1,640 research outputs found
A Theory of Formal Synthesis via Inductive Learning
Formal synthesis is the process of generating a program satisfying a
high-level formal specification. In recent times, effective formal synthesis
methods have been proposed based on the use of inductive learning. We refer to
this class of methods that learn programs from examples as formal inductive
synthesis. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for formal
inductive synthesis. We discuss how formal inductive synthesis differs from
traditional machine learning. We then describe oracle-guided inductive
synthesis (OGIS), a framework that captures a family of synthesizers that
operate by iteratively querying an oracle. An instance of OGIS that has had
much practical impact is counterexample-guided inductive synthesis (CEGIS). We
present a theoretical characterization of CEGIS for learning any program that
computes a recursive language. In particular, we analyze the relative power of
CEGIS variants where the types of counterexamples generated by the oracle
varies. We also consider the impact of bounded versus unbounded memory
available to the learning algorithm. In the special case where the universe of
candidate programs is finite, we relate the speed of convergence to the notion
of teaching dimension studied in machine learning theory. Altogether, the
results of the paper take a first step towards a theoretical foundation for the
emerging field of formal inductive synthesis
The Consistency dimension and distribution-dependent learning from queries
We prove a new combinatorial characterization of polynomial
learnability from equivalence queries, and state some of its
consequences relating the learnability of a class with the
learnability via equivalence and membership queries of its
subclasses obtained by restricting the instance space.
Then we propose and study two models of query learning in which there
is a probability distribution on the instance space, both as an
application of the tools developed from the combinatorial
characterization and as models of independent interest.Postprint (published version
Coalgebra Learning via Duality
Automata learning is a popular technique for inferring minimal automata
through membership and equivalence queries. In this paper, we generalise
learning to the theory of coalgebras. The approach relies on the use of logical
formulas as tests, based on a dual adjunction between states and logical
theories. This allows us to learn, e.g., labelled transition systems, using
Hennessy-Milner logic. Our main contribution is an abstract learning algorithm,
together with a proof of correctness and termination
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