Additive models, such as produced by gradient boosting, and full interaction models, such as classification and regression trees (CART), are widely used algorithms that have been investigated largely in isolation. We show that these models exist along a spectrum, revealing never-before-known connections between these t…
Gradient boosting with randomized trees reduces discontinuities and complexity.
problem Discontinuities in regression functions due to sparse training data.
method Gradient boosting machine with partially randomized decision trees.
result Improves robustness and computational efficiency of gradient boosting.
New algorithm improves convergence of gradient boosting trees.
problem Global convergence of Newton boosting in tabular machine learning.
method Introduces Gradient Regularized Newton Descent for GBDTs, proving linear convergence for smooth, strongly convex losses and O(k21) rate for general convex losses. result Achieves globally convergent second-order GBDT algorithm with rate matching first-order boosting.
DBDT uses deep boosting decision trees for fraud detection.
problem Fraud detection in imbalanced data.
method Gradient boosting with neural networks (SDT), AUC maximization.
result DBDT significantly improves fraud detection performance.
We show that Residual Networks (ResNet) is equivalent to boosting feature representation, without any modification to the underlying ResNet training algorithm. A regret bound based on Online Gradient Boosting theory is proved and suggests that ResNet could achieve Online Gradient Boosting regret bounds through neural n…
Gradient boosting adapted for vector inputs.
problem Applying gradient boosting to multi-class classification problems.
method Extended gradient boosting framework to vector inputs using histogram-based decision trees.
result Efficient algorithm for vector-valued objectives.
AGBoost uses attention weights to improve GBM for regression problems.
problem Improving gradient boosting machine for regression tasks.
method Attention-based modification of GBM with trainable attention weights.
result AGBoost achieves better performance on regression datasets.
SketchBoost accelerates GBDT for multioutput problems up to 40x.
problem Efficiently training GBDT for multioutput problems with high-dimensional outputs.
method Approximate computation of scoring function for faster decision tree splitting.
result SketchBoost speeds up GBDT training by up to 40 times.
We consider the problem of learning a forest of nonlinear decision rules with general loss functions. The standard methods employ boosted decision trees such as Adaboost for exponential loss and Friedman's gradient boosting for general loss. In contrast to these traditional boosting algorithms that treat a tree learner…
sGBM speeds up gradient boosting by parallelizing and adapting base learners.
problem Infeasibility of parallelizing GBM training and sub-optimal performance in online settings.
method Integrates multiple differentiable base learners, jointly optimizing them with linear speed-up.
result sGBM achieves higher time efficiency and better accuracy than traditional GBM.
In this paper we propose a method to build a neural network that is similar to an ensemble of decision trees. We first illustrate how to convert a learned ensemble of decision trees to a single neural network with one hidden layer and an input transformation. We then relax some properties of this network such as thresh…
Develops a new method for decision trees using categorical variable structure.
problem Lack of structure in treating categorical variables as predictors.
method Introduces a mathematical framework to represent categorical structure and generalizes decision trees to utilize this structure.
result Improves prediction accuracy on weather data using the new method.
Gradient tree boosting is a prediction algorithm that sequentially produces a model in the form of linear combinations of decision trees, by solving an infinite-dimensional optimization problem. We combine gradient boosting and Nesterov's accelerated descent to design a new algorithm, which we call AGB (for Accelerated…
agtboost speeds up gradient tree boosting with automatic complexity adjustment.
problem Speeding up and simplifying gradient tree boosting computations.
method Adaptive gradient tree boosting with automatic complexity adjustment and feature importance.
result Significant decrease in computation time and simplification of model complexity.
In AI research and industry, machine learning is the most widely used tool. One of the most important machine learning algorithms is Gradient Boosting Decision Tree, i.e. GBDT whose training process needs considerable computational resources and time. To shorten GBDT training time, many works tried to apply GBDT on Par…
StructureBoost improves gradient boosting for complex categorical variables efficiently.
problem Efficiently handling complex categorical variables with known structure.
method Two methods to overcome computational obstacles in SCDT enumeration for structured categorical variables.
result StructureBoost outperforms existing packages on complex categorical problems.
DBT combines diffusion models and boosting for supervised learning.
problem Supervised learning problems.
method Diffusion Boosting paradigm and Diffusion Boosted Trees (DBT).
result DBT outperforms deep neural network-based diffusion models and is effective on real-world classification tasks.
Fair classification has become an important topic in machine learning research. While most bias mitigation strategies focus on neural networks, we noticed a lack of work on fair classifiers based on decision trees even though they have proven very efficient. In an up-to-date comparison of state-of-the-art classificatio…
Bayesian GBMs improve predictive uncertainty calibration for tabular data.
problem Lack of well-calibrated predictive uncertainties in gradient boosting machines.
method Variational inference with soft decision trees.
result Variational soft GBMs provide useful uncertainty estimates and maintain good predictive performance.
The paper proposes a method to assess and improve data quality using GBDT training dynamics.
problem Improving data quality in datasets with noisy labels and varying contributions.
method Metrics computed from training dynamics of Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDTs).
result The method achieved the best results compared to other approaches.
Decision trees perform well in complex interactions, even when interactions are not fully accounted for.
problem Interpreting complex interactions in machine learning models.
method Experiments on datasets and two methods for robust GLMs.
result Tree depth compensates for model misspecification, enhancing performance in complex scenarios.
Gradient boosted decision trees are a popular machine learning technique, in part because of their ability to give good accuracy with small models. We describe two extensions to the standard tree boosting algorithm designed to increase this advantage. The first improvement extends the boosting formalism from scalar-val…
UnmaskingTrees improves tabular data imputation and generation using gradient-boosted decision trees.
problem Traditional methods outperform advanced deep learning techniques on tabular data imputation benchmarks.
method UnmaskingTrees employs gradient-boosted decision trees to incrementally unmask features for imputation and generation.
result UnmaskingTrees outperforms state-of-the-art methods on tabular imputation and generation benchmarks.
Enhances GBDT robustness with one-hot encoding and regularization.
problem Low robustness of GBDT models against covariate perturbation.
method One-hot encoding to linear framework, risk decomposition, L1 or L2 regularization. result Regularization enhances GBDT robustness.
Dynamic CBDT improves treatment effect estimation in clinical data.
problem Estimating heterogeneous treatment effects in observational data with high accuracy and interpretability.
method Dynamic Regularized Causal Boosted Decision Trees (CBDT) integrating variance regularization and calibration.
result Significantly improved estimation accuracy and reliable coverage of true treatment effects.
SnapBoost uses random base hypothesis classes to improve gradient boosting performance.
problem Improving gradient boosting performance.
method Heterogeneous Newton Boosting Machine (HNBM) with variable base hypothesis classes.
result SnapBoost achieves better generalization loss than competing frameworks.
Boosting meta-trees improve decision tree performance.
problem Overfitting in decision trees.
method Boosting approach to construct multiple meta-trees.
result Ensembles of meta-trees prevent overfitting.
ENTMOOT integrates tree models for better decision-making and optimization.
problem Difficult optimization of tree models and lack of reliable uncertainty measures.
method Integrates already trained tree models into optimization problems with a reliable uncertainty measure.
result Proves globally optimal solutions for optimization problems.
Unified comparison of gradient boosting algorithms for insurance claims.
problem Improving predictive accuracy and computational efficiency in insurance claim prediction.
method Unified notation and comprehensive numerical study comparing 12 gradient boosting algorithms on 5 datasets.
result No trade-off between model adequacy and predictive accuracy.
The Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) is a popular machine learning model for various tasks in recent years. In this paper, we study how to improve model accuracy of GBDT while preserving the strong guarantee of differential privacy. Sensitivity and privacy budget are two key design aspects for the effectiveness o…
DOFEN improves DNN performance on tabular data benchmarks.
problem DOFEN tackles the performance gap between DNNs and tree-based models on tabular data.
method DOFEN uses a two-level rODT forest ensembling process inspired by oblivious decision trees.
result DOFEN achieves state-of-the-art results on the Tabular Benchmark.
This study proposes a logic architecture for the high-speed and power efficiently training of a gradient boosting decision tree model of binary classification. We implemented the proposed logic architecture on an FPGA and compared training time and power efficiency with three general GBDT software libraries using CPU a…
Unified method for local GBDT feature contributions.
problem Need for local model interpretation for GBDT.
method Unified computation mechanism for instance-level feature contributions.
result Unified computation mechanism for GBDT feature contributions.
A novel gradient boosting framework is proposed where shallow neural networks are employed as ``weak learners''. General loss functions are considered under this unified framework with specific examples presented for classification, regression, and learning to rank. A fully corrective step is incorporated to remedy the…
Gradient boosting can be seen as Gaussian process inference.
problem Improving uncertainty estimates in out-of-domain detection.
method Gradient boosting reformulated as a kernel method converging to Gaussian process inference.
result Gradient boosting can provide better uncertainty estimates through Monte-Carlo estimation of posterior variance.
LoBoost improves local conformal prediction for gradient-boosted trees without extra data splits.
problem Quantifying uncertainty in gradient-boosted tree predictions.
method Model-native local conformal prediction using leaf structure.
result Competitive interval quality and improved test MSE with large calibration speedups.
New test improves tree ensemble pruning for better model performance.
problem Lack of robust theoretical justification for penalty terms in tree ensembles.
method Developed a novel hypothesis test for tree ensemble split quality.
result Significant reduction in out-of-sample loss using the new test.
OMLT combines ML and optimization for solving complex problems.
problem Solving complex decision-making problems in computer science and engineering.
method OMLT integrates neural networks and gradient-boosted trees into optimization problems using machine learning.
result OMLT seamlessly integrates with Pyomo and solves real-world problems.
Boost-R uses gradient boosted trees for analyzing recurrence data.
problem Analyzing recurrence data with static and dynamic features.
method Gradient boosted additive trees with time-dependent functions.
result Estimates the cumulative intensity function of recurrent event processes.
Stochastic Gradient Boosting (SGB) is a widely used approach to regularization of boosting models based on decision trees. It was shown that, in many cases, random sampling at each iteration can lead to better generalization performance of the model and can also decrease the learning time. Different sampling approaches…
Infinitesimal gradient boosting is a new algorithm derived from gradient boosting.
problem Improving the efficiency and smoothness of gradient boosting.
method Introduced a new class of randomized regression trees and used a limit process in vanishing-learning-rate asymptotic.
result Convergence of the stochastic algorithm and characterization of the limiting procedure as a unique solution of a nonlinear ODE.
Gradient boosting method enforced with individual fairness.
problem Enforcing fairness in machine learning models.
method Functional gradient descent on robust loss function.
result Algorithm converges globally and generalizes.
We address the problem of finding influential training samples for a particular case of tree ensemble-based models, e.g., Random Forest (RF) or Gradient Boosted Decision Trees (GBDT). A natural way of formalizing this problem is studying how the model's predictions change upon leave-one-out retraining, leaving out each…
Efficiently adds or deletes data in GBDT models.
problem Traditional GBDT training requires all data to be accessed simultaneously, limiting add/delete operations.
method Proposes an online learning framework for GBDT supporting incremental and decremental learning.
result First work to unify incremental and decremental learning on GBDT in-place.
New method estimates variable importance for large models efficiently.
problem Estimating variable importance for large, opaque models is computationally challenging.
method Combining early stopping and warm-start techniques for scalable variable importance estimation.
result The method provides theoretical guarantees and demonstrates improved accuracy and computational efficiency.
Technology and collaboration enable dramatic increases in the size of psychological and psychiatric data collections, but finding structure in these large data sets with many collected variables is challenging. Decision tree ensembles like random forests (Strobl, Malley, and Tutz, 2009) are a useful tool for finding st…
As an adaptive, interpretable, robust, and accurate meta-algorithm for arbitrary differentiable loss functions, gradient tree boosting is one of the most popular machine learning techniques, though the computational expensiveness severely limits its usage. Stochastic gradient boosting could be adopted to accelerates gr…
In this paper, we present a novel massively parallel algorithm for accelerating the decision tree building procedure on GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), which is a crucial step in Gradient Boosted Decision Tree (GBDT) and random forests training. Previous GPU based tree building algorithms are based on parallel multi-…