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Given data over the joint distribution of two random variables $X$ and $Y$, we consider the problem of inferring the most likely causal direction between $X$ and $Y$. In particular, we consider the general case where both $X$ and $Y$ may be…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-10-17 Alexander Marx , Jilles Vreeken

The Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle is solidly based on a provably ideal method of inference using Kolmogorov complexity. We test how the theory behaves in practice on a general problem in model selection: that of learning the…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2007-05-23 Qiong Gao , Ming Li , Paul Vitanyi

This study demonstrates the existence of a testable condition for the identification of the causal effect of a treatment on an outcome in observational data, which relies on two sets of variables: observed covariates to be controlled for…

Econometrics · Economics 2026-05-20 Martin Huber , Jannis Kueck

This paper presents correct algorithms for answering the following two questions; (i) Does there exist a causal explanation consistent with a set of background knowledge which explains all of the observed independence facts in a sample?…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-02-21 Christopher Meek

The Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle selects the model that has the shortest code for data plus model. We show that for a countable class of models, MDL predictions are close to the true distribution in a strong sense. The result…

Probability · Mathematics 2010-12-30 Marcus Hutter

Existing algorithms for explaining the outputs of image classifiers are based on a variety of approaches and produce explanations that frequently lack formal rigour. On the other hand, logic-based explanations are formally and rigorously…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-02-20 David A Kelly , Hana Chockler

This paper explores the use of unstructured, multimodal data, namely text and images, in causal inference and treatment effect estimation. We propose a neural network architecture that is adapted to the double machine learning (DML)…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-02-06 Sven Klaassen , Jan Teichert-Kluge , Philipp Bach , Victor Chernozhukov , Martin Spindler , Suhas Vijaykumar

Rationalization is a self-explaining framework for NLP models. Conventional work typically uses the maximum mutual information (MMI) criterion to find the rationale that is most indicative of the target label. However, this criterion can be…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-11-01 Wei Liu , Jun Wang , Haozhao Wang , Ruixuan Li , Zhiying Deng , YuanKai Zhang , Yang Qiu

Causal knowledge is vital for effective reasoning in science, as causal relations, unlike correlations, allow one to reason about the outcomes of interventions. Algorithms that can discover causal relations from observational data are based…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-11-12 Anish Dhir , Ciarán M. Lee

Learning the structure of Bayesian networks and causal relationships from observations is a common goal in several areas of science and technology. We show that the prequential minimum description length principle (MDL) can be used to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-07-13 Jorg Bornschein , Silvia Chiappa , Alan Malek , Rosemary Nan Ke

We consider the task of causal structure learning over measurement dependence inducing latent (MeDIL) causal models. We show that this task can be framed in terms of the graph theoretic problem of finding edge clique covers,resulting in an…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-09-22 Alex Markham , Moritz Grosse-Wentrup

We address the problem of inferring the causal direction between two variables by comparing the least-squares errors of the predictions in both possible directions. Under the assumption of an independence between the function relating cause…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-01-25 Patrick Blöbaum , Dominik Janzing , Takashi Washio , Shohei Shimizu , Bernhard Schölkopf

Real-world complex systems are often modelled by sets of equations with endogenous and exogenous variables. What can we say about the causal and probabilistic aspects of variables that appear in these equations without explicitly solving…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-11-25 Tineke Blom , Mirthe M. van Diepen , Joris M. Mooij

Machine learning is the science of discovering statistical dependencies in data, and the use of those dependencies to perform predictions. During the last decade, machine learning has made spectacular progress, surpassing human performance…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2016-07-13 David Lopez-Paz

Learning causal relations from observational data is a fundamental problem with wide-ranging applications across many fields. Constraint-based methods infer the underlying causal structure by performing conditional independence tests.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-24 Marc Franquesa Monés , Jiaqi Zhang , Caroline Uhler

We explore the relationship between causality, symmetry, and compression. We build on and generalize the known connection between learning and compression to a setting where causal models are not identifiable. We propose a framework where…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-24 Liang Wendong , Simon Buchholz , Bernhard Schölkopf

Two known results on the relationship between conditional and unconditional independence are obtained as a consequence of the main result of this paper, a theorem that uses independence of Markov kernels to obtain a minimal condition which…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2021-10-28 A. G. Nogales , P. Pérez

Knowing the effect of an intervention is critical for human decision-making, but current approaches for causal effect estimation rely on manual data collection and structuring, regardless of the causal assumptions. This increases both the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-29 Nikita Dhawan , Leonardo Cotta , Karen Ullrich , Rahul G. Krishnan , Chris J. Maddison

Starting from elementary considerations about independence and Markov processes in classical probability we arrive at the new concept of conditional monotone independence (or operator-valued monotone independence). With the help of product…

Operator Algebras · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Michael Skeide

This work addresses the following question: Under what assumptions on the data generating process can one infer the causal graph from the joint distribution? The approach taken by conditional independence-based causal discovery methods is…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2012-02-20 Jonas Peters , Joris Mooij , Dominik Janzing , Bernhard Schoelkopf