Gradient-free optimizers are ineffective on barren plateaus in quantum computing.
problem Effect of barren plateaus on gradient-free optimization in quantum computing.
method Numerical simulations and theoretical analysis of gradient-free optimization algorithms.
result Gradient-free optimizers are not effective in barren plateau landscapes due to exponentially suppressed cost function differences.
Gradient-free optimization for additive models achieves optimal error.
problem Optimizing noisy functions with zero-order information.
method Proposed a randomized gradient estimator for gradient-free optimization.
result Achieves minimax optimal error of order dT−(β−1)/β. Gradient-free method solves infinite-dimensional optimization problems.
problem Optimizing functions in infinite-dimensional spaces.
method Uses directional derivatives and a pre-basis for Hilbert space.
result Proves convergence for solving PDEs using PINNs.
Paper tackles gradient-free minimax optimization with variance reduction for faster convergence.
problem Gradient-free minimax optimization problems in machine learning.
method Variance reduction technique to design a novel zeroth-order gradient descent ascent algorithm.
result Achieves the best known query complexity of O(κ(d₁ + d₂)ε⁻³), outperforming previous methods.
Gradient-free framework for Bayesian experimental design in complex systems.
problem Optimal experimental design in systems where gradient information is unavailable.
method Combines EKI and ALDI for optimization and sampling, with approximations for scalable utility estimation.
result Demonstrates robust, accurate, and efficient experimental design in various complex systems.
Amazon SageMaker AMT automates machine learning model tuning.
problem Challenging hyperparameter tuning for complex machine learning systems.
method Gradient-free optimization using random search or Bayesian optimization.
result AMT finds the best hyperparameter configurations for models.
New sampling method uses gradient-free IPS with RKHS velocity field.
problem Efficient sampling from unnormalized target densities.
method Gradient-free interacting particle systems (IPS) with RKHS velocity field.
result IPS produce high-quality samples from various target distributions.
Gradient-based methods are often used for policy optimization in deep reinforcement learning, despite being vulnerable to local optima and saddle points. Although gradient-free methods (e.g., genetic algorithms or evolution strategies) help mitigate these issues, poor initialization and local optima are still concerns …
G-Sim uses LLMs to build reliable simulators for complex systems.
problem Building robust simulators for critical domains like healthcare and logistics is challenging.
method Hybrid framework combining LLM-driven structural design and empirical calibration.
result G-Sim produces reliable, causally-informed simulators that handle non-differentiable and stochastic simulators.
Gradient-free method improves predictive accuracy for probabilistic models.
problem Balancing computational efficiency and robust predictive performance in deep learning.
method CAVI-CMN, a gradient-free variational method for conditional mixture networks.
result CAVI-CMN achieves competitive and often superior predictive accuracy compared to MLE with backpropagation.
CPS solves inverse problems using forward passes and constrained particle seeking.
problem Solving inverse problems with limited forward observation information.
method Gradient-free approach that reformulates inverse problem as constrained optimization.
result CPS achieves results comparable to gradient-based methods while outperforming alternatives.
New method optimizes black-box functions using generative models and Wasserstein distance.
problem Optimizing black-box functions with stochastic responses in high dimensions.
method Deep generative surrogate models and Wasserstein distance for uncertainty estimation.
result Method outperforms state-of-the-art methods in robustness to function shape and stochasticity.
This paper reviews zeroth-order optimization in signal processing and machine learning.
problem Optimization problems without gradient information.
method Iterative steps: gradient estimation, descent direction computation, solution update.
result Demonstrates applications in robustness evaluation and black-box model explanations.
Quantum kernel improves probabilistic time series forecasting.
problem Quantifying uncertainty in probabilistic time series predictions.
method Integrates quantum kernel with Gaussian process regression.
result Quantum kernel enhances forecasting performance.
NES optimizes discrete structured VAEs effectively without gradient propagation.
problem Learning high-dimensional discrete latent spaces in generative models.
method Natural Evolution Strategies (NES) for gradient-free optimization of discrete structures.
result NES effectively optimizes discrete structured VAEs, comparable to gradient-based methods.
New algorithm reduces dimensionality in stochastic optimization.
problem Stochastic optimization in high-dimensional problems.
method Proposes a sparsity-inducing stochastic gradient-free (SI-SGF) algorithm.
result Proves dimension-free query complexity in convex and strongly convex cases.
We propose Kernel Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (KMC), a gradient-free adaptive MCMC algorithm based on Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC). On target densities where classical HMC is not an option due to intractable gradients, KMC adaptively learns the target's gradient structure by fitting an exponential family model in a Reprod…
Improved analysis and new algorithm for gradient-free optimization of smooth functions.
problem Minimization of highly smooth functions with noisy oracle information.
method Two zero-order projected gradient descent algorithms based on randomization over the ℓ2 and ℓ1 spheres, with improved analysis and theoretical guarantees. result Improved convergence rates and theoretical guarantees for various function classes.
RSO uses random weight perturbations to train deep networks without gradients.
problem Training deep neural networks efficiently and without gradient information.
method RSO is a gradient-free Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach that updates weights based on mini-batch loss reduction.
result RSO achieves high accuracy (99.1% on MNIST) with significantly fewer updates than traditional methods.
The task of image generation started to receive some attention from artists and designers to inspire them in new creations. However, exploiting the results of deep generative models such as Generative Adversarial Networks can be long and tedious given the lack of existing tools. In this work, we propose a simple strate…
STRATA generates code adversarial examples efficiently without gradients.
problem Generating adversarial examples for code that retains functional meaning.
method Uses token frequency statistics to construct gradient-free adversarial examples.
result Empirically outperforms gradient-based methods with less information and effort.
New method optimizes hyperparameters for randomized algorithms like random feature regression.
problem Optimizing hyperparameters in randomized algorithms is challenging due to their stochastic nature.
method Introduced a random objective function and used ensemble Kalman inversion (EKI) for gradient-free optimization.
result Demonstrated successful optimization of hyperparameters in various randomized algorithms.
Monte Carlo method trains deep neural networks without gradients.
problem Vanishing and exploding gradients in backpropagation.
method Randomly mutate parameters, keep if loss decreases.
result Gradient-free method trains deep networks effectively.
Gradient-free ensemble learns sector forecasts from diverse models.
problem Predicting sector returns in a volatile market.
method Dynamic model combination using out-of-sample R-squared.
result Ensemble outperforms individual models in sector rotation.
Training deep neural networks on large-scale datasets requires significant hardware resources whose costs (even on cloud platforms) put them out of reach of smaller organizations, groups, and individuals. Backpropagation, the workhorse for training these networks, is an inherently sequential process that is difficult t…
Modern neural networks are highly non-robust against adversarial manipulation. A significant amount of work has been invested in techniques to compute lower bounds on robustness through formal guarantees and to build provably robust models. However, it is still difficult to get guarantees for larger networks or robustn…
In this study, an efficient stochastic gradient-free method, the ensemble neural networks (ENN), is developed. In the ENN, the optimization process relies on covariance matrices rather than derivatives. The covariance matrices are calculated by the ensemble randomized maximum likelihood algorithm (EnRML), which is an i…
Iterative tilting fine-tunes diffusion models for reward-tilted distributions.
problem Fine-tuning diffusion models for reward-tilted distributions.
method Decomposes large reward tilts into smaller, tractable tilts via first-order Taylor expansion, avoiding backpropagation.
result Validated on a two-dimensional Gaussian mixture, achieving exact closed-form solutions.
Paper proposes B3D method for black-box backdoor detection.
problem Detecting backdoor attacks in black-box models without access to training data.
method Gradient-free optimization to reverse-engineer triggers, simple strategy for reliable predictions.
result Effectiveness of B3D method corroborated on hundreds of DNN models.
Trajectory optimization using a learned model of the environment is one of the core elements of model-based reinforcement learning. This procedure often suffers from exploiting inaccuracies of the learned model. We propose to regularize trajectory optimization by means of a denoising autoencoder that is trained on the …
New algorithms minimize noisy, irregular functions without gradients.
problem Minimizing noisy, irregular, and algebraically intractable functions.
method Generalized gradient descent recursion with smooth approximations.
result Convergence results under weak assumptions on function regularity.
ProGO optimizes non-convex functions without gradients, outperforming existing methods.
problem Challenges in global optimization, especially with non-convex functions and limited gradient information.
method Probabilistic approach using multidimensional integration and latent slice sampler.
result ProGO converges to global optima efficiently and outperforms existing methods.
FAKI improves gradient-free inference for inverse problems.
problem Expensive forward models without gradients.
method Temperature annealing with normalizing flows.
result Dramatic improvements in accuracy over EKI.
Stochastic zeroth-order (SZO), or gradient-free, optimization allows to optimize arbitrary functions by relying only on function evaluations under parameter perturbations, however, the iteration complexity of SZO methods suffers a factor proportional to the dimensionality of the perturbed function. We show that in scen…
Bayesian optimization (BO) is a model-based approach for gradient-free black-box function optimization. Typically, BO is powered by a Gaussian process (GP), whose algorithmic complexity is cubic in the number of evaluations. Hence, GP-based BO cannot leverage large amounts of past or related function evaluations, for e…
New methods using natural gradient for structured optimization.
problem Structured optimization problems.
method Structured second-order methods via natural gradient descent.
result Efficiency demonstrated on non-convex and deep learning problems.
StarNet trains deep models without gradients using linear equations.
problem Training deep generative models with gradients.
method Solving determined systems of linear equations.
result Least-square bounds for latent codes and model parameters.
We introduce the Genetic-Gated Networks (G2Ns), simple neural networks that combine a gate vector composed of binary genetic genes in the hidden layer(s) of networks. Our method can take both advantages of gradient-free optimization and gradient-based optimization methods, of which the former is effective for problems …
Proximal gradient method has been playing an important role to solve many machine learning tasks, especially for the nonsmooth problems. However, in some machine learning problems such as the bandit model and the black-box learning problem, proximal gradient method could fail because the explicit gradients of these pro…
A faster method for estimating effects in large data using fixed-point trees.
problem Estimating heterogeneous effects in large dimensions with computational efficiency.
method Fixed-point approximation to eliminate Jacobian estimation and speed up GRFs.
result Significant computational efficiency improvement without sacrificing statistical accuracy.
We propose a population-based Evolutionary Stochastic Gradient Descent (ESGD) framework for optimizing deep neural networks. ESGD combines SGD and gradient-free evolutionary algorithms as complementary algorithms in one framework in which the optimization alternates between the SGD step and evolution step to improve th…
Stein variational gradient decent (SVGD) has been shown to be a powerful approximate inference algorithm for complex distributions. However, the standard SVGD requires calculating the gradient of the target density and cannot be applied when the gradient is unavailable. In this work, we develop a gradient-free variant …
New method efficiently learns positive-definite curvature for neural nets.
problem Efficiently learn positive-definite curvature for neural net training.
method Spectral-factorized positive-definite curvature learning approach.
result Efficiently applies arbitrary matrix roots and generic curvature learning.
Standard acquisition functions are sufficient for asynchronous Bayesian optimization.
problem Redundant and repeated queries in asynchronous Bayesian optimization.
method Conceptual analysis and theoretical guarantees of standard acquisitions.
result Standard acquisition functions achieve theoretical guarantees equivalent to Thompson sampling in asynchronous settings.
ESS-Flow guides flow models without retraining, using Bayesian inference in source space.
problem Training flow models on paired data for conditional generation or sample production.
method Gradient-free Bayesian inference in source space using Elliptical Slice Sampling.
result Effective in diverse tasks including material design and protein structure prediction.
New methods improve black-box adversarial attacks with fewer queries.
problem Efficiently craft adversarial examples without access to gradients.
method Prior-guided random gradient-free algorithms based on biased sampling and gradient averaging.
result Both methods require fewer queries and achieve higher success rates.
AdaSwarm optimizes deep learning models with swarm intelligence, outperforming Adam.
problem Optimization challenges in deep learning models.
method AdaSwarm uses EMPSO to approximate gradients for optimization.
result AdaSwarm outperforms Adam and handles various loss functions.
TaskNorm improves meta-learning performance by rethinking batch normalization.
problem Challenges in batch normalization for meta-learning with deep networks.
method Developed TaskNorm, a novel approach to batch normalization for meta-learning.
result TaskNorm consistently improves meta-learning performance across various datasets and meta-learning approaches.