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Hardness of Proper Learning

1988; Pitt, Valiant

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Encyclopedia of Algorithms

Keywords and Synonyms

Representation-based hardness of learning          

Problem Definition

The work of Pitt and Valiant [16] deals with learning Boolean functions in the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) learning model introduced by Valiant [17]. A learning algorithm in Valiant's original model is given random examples of a function \( { f: \{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\} } \) from a representation class \( { \mathcal{F} } \) and produces a hypothesis \( { h \in \mathcal{F} } \) that closely approximates f. Here a representation class is a set of functions and a language for describing the functions in the set. The authors give examples of natural representation classes that are NP-hard to learn in this model whereas they can be learned if the learning algorithm is allowed to produce hypotheses from a richer representation class \( { \mathcal{H} } \). Such an algorithm is said to learn \( { \mathcal{F} } \) by \( { \mathcal{H} } \); learning \( { \mathcal{F} } \) by \( { \mathcal{F} } \)is...

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Feldman, V. (2008). Hardness of Proper Learning. In: Kao, MY. (eds) Encyclopedia of Algorithms. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30162-4_177

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