Neural compression is the application of neural networks and other machine
learning methods to data compression. Recent advances in statistical machine
learning have opened up new possibilities for data compression, allowing
compression algorithms to be learned end-to-end from data using powerful
generative models such as normalizing flows, variational autoencoders,
diffusion probabilistic models, and generative adversarial networks. The
present article aims to introduce this field of research to a broader machine
learning audience by reviewing the necessary background in information theory
(e.g., entropy coding, rate-distortion theory) and computer vision (e.g., image
quality assessment, perceptual metrics), and providing a curated guide through
the essential ideas and methods in the literature thus far