nothing that demands that a measurement between a model and its environment be made at all times or continuously. That is, an automation does not have to be performing back-propagation to be learning. An automation could be doing something else that improves its internal model. --- Date: 20211117 Links to: [Backpropagation](Backpropagation.md) Tags: References: * [Objective Functions, Backpropagation](https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/the-deeply-suspicious-nature-of-backpropagation-9bed5e2b085e)