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    Machine learning foundations· 1948

    A Mathematical Theory of Communication

    Claude E. Shannon (first author) · 1948

    Read the original

    DOI 10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.xOpenAlex W1995875735

    On the reading lists

    Why it matters

    Establishes entropy and information, foundational concepts for learning, compression, and generation.

    Condensed from the expert lists' notes.

    Reading it

    Difficulty: Intermediate

    Read this first: probability.

    The record

    First released
    1948 (from OpenAlex)
    Citations
    88,464 citations, as counted by OpenAlex (CC0)
    Named by
    the chatgpt list only
    Score
    0.532 · computed rank 202 · consensus 0.44, must-read 0.5, citations percentile 1 (pre-1970 · foundations), awards 0, existing lists 0. Method

    Editor's notes

    • Readability check: pass: Information theory, from the source; the first part is very readable. (AI draft (Claude), not yet reviewed, 2026-10-29)

    Data sources

    Catalogue data from OpenAlex (CC0), Crossref (CC0 metadata; no abstracts are shown), arXiv, and Papers With Code (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each count names its source. See the method.