This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2005, held in Singapore in October 2005. The 30 revised full papers presented together with 5 invited papers and an introduction by the editors were carefully reviewed and selected from 98 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on kernel-based learning, bayesian and statistical models, PAC-learning, query-learning, inductive inference, language learning, learning and logic, learning from expert advice, online learning, defensive forecasting, and teaching.

Algorithmic learning theory is mathematics about computer programs which learn from experience. This involves considerable interaction between various mathematical disciplines including theory of computation, statistics, and c- binatorics. There is also considerable interaction with the practical, empirical ?elds of machine and statistical learning in which a principal aim is to predict, from past data about phenomena, useful features of future data from the same phenomena. The papers in this volume cover a broad range of topics of current research in the ?eld of algorithmic learning theory. We have divided the 29 technical, contributed papers in this volume into eight categories (corresponding to eight sessions) re?ecting this broad range. The categories featured are Inductive Inf- ence, Approximate Optimization Algorithms, Online Sequence Prediction, S- tistical Analysis of Unlabeled Data, PAC Learning & Boosting, Statistical - pervisedLearning,LogicBasedLearning,andQuery&ReinforcementLearning. Below we give a brief overview of the ?eld, placing each of these topics in the general context of the ?eld. Formal models of automated learning re?ect various facets of the wide range of activities that can be viewed as learning. A ?rst dichotomy is between viewing learning as an inde?nite process and viewing it as a ?nite activity with a de?ned termination. Inductive Inference models focus on inde?nite learning processes, requiring only eventual success of the learner to converge to a satisfactory conclusion.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2003, held in Sapporo, Japan in October 2003. The 19 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers and abstracts of 3 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 37 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on inductive inference, learning and information extraction, learning with queries, learning with non-linear optimization, learning from random examples, and online prediction.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2006, held in Barcelona, Spain in October 2006, colocated with the 9th International Conference on Discovery Science, DS 2006. The 24 revised full papers presented together with the abstracts of five invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 53 submissions. The papers are dedicated to the theoretical foundations of machine learning.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2012, held in Lyon, France, in October 2012. The conference was co-located and held in parallel with the 15th International Conference on Discovery Science, DS 2012. The 23 full papers and 5 invited talks presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 47 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on inductive inference, teaching and PAC learning, statistical learning theory and classification, relations between models and data, bandit problems, online prediction of individual sequences, and other models of online learning.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2007, held in Sendai, Japan, October 1-4, 2007, co-located with the 10th International Conference on Discovery Science, DS 2007. The 25 revised full papers presented together with the abstracts of five invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. They are dedicated to the theoretical foundations of machine learning.