Information Compression in the AI Era: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

This survey article focuses on the emerging connections between machine learning and data compression. While the fundamental limits of classical (lossy) data compression are well-established through rate-distortion theory, recent advancements have uncovered new theoretical analyses and application areas inspired by machine learning. We review recent works on task-based and goal-oriented compression, rate-distortion-perception theory, and compression for estimation and inference. Deep learning-based approaches have provided natural, data-driven methods for compression. Accordingly, we survey recent efforts in applying deep learning techniques to task-based or goal-oriented compression, as well as image/video compression and transmission. Additionally, we discuss the potential use of large language models for text compression. Finally, we outline future research directions in this promising field.