Lifelong learning addresses situations in which a learner faces a series of different learning tasks providing the opportunity for synergy among them. Explanation-based neural network learning (EBNN) is a machine learning algorithm that transfers knowledge across multiple learning tasks. When faced with a new learning task, EBNN exploits domain knowledge accumulated in previous learning tasks to guide generalization in the new one. As a result, EBNN generalizes more accurately from less data than comparable methods. Explanation-Based Neural Network Learning: A Lifelong Learning Approach describes the basic EBNN paradigm and investigates it in the context of supervised learning, reinforcement learning, robotics, and chess. `The paradigm of lifelong learning - using earlier learned knowledge to improve subsequent learning - is a promising direction for a new generation of machine learning algorithms. Given the need for more accurate learning methods, it is difficult to imagine a future for machine learning that does not include this paradigm.' From the Foreword by Tom M. Mitchell.

This book is about making machine learning models and their decisions interpretable. After exploring the concepts of interpretability, you will learn about simple, interpretable models such as decision trees, decision rules and linear regression. Later chapters focus on general model-agnostic methods for interpreting black box models like feature importance and accumulated local effects and explaining individual predictions with Shapley values and LIME. All interpretation methods are explained in depth and discussed critically. How do they work under the hood? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can their outputs be interpreted? This book will enable you to select and correctly apply the interpretation method that is most suitable for your machine learning project.

This volume develops an effective theory approach to understanding deep neural networks of practical relevance.

This book covers both classical and modern models in deep learning. The primary focus is on the theory and algorithms of deep learning. The theory and algorithms of neural networks are particularly important for understanding important concepts, so that one can understand the important design concepts of neural architectures in different applications. Why do neural networks work? When do they work better than off-the-shelf machine-learning models? When is depth useful? Why is training neural networks so hard? What are the pitfalls? The book is also rich in discussing different applications in order to give the practitioner a flavor of how neural architectures are designed for different types of problems. Applications associated with many different areas like recommender systems, machine translation, image captioning, image classification, reinforcement-learning based gaming, and text analytics are covered. The chapters of this book span three categories: The basics of neural networks: Many traditional machine learning models can be understood as special cases of neural networks. An emphasis is placed in the first two chapters on understanding the relationship between traditional machine learning and neural networks. Support vector machines, linear/logistic regression, singular value decomposition, matrix factorization, and recommender systems are shown to be special cases of neural networks. These methods are studied together with recent feature engineering methods like word2vec. Fundamentals of neural networks: A detailed discussion of training and regularization is provided in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapters 5 and 6 present radial-basis function (RBF) networks and restricted Boltzmann machines. Advanced topics in neural networks: Chapters 7 and 8 discuss recurrent neural networks and convolutional neural networks. Several advanced topics like deep reinforcement learning, neural Turing machines, Kohonen self-organizing maps, and generative adversarial networks are introduced in Chapters 9 and 10. The book is written for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners. Numerous exercises are available along with a solution manual to aid in classroom teaching. Where possible, an application-centric view is highlighted in order to provide an understanding of the practical uses of each class of techniques.

Over the past three decades or so, research on machine learning and data mining has led to a wide variety of algorithms that learn general functions from experience. As machine learning is maturing, it has begun to make the successful transition from academic research to various practical applications. Generic techniques such as decision trees and artificial neural networks, for example, are now being used in various commercial and industrial applications. Learning to Learn is an exciting new research direction within machine learning. Similar to traditional machine-learning algorithms, the methods described in Learning to Learn induce general functions from experience. However, the book investigates algorithms that can change the way they generalize, i.e., practice the task of learning itself, and improve on it. To illustrate the utility of learning to learn, it is worthwhile comparing machine learning with human learning. Humans encounter a continual stream of learning tasks. They do not just learn concepts or motor skills, they also learn bias, i.e., they learn how to generalize. As a result, humans are often able to generalize correctly from extremely few examples - often just a single example suffices to teach us a new thing. A deeper understanding of computer programs that improve their ability to learn can have a large practical impact on the field of machine learning and beyond. In recent years, the field has made significant progress towards a theory of learning to learn along with practical new algorithms, some of which led to impressive results in real-world applications. Learning to Learn provides a survey of some of the most exciting new research approaches, written by leading researchers in the field. Its objective is to investigate the utility and feasibility of computer programs that can learn how to learn, both from a practical and a theoretical point of view.

This work explores probabilistic models of supervised learning problems and addresses the key statistical and computational questions. Chapters survey research on pattern classification with binary-output networks, including a discussion of the relevance of the Vapnik Chervonenkis dimension, and of estimates of the dimension for several neural network models. In addition, the authors develop a model of classification by real-output networks, and demonstrate the usefulness of classification...

This modern and self-contained book offers a clear and accessible introduction to the important topic of machine learning with neural networks. In addition to describing the mathematical principles of the topic, and its historical evolution, strong connections are drawn with underlying methods from statistical physics and current applications within science and engineering. Closely based around a well-established undergraduate course, this pedagogical text provides a solid understanding of the key aspects of modern machine learning with artificial neural networks, for students in physics, mathematics, and engineering. Numerous exercises expand and reinforce key concepts within the book and allow students to hone their programming skills. Frequent references to current research develop a detailed perspective on the state-of-the-art in machine learning research.