Slides in PDF - of Marcus Hutter

Marcus Hutter - 14 - Universal Induction & Intelligence
Occam’s Razor to the Rescue
• Is there a unique principle which allows us to formally arrive at a
prediction which
- coincides (always) with our intuitive guess -or- even better,
- which is (in some sense) most likely the best or correct answer
• Yes! Occam’s razor: Use the simplest explanation consistent with
past data (and use it for prediction).
• Works! For examples presented and for many more.
• Actually Occam’s razor can serve as a foundation of machine
learning in general, and is even a fundamental principle (or maybe
even the mere definition) of science.
• Problem: Not a formal/mathematical objective principle.
What is simple for one may be complicated for another.