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Cited by 515

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Computational limitations on learning from examples

Open access
Pitt, Leonard, Valiant, Leslie G.·1988·Journal of the ACM

Abstract

The computational complexity of learning Boolean concepts from examples is investigated. It is shown for various classes of concept representations that these cannot be learned feasibly in a distribution-free sense unless R = NP. These classes include (a) disjunctions of two monomials, (b) Boolean threshold functions, and (c) Boolean formulas in which each variable occurs at most once. Relationships between learning of heuristics and finding approximate solutions to NP-hard optimization problems are given.

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Metadata

Authors
Pitt, L., & Valiant, L. G.
Venue
Journal of the ACM
Published
1988-10
Volume
35
Issue
4
Pages
965-984
ISSN
  • 0004-5411 (ISSN-L)
  • 1557-735X
OpenAlex
W2117049614
Cited by
515
References
1
FWCI
36.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Computational limitations on learning from examples. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1145/48014.63140
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Pitt, L., & Valiant, L. G. (1988). Computational limitations on learning from examples. Journal of the ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/48014.63140

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