Sum-Product Networks for Probabilistic Modeling (Talk)
- Robert Peharz
- University of Cambridge
Probabilistic modeling is the method of choice when it comes to reasoning under uncertainty. However, one of the main practical downsides of probabilistic models is that inference, i.e. the process of using the model to answer statistical queries, is notoriously hard in general. This led to a common folklore that probabilistic models which allow exact inference are necessarily simplistic and undermodel any practical task. In this talk, I will present sum-product networks (SPNs), a recently proposed architecture representing a rich and expressive class of probability distributions, which also allows exact and efficient computation of many inference tasks. I will discuss representational properties, inference routines and learning approaches in SPNs. Furthermore, I will provide some examples of practical applications using SPNs.