Body: <p>I've been dabbling with machine learning and neural networks (namely, resnet50) for a few months now, mostly doing image recognition. I am currently trying to make a program that, given a string of numbers as input, can predict the next number in this sequence. For example, the input could be <code>1, 2, 3, 4</code> and the output should be <code>5</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I read something that said this could be done with a multilayer perceptron neural net, but that didn't elaborate much. </p>
  
  <p>Any ideas, or links to tutorials/code?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-01-29T11:20:15.950Z
Comments.Text: Sequence prediction is very often approached with recurrent neural networks (RNNs). A specific kind of RNN, LSTMs, would be a good choice.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Mathias Müller
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-07-29T22:33:56.813Z
Comments.Text: OEIS reports that there are 12,856 integer sequences beginning with `1,2,3,4` so one must wonder why `5` is the valid answer. If the only rule at work is "add 1 to the previous value," then a neural network does not seem at all necessary to solve the problem.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Sycorax
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-07-30T05:35:36.300Z
Comments.Text: 5 is the answer given by the shortest linear prediction from previous values. x(n)=2x(n-1) -x(n-2).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Jaume Oliver Lafont
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2024-07-30T05:42:53.723Z
Comments.Text: An idea: predict linearly your output values from 1 to N-1 previous samples and choose the minimum length predictor that gets zero error on your data. With your numbers, 2x(n-1)-x(n-2) predicts exactly 3 from 1 2, 4 from 2 3 and 5 from 3 4.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Jaume Oliver Lafont
Tags: <neural-networks><machine-learning><prediction><multilayer-perceptrons>
Title: How I can predict the next number in a sequence with a neural network?
UserDisplayName: c0mraide
ThreadText: # How I can predict the next number in a sequence with a neural network?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-29)
  
  I've been dabbling with machine learning and neural networks (namely, resnet50) for a few months now, mostly doing image recognition. I am currently trying to make a program that, given a string of numbers as input, can predict the next number in this sequence. For example, the input could be `1, 2, 3, 4` and the output should be `5`.
  
  I read something that said this could be done with a multilayer perceptron neural net, but that didn't elaborate much.
  
  Any ideas, or links to tutorials/code?
  
  **Tags:** neural-networks, machine-learning, prediction, multilayer-perceptrons
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Sequence prediction is very often approached with recurrent neural networks (RNNs). A specific kind of RNN, LSTMs, would be a good choice.  
  > **username_2**: OEIS reports that there are 12,856 integer sequences beginning with `1,2,3,4` so one must wonder why `5` is the valid answer. If the only rule at work is "add 1 to the previous value," then a neural network does not seem at all necessary to solve the problem.  
  > **username_3**: 5 is the answer given by the shortest linear prediction from previous values. x(n)=2x(n-1) -x(n-2).  
  > **username_3**: An idea: predict linearly your output values from 1 to N-1 previous samples and choose the minimum length predictor that gets zero error on your data. With your numbers, 2x(n-1)-x(n-2) predicts exactly 3 from 1 2, 4 from 2 3 and 5 from 3 4.  
  
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  ## 0 answers
  
  