François Fleuret tells LeCun bit count is a poor proxy for information content
francoisfleuret · x · 2026-10-05
In an exchange with Yann LeCun, François Fleuret argues that the number of bits needed to encode data is a poor proxy for its actual information content.
His example: 4 hours of video of him slowly turning book pages contains few real bits despite its raw size. The reply came after LeCun challenged him with "what do you think I don't understand about information theory?" — a substantive technical dispute over measuring information in images and video.
Related event: LeCun Sparks Debate Over Whether Byte Count Measures Information(4 posts)→
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