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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03065 |
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| _version_ | 1866918082871558144 |
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| author | Li, Xin |
| author_facet | Li, Xin |
| contents | The Helmholtz Machine (HM) is a foundational architecture for unsupervised learning, coupling a bottom-up recognition model with a top-down generative model through alternating inference. However, its reliance on symmetric, data-driven updates constrains its ability to perform goal-directed reasoning or simulate temporally extended processes. In this work, we introduce the \emph{Cycle-Consistent Helmholtz Machine} (C$^2$HM), a novel extension that reframes inference as a \emph{goal-seeded}, \emph{asymmetric} process grounded in structured internal priors. Rather than inferring latent causes solely from sensory data, C$^2$HM simulates plausible latent trajectories conditioned on abstract goals, aligning them with observed outcomes through a recursive cycle of forward generation and inverse refinement. This cycle-consistent formulation integrates top-down structure with bottom-up evidence via a variational loop, enforcing mutual alignment between goal-conditioned latent predictions and recognition-based reconstructions. We formalize this mechanism within the framework of the \emph{Context-Content Uncertainty Principle} (CCUP), which posits that inference proceeds by aligning structured, low-entropy content with high-entropy, ambiguous context. C$^2$HM improves representational efficiency, supports memory chaining via path-dependent inference, and enables spatial compositional imagination. By offering a biologically inspired alternative to classical amortized inference, $C^2$HM reconceives generative modeling as intentional simulation, bridging memory-based planning and unsupervised learning in a unified probabilistic framework. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_03065 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Cycle-Consistent Helmholtz Machine: Goal-Seeded Simulation via Inverted Inference Li, Xin Machine Learning The Helmholtz Machine (HM) is a foundational architecture for unsupervised learning, coupling a bottom-up recognition model with a top-down generative model through alternating inference. However, its reliance on symmetric, data-driven updates constrains its ability to perform goal-directed reasoning or simulate temporally extended processes. In this work, we introduce the \emph{Cycle-Consistent Helmholtz Machine} (C$^2$HM), a novel extension that reframes inference as a \emph{goal-seeded}, \emph{asymmetric} process grounded in structured internal priors. Rather than inferring latent causes solely from sensory data, C$^2$HM simulates plausible latent trajectories conditioned on abstract goals, aligning them with observed outcomes through a recursive cycle of forward generation and inverse refinement. This cycle-consistent formulation integrates top-down structure with bottom-up evidence via a variational loop, enforcing mutual alignment between goal-conditioned latent predictions and recognition-based reconstructions. We formalize this mechanism within the framework of the \emph{Context-Content Uncertainty Principle} (CCUP), which posits that inference proceeds by aligning structured, low-entropy content with high-entropy, ambiguous context. C$^2$HM improves representational efficiency, supports memory chaining via path-dependent inference, and enables spatial compositional imagination. By offering a biologically inspired alternative to classical amortized inference, $C^2$HM reconceives generative modeling as intentional simulation, bridging memory-based planning and unsupervised learning in a unified probabilistic framework. |
| title | Cycle-Consistent Helmholtz Machine: Goal-Seeded Simulation via Inverted Inference |
| topic | Machine Learning |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03065 |