Meta-learning (computer science): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:01, 12 June 2024

Revision as of 20:21, 12 June 2024

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{{See also|Ensemble learning}}

{{machine learning|Paradigms}}

'''Meta-learning'''<ref name="sch1987">{{cite journal | last1 = Schmidhuber | first1 = Jürgen | year = 1987| title = Evolutionary principles in self-referential learning, or on learning how to learn: the meta-meta-... hook | url= http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/diploma1987ocr.pdf | journal = Diploma Thesis, Tech. Univ. Munich | language = en}}</ref><ref name="scholarpedia">{{cite journal | last1 = Schaul | first1 = Tom | last2 = Schmidhuber | first2 = Jürgen | year = 2010| title = Metalearning | journal = Scholarpedia | volume = 5 | issue = 6| page = 4650 | doi=10.4249/scholarpedia.4650| doi-broken-date = 2024-06-12 | bibcode = 2010SchpJ...5.4650S | doi-access = free | language = en }}</ref>

is a subfield of [[machine learning]] where automatic learning algorithms are applied to [[meta-data|metadata]] about machine learning experiments. As of 2017, the term had not found a standard interpretation, however the main goal is to use such metadata to understand how automatic learning can become flexible in solving learning problems, hence to improve the performance of existing [[learning algorithms]] or to learn (induce) the learning algorithm itself, hence the alternative term '''learning to learn'''.<ref name="sch1987" />

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Some approaches which have been viewed as instances of meta-learning:

* [[Recurrent neural networks]] (RNNs) are universal computers. In 1993, [[Jürgen Schmidhuber]] showed how "self-referential" RNNs can in principle learn by [[backpropagation]] to run their own weight change algorithm, which may be quite different from backpropagation.<ref name="sch1993">{{cite journal | last1 = Schmidhuber | first1 = Jürgen | year = 1993| title = A self-referential weight matrix | journal = Proceedings of ICANN'93, Amsterdam | pages = 446–451 | language = en}}</ref> In 2001, [[Sepp Hochreiter]] & A.S. Younger & P.R. Conwell built a successful supervised meta-learner based on [[Long short-term memory]] RNNs. It learned through backpropagation a learning algorithm for quadratic functions that is much faster than backpropagation.<ref name="hoch2001">{{cite journal | last1 = Hochreiter | first1 = Sepp | last2 = Younger | first2 = A. S. | last3 = Conwell | first3 = P. R. | year = 2001| title = Learning to Learn Using Gradient Descent | journal = Proceedings of ICANN'01| pages = 87–94| language = en}}</ref><ref name="scholarpedia" /> Researchers at [[Deepmind]] (Marcin Andrychowicz et al.) extended this approach to optimization in 2017.<ref name="marcin2017">{{cite journal | last1 = Andrychowicz | first1 = Marcin | last2 = Denil | first2 = Misha | last3 = Gomez | first3 = Sergio | last4 = Hoffmann | first4 = Matthew | last5 = Pfau | first5 = David | last6 = Schaul | first6 = Tom | last7 = Shillingford | first7 = Brendan | last8 = de Freitas | first8 = Nando | year = 2017| title = Learning to learn by gradient descent by gradient descent | journal = Proceedings of ICML'17, Sydney, Australia| arxiv = 1606.04474 }}</ref>

* In the 1990s, Meta [[Reinforcement Learning]] or Meta RL was achieved in Schmidhuber's research group through self-modifying policies written in a universal programming language that contains special instructions for changing the policy itself. There is a single lifelong trial. The goal of the RL agent is to maximize reward. It learns to accelerate reward intake by continually improving its own learning algorithm which is part of the "self-referential" policy.<ref name="sch1994">{{cite journal | last1 = Schmidhuber | first1 = Jürgen | year = 1994| title = On learning how to learn learning strategies | journal = Technical Report FKI-198-94, Tech. Univ. Munich | language = en | url = http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/FKI-198-94ocr.pdf}}</ref><ref name="sch1997">{{cite journal | last1 = Schmidhuber | first1 = Jürgen | last2 = Zhao | first2 = J. | last3 = Wiering | first3 = M. | year = 1997| title = Shifting inductive bias with success-story algorithm, adaptive Levin search, and incremental self-improvement | journal = Machine Learning | volume = 28 | pages = 105–130 | doi=10.1023/a:1007383707642| doi-access = free| language = en }}</ref>

* An extreme type of Meta [[Reinforcement Learning]] is embodied by the [[Gödel machine]], a theoretical construct which can inspect and modify any part of its own software which also contains a general [[Automated theorem proving|theorem prover]]. It can achieve [[recursive self-improvement]] in a provably optimal way.<ref name="goedelmachine">{{cite journal | last1 = Schmidhuber | first1 = Jürgen | year = 2006| title = Gödel machines: Fully Self-Referential Optimal Universal Self-Improvers | url=https://archive.org/details/arxiv-cs0309048| journal = In B. Goertzel & C. Pennachin, Eds.: Artificial General Intelligence | pages = 199–226 | language=en}}</ref><ref name="scholarpedia" />