Abstract

. Probabilistic networks (also known as Bayesian belief networks) allow a compact description of complex stochastic relationships among several random variables. They are rapidly becoming the tool of choice for uncertain reasoning in artificial intelligence. In this paper, we investigate the problem of learning probabilistic networks with known structure and hidden variables. This is an important problem, because structure is much easier to elicit from experts than numbers, and the world is rarely fully observable. We present a gradient-based algorithmand show that the gradient can be computed locally, using information that is available as a byproduct of standard probabilistic network inference algorithms. Our experimental results demonstrate that using prior knowledge about the structure, even with hidden variables, can significantly improve the learning rate of probabilistic networks. We extend the method to networks in which the conditional probability tables are described using a ...

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