Machine Learning: Discriminative and Generative covers the main contemporary themes and tools in machine learning ranging from Bayesian probabilistic models to discriminative support-vector machines. However, unlike previous books that only discuss these rather different approaches in isolation, it bridges the two schools of thought together within a common framework, elegantly connecting their various theories and making one common big-picture. Also, this bridge brings forth new hybrid discriminative-generative tools that combine the strengths of both camps....