Ignoring data may be the only way to learn efficiently
Rolf Wiehagen, Thomas Zeugmann · Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence · 1994
In designing learning algorithms it seems quite reasonable to construct them in a way such that all data the algorithm already has obtained are correctly and completely reflected in the hypothesis the algorithm outputs on these data. However, this approach may totally fail, i.e. it may lead to the unsolvability of the learning problem, or it may exclude any efficient solution of it. In particular, we present a natural learning problem and prove that it can be solved in polynomial time if and only if the algorithm is allowed to ignore data.