Gradient descent-ascent converges to strict local minmax equilibria with a finite timescale separation.
problem Analyzing the convergence of gradient descent-ascent in non-convex, non-concave games with a finite timescale separation.
method Investigates the role of a finite timescale separation parameter τ on gradient descent-ascent in two-player zero-sum games, providing convergence rates and non-convergence results.
result Gradient descent-ascent converges to strict local minmax equilibria for a finite timescale separation parameter τ*.
New algorithm solves federated minimax optimization problems.
problem Federated minimax optimization challenges.
method Federated Stochastic Smoothed Gradient Descent Ascent (FESS-GDA).
result FESS-GDA uniformly solves federated minimax problems.
SoftAD improves classification accuracy with less fine-tuning and fewer computational costs.
problem Improving classification accuracy with less fine-tuning and fewer computational costs.
method SoftAD is a softened, pointwise mechanism that downweights borderline points and limits the effects of outliers.
result SoftAD achieves classification accuracy competitive with flooding and SAM, with a smaller loss generalization gap and model norm.
Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a widely used framework for learning generative models. Wasserstein GANs (WGANs), one of the most successful variants of GANs, require solving a minmax optimization problem to global optimality, but are in practice successfully trained using stochastic gradient descent-ascent.…
Optimizes binary regression models with gradient ascent-descent methods.
problem Regression problems with binary weights in quantized learning and digital communication.
method Maximin optimization using gradient ascent-descent methods.
result The approach is optimal in linear regression with low noise and robust regression with few outliers.
New ODE models show saddle-point optimization methods converge differently, with last-iterate convergence for OGDA.
problem Analyzing convergence properties of saddle-point optimization methods.
method High-Resolution Differential Equations (HRDEs) to design differential equation models for saddle-point optimization methods.
result HRDEs reveal last-iterate convergence for Optimistic Gradient Descent Ascent (OGDA) in bilinear games.
In this paper we consider solving saddle point problems using two variants of Gradient Descent-Ascent algorithms, Extra-gradient (EG) and Optimistic Gradient Descent Ascent (OGDA) methods. We show that both of these algorithms admit a unified analysis as approximations of the classical proximal point method for solving…
Paper studies convergence of Mean-Field GDA dynamics for MNE of continuous games.
problem Finding mixed Nash equilibria in continuous games.
method Two-scale Mean-Field Gradient Descent Ascent dynamics.
result Two-scale Mean-Field GDA converges exponentially to MNE without convexity assumptions.
New framework improves variational inference with Markov chain methods.
problem Challenges of minimizing KL divergence with stochastic gradient descent.
method Markov chain score ascent (MCSA) methods, including parallel MCSA (pMCSA).
result Improved theoretical and empirical performance of MCSA methods.
Algorithm converges to Nash equilibria in competitive games.
problem Finding Nash equilibria in decentralized, competitive Markov games.
method Decentralized Optimistic Gradient Descent/Ascent with a critic.
result Converges to the set of Nash equilibria under self-play.
Gradient Descent Ascent converges to von-Neumann solution in hidden zero-sum games.
problem Understanding dynamics of zero-sum games with hidden structure.
method Gradient Descent Ascent applied to hidden zero-sum games with specific convex-concave structure.
result Gradient Descent Ascent converges to von-Neumann solution in strictly convex-concave hidden games.
Paper proposes algorithms for solving nonconvex-nonconcave problems with complexity guarantees.
problem Nonconvex-nonconcave minimax problems with PL condition.
method Zeroth-order AGDA and VRAGDA algorithms.
result Iteration complexities for obtaining ε-stationary points.
Gradient ascent method successfully removes specific data points from neural networks without retraining.
problem Addressing privacy and ethical concerns by removing specific data points from trained models.
method Gradient ascent approach to unlearning, leveraging the implicit bias of gradient descent towards margin maximization conditions.
result Gradient ascent method can successfully unlearn specific data points from two-layer ReLU neural networks without retraining.
Study local convergence of GDA for training GANs with kernel-based discriminators.
problem Analyzing the local dynamics of GDA for GANs with kernel-based discriminators.
method Linearization of a non-linear dynamical system, under an isolated points model assumption.
result Showed phase transitions indicating convergence, oscillation, or divergence of GDA.
Alt-GDA outperforms Sim-GDA in minimax games with near-optimal local convergence.
problem Minimax optimization convergence rate comparison
method Alternating Gradient Descent-Ascent (Alt-GDA) vs. Simultaneous Gradient Descent-Ascent (Sim-GDA)
result Alt-GDA achieves near-optimal local convergence rate for strongly convex-strongly concave problems, while Sim-GDA converges slower.
Paper improves risk bounds for nonconvex-strongly-concave minimax problems.
problem Achieving sharper risk bounds for nonconvex-strongly-concave minimax problems.
method Using uniform localized convergence to derive high probability generalization error bounds.
result Derives n times faster excess primal risk bounds for popular algorithms.
We consider nonconvex-concave minimax optimization problems of the form minxmaxy∈Yf(x,y), where f is strongly-concave in y but possibly nonconvex in x and Y is a convex and compact set. We focus on the stochastic setting, where we can only access an…
New analysis improves understanding of bilevel optimization stability and generalization.
problem Understanding how well bilevel optimization algorithms generalize.
method Algorithmic stability arguments and generalization bounds for three bilevel minimax solvers.
result Precise trade-off between algorithmic stability, generalization gaps, and practical settings.
Paper introduces SGA for barycenter optimization in optimal transport.
problem Optimizing Wasserstein barycenter for discrete distributions.
method Sobolev gradient ascent algorithm tailored to Wasserstein geometry.
result SGA achieves convergence rate similar to subgradient descent.
New convergence guarantees for SGDA and SCO under expected co-coercivity.
problem Solving smooth games with stochastic gradient descent-ascent and consensus optimization.
method Introducing expected co-coercivity and proving convergence guarantees for SGDA and SCO.
result Linear convergence of SGDA and SCO to a neighborhood of the solution with constant step-size, and convergence to the exact solution with stepsize-switching rules.
Motivated by applications in Optimization, Game Theory, and the training of Generative Adversarial Networks, the convergence properties of first order methods in min-max problems have received extensive study. It has been recognized that they may cycle, and there is no good understanding of their limit points when they…
In a recent series of papers it has been established that variants of Gradient Descent/Ascent and Mirror Descent exhibit last iterate convergence in convex-concave zero-sum games. Specifically, \cite{DISZ17, LiangS18} show last iterate convergence of the so called "Optimistic Gradient Descent/Ascent" for the case of \t…
Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) has become popular for solving large scale supervised machine learning optimization problems such as SVM, due to their strong theoretical guarantees. While the closely related Dual Coordinate Ascent (DCA) method has been implemented in various software packages, it has so far lacked go…
Stochastic dual coordinate ascent (SDCA) is an effective technique for solving regularized loss minimization problems in machine learning. This paper considers an extension of SDCA under the mini-batch setting that is often used in practice. Our main contribution is to introduce an accelerated mini-batch version of SDC…
RSGDA improves convergence rates for nonconvex-strongly concave optimization.
problem Optimization of nonconvex-strongly concave problems.
method Randomized Stochastic Gradient Descent Ascent (RSGDA) with optimal loop sizes.
result First almost sure convergence rates for SGDA algorithms on nonconvex-strongly concave settings.
A new decentralized method solves minimax problems with reduced communication and sample complexity.
problem Solving minimax optimization problems in a distributed setting.
method Decentralized stochastic gradient descent ascent with variance reduction.
result Achieved optimal sample and communication complexities for nonconvex-strongly-concave problems.
This paper analyzes neural networks for solving complex optimization problems.
problem Minimax optimization problems in infinite-dimensional function spaces.
method Mean-field analysis of stochastic gradient descent-ascent in neural networks.
result The algorithm converges to a stationary point at a sublinear rate.
In this paper, we study the problem of constrained robust (min-max) optimization ina black-box setting, where the desired optimizer cannot access the gradients of the objective function but may query its values. We present a principled optimization framework, integrating a zeroth-order (ZO) gradient estimator with an a…
Paper analyzes convergence of GDA for nonconvex-nonconcave minimax problems.
problem Understanding convergence of GDA for nonconvex-nonconcave minimax problems.
method Local convergence analysis of GDA with stepsize ratio Θ(κ).
result Stepsize ratio of Θ(κ) is necessary and sufficient for local convergence of GDA to a Stackelberg Equilibrium.
Finding Nash equilibria in two-player zero-sum continuous games is a central problem in machine learning, e.g. for training both GANs and robust models. The existence of pure Nash equilibria requires strong conditions which are not typically met in practice. Mixed Nash equilibria exist in greater generality and may be …
This paper presents a stochastic behavior analysis of a kernel-based stochastic restricted-gradient descent method. The restricted gradient gives a steepest ascent direction within the so-called dictionary subspace. The analysis provides the transient and steady state performance in the mean squared error criterion. It…
The stochastic dual coordinate-ascent (S-DCA) technique is a useful alternative to the traditional stochastic gradient-descent algorithm for solving large-scale optimization problems due to its scalability to large data sets and strong theoretical guarantees. However, the available S-DCA formulation is limited to finit…
AGDA and variance-reduced methods solve nonconvex-nonconcave minimax problems globally and faster.
problem Solving nonconvex-nonconcave minimax problems in machine learning.
method Global convergence of AGDA and variance-reduced algorithms.
result AGDA and variance-reduced methods achieve global convergence and faster rates.
This study reveals efficient finite-difference computation for gradient regularization in deep learning.
problem Improving generalization performance in deep learning through gradient regularization.
method Analyzes and reveals a specific finite-difference computation that reduces computational cost and improves generalization performance.
result Finite-difference computation strengthens the implicit bias towards rich regimes and enhances generalization performance.
Sampling without replacement speeds up optimization in minimax problems.
problem Optimizing minimax problems with faster convergence rates.
method Analysis of gradient descent ascent and proximal point method with two sampling strategies.
result Sampling without replacement leads to faster convergence rates in minimax optimization.
This paper analyzes OGDA and EG methods for nonconvex minimax problems.
problem Theoretical guarantees of OGDA and EG methods in nonconvex settings.
method Unified analysis through single-call extra-gradient methods.
result Established convergence of OGDA and EG methods under NC-SC and NC-C settings.
This work finds mixed equilibria in machine learning problems using measures and simultaneous gradient ascent-descent.
problem Finding pure equilibria in machine learning problems is computationally hard.
method Entropic regularization, simultaneous gradient ascent-descent, and particle discretization in the Wasserstein metric.
result Global convergence towards the global equilibrium in mixed equilibria problems.
The paper optimizes regret using covariance between costs and decisions.
problem Optimizing expected regret in decision-making problems.
method Developed derivative theory of covariance regret functional, derived Gâteaux derivative, and extended to constrained optimization.
result Gradient of covariance regret is the cost covariance matrix, with implications for portfolio optimization.
New SGDA method speeds up nonconvex minimax optimization.
problem Improving convergence of nonconvex minimax optimization.
method SGDA with random reshuffling for nonconvex-PŁ objectives.
result Convergence rates faster than with-replacement SGDA.
We study a wide class of non-convex non-concave min-max games that generalizes over standard bilinear zero-sum games. In this class, players control the inputs of a smooth function whose output is being applied to a bilinear zero-sum game. This class of games is motivated by the indirect nature of the competition in Ge…
Given data with noisy labels, over-parameterized deep networks can gradually memorize the data, and fit everything in the end. Although equipped with corrections for noisy labels, many learning methods in this area still suffer overfitting due to undesired memorization. In this paper, to relieve this issue, we propose …
We consider nonconvex-concave minimax problems, minxmaxy∈Yf(x,y), where f is nonconvex in x but concave in y and Y is a convex and bounded set. One of the most popular algorithms for solving this problem is the celebrated…
In this paper, we study zeroth-order algorithms for minimax optimization problems that are nonconvex in one variable and strongly-concave in the other variable. Such minimax optimization problems have attracted significant attention lately due to their applications in modern machine learning tasks. We first consider a …
Paper proposes an algorithm to solve complex minimax problems efficiently.
problem Stochastic nonconvex-concave minimax problems in various fields.
method Accelerated first-order regularized momentum descent ascent algorithm (FORMDA).
result Achieves best-known complexity bound of ildeO(ε−6.5) for single-loop algorithms. Improves posterior approximation speed for Dirichlet process mixture models.
problem Inefficiency of stochastic variational inference in large datasets.
method Uses stochastic gradient ascent with adaptive stepsize optimization.
result Adaptive stepsize improves speed and performance of posterior approximation.
GANs can learn hierarchical distributions in real-world images efficiently.
problem Understanding and efficiently learning complex, real-world distributions with GANs.
method Formally studying how GANs can learn hierarchically generated distributions close to real-life image distributions using SGDA.
result Training GANs via SGDA can efficiently learn distributions with a 'forward super-resolution' structure, both in sample and time complexities.
Uniform sampling of training data has been commonly used in traditional stochastic optimization algorithms such as Proximal Stochastic Gradient Descent (prox-SGD) and Proximal Stochastic Dual Coordinate Ascent (prox-SDCA). Although uniform sampling can guarantee that the sampled stochastic quantity is an unbiased estim…
In this paper, we study the minimax optimization problem in the smooth and strongly convex-strongly concave setting when we have access to noisy estimates of gradients. In particular, we first analyze the stochastic Gradient Descent Ascent (GDA) method with constant stepsize, and show that it converges to a neighborhoo…