Mathematical Equivalence of Predictive Modeling and Entropy Coding
September 14, 2026
Predictive modeling and compression are mathematically linked through cumulative logarithmic loss. A probabilistic model assigning conditional probabilities to a sequence can be converted into an ideal bit payload using arithmetic coding, where the payload length equals the model's entropy.
HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU
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researcherYou can use compression metrics as a direct proxy for model cross-entropy and predictive performance.