To establish that this quantity is symmetric up to a logarithmic factor (<math>\operatorname{I}_K(X;Y) \approx \operatorname{I}_K(Y;X)</math>) one requires the [[chain rule for Kolmogorov complexity]] {{Harvard citation|Li|Vitányi|1997}}. Approximations of this quantity via [[Data compression|compression]] can be used to define a [[Metric (mathematics)|distance measure]] to perform a [[hierarchical clustering]] of sequences without having any [[domain knowledge]] of the sequences {{Harvard citation|Cilibrasi|Vitányi|2005}}. | To establish that this quantity is symmetric up to a logarithmic factor (<math>\operatorname{I}_K(X;Y) \approx \operatorname{I}_K(Y;X)</math>) one requires the [[chain rule for Kolmogorov complexity]] {{Harvard citation|Li|Vitányi|1997}}. Approximations of this quantity via [[Data compression|compression]] can be used to define a [[Metric (mathematics)|distance measure]] to perform a [[hierarchical clustering]] of sequences without having any [[domain knowledge]] of the sequences {{Harvard citation|Cilibrasi|Vitányi|2005}}. |