Introduction to Algorithmic Information Theory

Dr. Marcus Hutter (RSISE, ANU)

MSI Computational Mathematics Seminar Series

DATE: 2009-05-04
TIME: 11:00:00 - 12:00:00
LOCATION: JD G35
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ABSTRACT:
In this talk I will give a brief introduction to the field of algorithmic information theory (AIT), its underlying philosophy, and the most important concepts. AIT arises by mixing information theory and computation theory to obtain an objective and absolute notion of information in an individual object, and in so doing gives rise to an objective and robust notion of randomness of individual objects. This is in contrast to classical information theory that is based on random variables and communication, and has no bearing on information and randomness of individual objects. Next week I'll present some recent applications.

Recommended reading: Algorithmic Information Theory, Scholarpedia, 2:3 (2007) 2519
BIO:
Marcus Hutter is Associate Professor in the RSISE at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, and NICTA adjunct. He holds a PhD and BSc in physics and a Habilitation, MSc, and BSc in informatics. Since 2000, his research is centered around the information-theoretic foundations of inductive reasoning and reinforcement learning, which resulted in 50+ published research papers and several awards. His book "Universal Artificial Intelligence" (Springer, EATCS, 2005) develops the first sound and complete theory of AI. He also runs the Human Knowledge Compression Contest (50'000 Eur H-prize).