Univ. Toronto CSC 2541 Fall 2016: Differentiable Inference and Generative Models

In the last few years, new inference methods have allowed big advances in probabilistic generative models. These models let us generate novel images and text, find meaningful latent representations of data, take advantage of large unlabeled datasets, and even let us do analogical reasoning automatically. This course will tour recent innovations in inference methods such as recognition networks, black-box stochastic variational inference, and adversarial autoencoders. It will also cover recent advances in generative model design, such as deconvolutional image models, thought vectors, and recurrent variational autoencoders. The class will have a major project component.