Variational inference for Dirichlet process mixtures

Dirichlet process (DP) mixture models are the cornerstone of nonparametric Bayesian statistics, and the development of Monte-Carlo Markov chain (MCMC) sampling methods for DP mixtures has enabled the application of nonparametric Bayesian methods to a variety of practical data analysis problems. However, MCMC sampling can be prohibitively slow, and it is important to explore alternatives. One class of alternatives is provided by variational methods, a class of deterministic algorithms that convert inference problems into optimization problems (Opper and Saad 2001; Wainwright and Jordan 2003). Thus far, variational methods have mainly been explored in the parametric setting, in particular within the formalism of…

• IC
  Intel Corporation
• MR
  Microsoft Research
• DA
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency