diff --git a/howso/ablation.amlg b/howso/ablation.amlg
index 65735a11..9c226ace 100644
--- a/howso/ablation.amlg
+++ b/howso/ablation.amlg
@@ -563,7 +563,6 @@
 
 		;Declare variables for internal use.
 		(declare (assoc
-			max_influence_weight_entropy_to_keep .infinity
 			cases (list)
 			prev_prediction_stats_map (assoc)
 			thresholds_enabled (or (size abs_threshold_map) (size delta_threshold_map) (size rel_threshold_map) )
@@ -576,21 +575,7 @@
 				weight_feature distribute_weight_feature
 			))
 		)
-
-		(declare  (assoc
-			hyperparam_map
-				(call !GetHyperparameters (assoc
-					context_features features
-					weight_feature distribute_weight_feature
-				))
-		))
 		(declare (assoc
-			closest_k (get hyperparam_map "k")
-			p_parameter (get hyperparam_map "p")
-			dt_parameter (get hyperparam_map "dt")
-			feature_weights (get hyperparam_map "featureWeights")
-			feature_deviations (get hyperparam_map "featureDeviations")
-			query_feature_attributes_map (get hyperparam_map "featureDomainAttributes")
 			num_cases (call !GetNumTrainingCases)
 
 			;reduction will stop within batch_size of reduce_max_cases, so if the gap between
@@ -599,6 +584,13 @@
 			approximate_num_cases_to_keep (max (- reduce_max_cases batch_size) !autoAblationMinNumCases)
 		))
 
+		;nothing needed to reduce since the dataset is already small enough
+		(if (>= approximate_num_cases_to_keep num_cases)
+			(conclude
+				(call !Return (assoc payload output))
+			)
+		)
+
 		(if thresholds_enabled
 			(assign (assoc
 				prev_prediction_stats_map
@@ -613,75 +605,17 @@
 			))
 		)
 
-		;pair of cases and associated sorted popularities (total normalized influence of all neighbors that referenced it)
-		(declare (assoc
-			case_popularity_pair
-				(compute_on_contained_entities
-					(query_exists !internalLabelSession)
-					||(query_entity_cumulative_nearest_entity_weights
-						closest_k
-						features
-						(null) ;all cases
-						p_parameter
-						feature_weights
-						!queryDistanceTypeMap
-						query_feature_attributes_map
-						feature_deviations
-						(null)
-						dt_parameter
-						distribute_weight_feature
-						(rand)
-						(null) ;radius
-						!numericalPrecision
-						.true
-					)
-				)
-		))
-
-		;all the cases that were not returned in the pair above have 0 popularity (no other cases reference them)
 		(declare (assoc
-			zero_popularity_neighbors
+			removable_cases
 				(contained_entities
 					(query_exists !internalLabelSession)
-					(query_not_in_entity_list (first case_popularity_pair))
+					(query_select (- num_cases approximate_num_cases_to_keep) (null) (rand) )
 				)
 		))
 
-		;determine the cutoff value of the popularity at which all cases with a value less than that should be removed
-		;e.g., if there needs to be a quarter of cases left, this would compute the 0.75 quantile of popularity values,
-		;so that those bottom 75% are removed
-		(declare (assoc
-			reduction_popularity_cutoff
-				(quantile
-					(append
-						(last case_popularity_pair)
-						(range 0 1 (size zero_popularity_neighbors) 1)
-					)
-					;add one percent to account for enough cases selected to match the amount needed to be removed due to rounding
-					;e.g., if the quantile value was 0.75 from the example above, this bumps it up to 0.76
-					(+
-						(/ (- num_cases approximate_num_cases_to_keep) num_cases)
-						0.01
-					)
-				)
-		))
-		;plan to only remove cases whose popularity is less than reduction_popularity_cutoff
-		;i.e., only remove the non-popular cases that aren't referenced by others as much
-		(declare (assoc
-			num_removal_eligible_cases
-				(size (filter
-					(lambda (< (current_value) reduction_popularity_cutoff))
-					(last case_popularity_pair)
-				))
-		))
-		(declare (assoc
-			;case ids in order from highest to lowest popularity, lowest popularity at end of list
-			removable_cases
-				(append
-					;only keep the necessary number of lowest popularity eligible cases as well as all zero popularity ones
-					(tail (first case_popularity_pair) num_removal_eligible_cases)
-					zero_popularity_neighbors
-				)
+		;randomize the order
+		(assign (assoc
+			removable_cases (rand removable_cases (size removable_cases) .true)
 		))
 
 		(declare (assoc