Outlier robust Gaussian process classification

Abstract. Gaussian process classifiers (GPCs) are a fully statistical model for kernel classification. We present a form of GPC which is robust to labeling errors in the data set. This model allows label noise not only near the class boundaries, but also far from the class boundaries which can result from mistakes in labelling or gross errors in measuring the input features. We derive an outlier robust algorithm for training this model which alternates iterations based on the EP approximation and hyperparameter updates until convergence. We show the usefulness of the proposed algorithm with model selection method through simulation results.