High performing algorithms for MAP and conditional inference in Markov logic

Abstract

Markov Logic (ML) combines Markov networks (MNs) and first-order logic by attaching weights to first-order formulas and using these as templates for features of MNs. However, MAP and conditional inference in ML are hard computational tasks. This paper presents two algorithms for these tasks based on the Iterated Robust Tabu Search (IRoTS) metaheuristic. The first algorithm performs MAP inference by performing a biased sampling of the set of local optima. Extensive experiments show that it improves over the state-of-the-art algorithm in terms of solution quality and inference times. The second algorithm combines IRoTS with simulated annealing for conditional inference and we show through experiments that it is faster than the current state-of-the-art algorithm maintaining the same inference quality. © Springer-Verlag 2009.