Abstract

Bayesian networks are graphical representations of probability distributions. Over the last decade, these representations have become the method of choice for representation of uncertainly in artificial intelligence. Today, they play a crucial role in modern expert systems, diagnosis engines, and decision support systems. In recent years, there has been much interest in learning Bayesian networks from data. Learning such models is desirable simply because there is a wide array of off-the-shelf tools that can apply the learned models as described above. Practitioners also claim that adaptive Bayesian networks have advantages in their own right as a non-parametric method for density estimation, data analysis, pattern classification, and modeling. Among the reasons cited we find: their semantic clarity and understandability by humans, the ease of acquisition and incorporation of prior knowledge, the ease of integration with optimal decision-making methods, the possibility of causal interp...

Citations