Conditioning Methods for Exact and Approximate Inference in Causal Networks

We present two algorithms for exact and approximate inference in causal networks. The first algorithm, dynamic conditioning, is a refinement of cutset conditioning that has linear complexity on some networks for which cutset conditioning is exponential. The second algorithm, B-conditioning, is an algorithm for approximate inference that allows one to trade-off the quality of approximations with the computation time. We also present some experimental results illustrating the properties of the proposed algorithms.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI1995

Fast Belief Update Using Order-of-Magnitude Probabilities

We present an algorithm, called Predict, for updating beliefs in causal networks quantified with order-of-magnitude probabilities. The algorithm takes advantage of both the structure and the quantification of the network and presents a polynomial asymptotic complexity. Predict exhibits a conservative behavior in that it is always sound but not always complete. We provide sufficient conditions for completeness and present algorithms for testing these conditions and for computing a complete set of plausible values. We propose Predict as an efficient method to estimate probabilistic values and illustrate its use in conjunction with two known algorithms for probabilistic inference. Finally, we describe an application of Predict to plan evaluation, present experimental results, and discuss issues regarding its use with conditional logics of belief, and in the characterization of irrelevance.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI1995