Graphical models and variational approximation

Michael I. Jordan
University of California, Berkeley

Abstract

Probabilistic models have become increasingly prominent in recent years in artificial intelligence. General inference algorithms have been discovered that apply to a wide class of interesting and useful models known as ``graphical models'' (aka, Bayesian networks and Markov random fields). These algorithms essentially treat probability theory as a combinatorial calculus, and make creative use of graph theory to stave off the inevitable exponential growth in complexity. There is another feature of probability theory, however, which recommends it as a general tool for AI. Probability involves taking averages, and when averaging is present complex models can be probabilistically simple. In this talk, I discuss variational methodology, which aims to leverage averaging as a computational tool. Indeed, the variational approach provides a general framework for approximate inference in graphical models. I will discuss applications of these ideas to a variety of probabilistic graphical models, including layered networks with logistic or noisy-OR nodes, coupled hidden Markov models, factorial hidden Markov models, hidden Markov decision trees, and hidden Markov models with long-range dependencies.
Eyal Amir
Last modified: Mon Dec 21 11:41:17 PST 1998