Solomonoff induction violates nicod’s criterion

Jan Leike*, Marcus Hutter

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Nicod’s criterion states that observing a black raven is evidence for the hypothesis H that all ravens are black. We show that Solomonoff induction does not satisfy Nicod’s criterion: there are time steps in which observing black ravens decreases the belief in H. Moreover, while observing any computable infinite string compatible with H, the belief in H decreases infinitely often when using the unnormalized Solomonoff prior, but only finitely often when using the normalized Solomonoff prior. We argue that the fault is not with Solomonoff induction; instead we should reject Nicod’s criterion.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationAlgorithmic Learning Theory - 26th International Conference, ALT 2015
    EditorsClaudio Gentile, Sandra Zilles, Kamalika Chaudhuri
    PublisherSpringer Verlag
    Pages349-363
    Number of pages15
    ISBN (Print)9783319244853
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    Event26th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2015 - Banff, Canada
    Duration: 4 Oct 20156 Oct 2015

    Publication series

    NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
    Volume9355
    ISSN (Print)0302-9743
    ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

    Conference

    Conference26th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2015
    Country/TerritoryCanada
    CityBanff
    Period4/10/156/10/15

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