English

Variational Bayes Made Easy

Machine Learning 2023-07-11 v2 Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning

Abstract

Variational Bayes is a popular method for approximate inference but its derivation can be cumbersome. To simplify the process, we give a 3-step recipe to identify the posterior form by explicitly looking for linearity with respect to expectations of well-known distributions. We can then directly write the update by simply ``reading-off'' the terms in front of those expectations. The recipe makes the derivation easier, faster, shorter, and more general.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.14251,
  title  = {Variational Bayes Made Easy},
  author = {Mohammad Emtiyaz Khan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.14251},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:19:48.665Z