Understanding Restricted Boltzmann Machine

machine learning information theory generative model

A Boltzmann machine is an unsuperviced generative model that learns the probability distribution of a random variable using the Boltzmann distribution. Although it has been proposed in 1985, practical utilization was nearly impossible for samples of nontrivial sizes. Only later in 2002 when the restricted version of it overcame the implausibility did it became a widely used algorithm.
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The Shannon Entropy

information theory

Information theory developed by Shannon is being used not only in mathematical modeling of information transmission, but also being actively applied to ecology, machine learning and its related fields. Here, I would like to briefly review the founding concept of information theory: the Shannon entropy.
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