Wei_Dai comments on Approximating Solomonoff Induction - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Houshalter 29 May 2015 12:23PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 03 June 2015 01:42:14AM -1 points [-]

PAC learning, for instance, is fundamentally non-Bayesian. Saying that PAC learning approximates Bayesian inference is the same as saying that Bayesian inference approximates PAC learning. It's not a very meaningful statement.

I looked into PAC learning a bit when Scott Aaronson talked about it on his blog, and came to the following conclusion. 'Instead of saying “PAC-learning and Bayesianism are two different useful formalisms for reasoning about learning and prediction” I think we can keep just Bayesianism and reinterpret PAC-learning results as Bayesian-learning results which say that in some special circumstances, it doesn’t matter exactly what prior one uses. In those circumstances, Bayesianism will work regardless.'

Of course that was 7 years ago and I probably barely scratched the surface of the PAC learning literature even then. Are there any PAC learning results which can't be reinterpreted this way?

Comment author: anon85 03 June 2015 03:26:03AM 2 points [-]

PAC-learning has no concept of prior or even of likelihood, and it allows you to learn regardless. If by "Bayesianism" you mean "learning", then sure, PAC-learning is a type of Bayesianism. But I don't see why it's useful to view it that way (Bayes's rule is never used, for example).