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Your GMM via EM keeps diverging to infinite likelihood or collapsing clusters. What is going on?

EM on a Gaussian mixture has a famous failure mode: a Gaussian collapses onto one point and likelihood shoots to infinity. Knowing why, and the three standard fixes, separates people who used sklearn from people who understand it.

Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Applied AI Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.

EM on a Gaussian mixture has a famous failure mode: a Gaussian collapses onto one point and likelihood shoots to infinity. Knowing why, and the three standard fixes, separates people who used sklearn from people who understand it.

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