Study shows gradient variance increases during deep learning training, contrary to common belief.
problem Understanding and minimizing gradient variance in deep learning models.
method Gradient Clustering method using stratified sampling to minimize gradient variance.
result Gradient variance increases during training, and smaller learning rates coincide with higher variance.
Increasing variance of losses improves learning with noisy labels.
problem Learning with noisy labels and the need to penalize variance of losses.
method Designing regularizers based on the label noise transition matrix to increase variance of losses.
result Increasing variance of losses significantly improves generalization ability.
Data balancing reduces variance in machine learning models.
problem Reduction of variance in machine learning models.
method Non-asymptotic statistical bound and eigenvalue decay of Markov operators.
result Data balancing across modalities and sources reduces variance.
Deep learning models show bias and variance are aligned, not in trade-off.
problem The classical bias-variance trade-off in deep learning models.
method Empirical evidence and theoretical analysis of bias and variance in deep learning models.
result Squared bias is approximately equal to variance for correctly classified sample points in deep learning models.
Meta-learning variance reduced via Laplace approximation for regression tasks.
problem High variance in meta-learning due to limited support data for each task.
method Laplace approximation to estimate posterior variance and reduce gradient estimate variance.
result Effective variance reduction in meta-learning, improving generalization performance.
We analyze the variance of Fisher information estimators in deep learning models.
problem Understanding the variance of Fisher information in deep learning models.
method Investigated two unbiased and consistent estimators of Fisher information matrix.
result The variance of estimators is influenced by the model's parametric structure.
Memory-efficient algorithm reduces variance in off-policy RL.
problem High variance in off-policy policy optimization.
method Memory-efficient, stochastically variance-reduced algorithm using off-policy samples.
result Empirically validated effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Machine learning reduces variance in online experiment results.
problem Reducing variance in randomized controlled trials.
method Machine learning regression-adjusted treatment effect estimator (MLRATE).
result MLRATE reduces estimator variance by over 70% in A/A tests.
Improves deep learning performance on noisy datasets using inverse-variance weighting.
problem Heteroscedastic regression with varying noise levels.
method Batch Inverse-Variance (BIV) loss function for neural networks.
result Significantly improves network performance on noisy datasets compared to other methods.
Study explores bias-variance in adversarial machine learning.
problem Understanding adversarial machine learning's impact on bias and variance.
method Investigates bias-variance trade-offs in deep neural networks using MSE and cross-entropy.
result Derives bias-variance trade-offs for classification and regression.
Paper improves confidence intervals and variance estimation for deep learning models.
problem Improving confidence intervals and variance estimation in deep learning models.
method Residual-based framework for conditional variance estimation; robust bootstrap procedure for confidence intervals.
result First non-asymptotic bounds for variance estimation using ReLU networks.
The paper explores trade-offs between regret and variance in online learning algorithms.
problem Investigating the trade-offs between regret and variance in online learning.
method Analysis of the Exponentially Weighted Average (EWA) algorithm and its variants.
result A variant of EWA either achieves negative regret or guarantees a logarithmic bound on both variance and regret.
New method forecasts time series with changing variances.
problem Real-world processes with changing variances cannot be captured by classical models.
method State-space model with Markov switching variances, using online learning and expert aggregation.
result Proposed method outperforms traditional expert aggregation and is robust to misspecification.
The posterior variance of Gaussian processes is a valuable measure of the learning error which is exploited in various applications such as safe reinforcement learning and control design. However, suitable analysis of the posterior variance which captures its behavior for finite and infinite number of training data is …
VRER selectively reuses past observations to reduce variance in policy optimization.
problem Lack of effective experience replay for accelerating policy optimization in complex systems.
method Variance Reduction Experience Replay (VRER) framework that selectively reuses informative samples.
result VRER reduces gradient variance and improves policy learning over state-of-the-art algorithms.
Deep learning models can have low bias and variance, contrary to classical theory.
problem Understanding the performance of deep learning models at high complexity.
method Developed a fine-grained bias-variance decomposition for random feature kernel regression, analyzing the effects of sampling, initialization, and labels.
result The variance terms exhibit non-monotonic behavior and can diverge at the interpolation boundary, even in the absence of label noise.
New insights into bias and variance in over-parameterized models.
problem Understanding bias and variance in over-parameterized models.
method Analytic expressions derived from statistical physics for two minimal models.
result Over-parameterized models can overfit even in noiseless conditions.
This paper develops a new theory for ensemble learning beyond variance reduction.
problem Ensemble learning's effectiveness for stable estimators is not fully explained by variance reduction.
method Develops a general weighting theory for ensemble learning, formalizing ensembles as linear operators and introducing geometric and spectral constraints.
result Structured weights can outperform uniform averaging by reshaping approximation geometry and redistributing spectral complexity.
A new algorithm SRG-DQN reduces variance in deep Q-learning.
problem Inaccurate estimation of anchor points in SVRG for deep Q-learning.
method Introduces recursive gradient variance reduction for stochastic gradient updates.
result Demonstrates improved efficiency and effectiveness of SRG-DQN on reinforcement learning tasks.
This work proposes using zero-variance control variates to reduce variance in pathwise gradient estimators for variational inference.
problem Pathwise gradient estimators in variational inference have high variance, leading to inefficient optimization.
method Apply zero-variance control variates to pathwise gradient estimators.
result Zero-variance control variates can significantly reduce the variance of pathwise gradient estimators without requiring complex assumptions.
VRCQ algorithm reduces variance in Q-learning for MDPs, achieving optimal sample complexity.
problem Estimating the optimal Q-function in MDPs with synchronous sampling.
method VRCQ combines direct variance reduction and Cascade Q-learning.
result VRCQ is minimax optimal and instance optimal for single-action problems.
The breakthrough of deep Q-Learning on different types of environments revolutionized the algorithmic design of Reinforcement Learning to introduce more stable and robust algorithms, to that end many extensions to deep Q-Learning algorithm have been proposed to reduce the variance of the target values and the overestim…
Paper proposes robust estimators for heavy-tailed data with infinite variance.
problem Developing robust estimators for heavy-tailed data with infinite variance.
method Proposes two robust estimators: ridge log-truncated M-estimator and elastic net log-truncated M-estimator.
result Demonstrates robustness of log-truncated estimations over standard estimations through simulations and real data analysis.
Temporal difference (TD) learning is a popular algorithm for policy evaluation in reinforcement learning, but the vanilla TD can substantially suffer from the inherent optimization variance. A variance reduced TD (VRTD) algorithm was proposed by Korda and La (2015), which applies the variance reduction technique direct…
Paper tackles bias-variance trade-off in missing data, proposing a dynamic framework.
problem Missing data in practical applications deteriorates model performance.
method Develops a fine-grained dynamic learning framework to jointly optimize bias and variance.
result Theoretical and empirical validation of joint bias-variance optimization.
Study of discrete-time mean-variance model using reinforcement learning.
problem Discrete-time model with more general return distribution assumptions.
method Entropy-based exploration cost, reinforcement learning algorithm design.
result Optimal investment strategy with Gaussian density function.
Study on fluctuations in neural network kernels and predictions, focusing on finite width effects.
problem Characterizing fluctuations in finite width neural networks.
method Dynamical mean field theory analysis of wide but finite feature learning neural networks.
result Fluctuations in kernels and predictions are dynamically coupled, leading to reduced variance in feature learning regimes.
New algorithms reduce regret in both stochastic and deterministic environments.
problem Designing algorithms that perform well in both types of MDPs.
method Proposed new environment norms and algorithms with variance-dependent regret bounds.
result First algorithm with simultaneously optimal bounds for both stochastic and deterministic MDPs.
New method for portfolio management learns from past wealth evolution.
problem Optimizing portfolio selection based on past performance.
method Simulated annealing clustering for asset selection, considering past wealth evolution.
result Strategy effectively learns from past performance and performs well in practice.
Dealing with high variance is a significant challenge in model-free reinforcement learning (RL). Existing methods are unreliable, exhibiting high variance in performance from run to run using different initializations/seeds. Focusing on problems arising in continuous control, we propose a functional regularization appr…
Proposes a modified Morgan-Pitman test for evaluating variances in machine learning models.
problem Limited ability to account for sampling variability in model selection.
method Enhances the classic Morgan-Pitman test for robustness in non-linear models with heavy-tailed distributions or outliers.
result Demonstrates the test's effectiveness and practical utility in model evaluation and selection.
Unified theory explains diversity in ensemble learning.
problem Explaining diversity in ensemble learning across various scenarios.
method Developed a framework revealing diversity as a hidden dimension in bias-variance decomposition.
result Proved exact bias-variance-diversity decompositions for multiple losses in regression and classification.
New algorithm reduces optimization complexity in adaptive mirror descent.
problem Optimizing complex, non-smooth, non-convex functions efficiently.
method SVRAMD: Variance Reduced Adaptive Mirror Descent.
result Variance reduction accelerates convergence in adaptive mirror descent.
New algorithm for training GNNs with learned weights.
problem Optimal sampling for GNNs with learned weights is intractable.
method Formulated as an adversary bandit problem, optimizing exploration and exploitation.
result Asymptotically approaches optimal variance within a factor of 3.
Recent advances in deep reinforcement learning have achieved human-level performance on a variety of real-world applications. However, the current algorithms still suffer from poor gradient estimation with excessive variance, resulting in unstable training and poor sample efficiency. In our paper, we proposed an innova…
Paper proposes a method to estimate variance reduction in DNN training using importance sampling.
problem Challenges in assessing variance reduction during DNN training using importance sampling.
method Proposes a method for estimating variance reduction using minibatches sampled under importance sampling.
result Demonstrates consistent reduction in variance, improved training efficiency, and enhanced model accuracy.
Study tight offline learning bounds for linear MDPs using variance information.
problem Understanding statistical limits with linear function representations in offline reinforcement learning.
method Variance-aware pessimistic value iteration (VAPVI) that reweights Bellman residuals based on estimated variances.
result Improved offline learning bounds expressed in terms of system quantities.
Meta-CVs leverage task similarity to reduce variance with limited data.
problem Reducing variance in Monte Carlo estimators with few samples.
method Meta-learning control variates for related tasks.
result Meta-CVs lead to significant variance reduction in settings with limited data.
Stochastic gradient descent updates parameters with summation gradient computed from a random data batch. This summation will lead to unbalanced training process if the data we obtained is unbalanced. To address this issue, this paper takes the error variance and error mean both into consideration. The adaptively adjus…
Neural SDEs reduce variance in stochastic simulations.
problem Efficiency of Monte Carlo simulations in finance.
method Use neural SDEs with control variates parameterized by neural networks.
result Prove optimality conditions for variance reduction in SDEs with infinite activity.
Proposes reducing random error in stochastic optimization by variance regularization.
problem Random error accumulation in stochastic optimization algorithms.
method Regularizes learning-rate based on mini-batch variances.
result Speeds up convergence and stabilizes stochastic optimization.
There exist a number of reinforcement learning algorithms which learnby climbing the gradient of expected reward. Their long-runconvergence has been proved, even in partially observableenvironments with non-deterministic actions, and without the need fora system model. However, the variance of the gradient estimator ha…
We solve the paradox of score-based methods by minimizing path variance.
problem Score-based methods are path-dependent, leading to inaccurate and unstable estimators.
method Propose MVP Principle to minimize path variance, derive closed-form expression, and use flexible Kumaraswamy Mixture Model.
result Establishes new state-of-the-art results on challenging benchmarks.
Proposes σ-PCA to learn identifiable linear transformations without whitening.
problem Cannot identify axes with equal variances in PCA.
method Unified model for linear and nonlinear PCA, introducing a missing piece to eliminate rotational indeterminacy.
result Eliminates subspace rotational indeterminacy in PCA.
A new method for online personalized learning reduces gradient variance by dynamically selecting peers.
problem Online personalized decentralized learning with statistically heterogeneous clients.
method Gradient-based collaboration criterion allowing clients to dynamically select peers with similar gradients.
result The method acts as a variance reduction method, achieving optimal performance in certain conditions.
Optimal feature transfer identified through bias-variance analysis.
problem Optimizing feature transfer in transfer learning.
method Simple linear model with fine-grained bias-variance decomposition.
result Optimal pretrained feature transform is naturally sparse.
The paper tackles mean-variance analysis in Bayesian optimization under uncertainty.
problem Optimizing decisions in uncertain environments considering trade-offs between average and variance of risk.
method Developed bounds for mean and variance risk measures in Gaussian Process models and proposed AL algorithms for multi-task, multi-objective, and constrained optimization scenarios.
result Proposed AL algorithms effectively address the mean-variance trade-off in uncertain optimization scenarios.
Random features are improved by variance-reducing couplings, enhancing machine learning models.
problem Improving the efficiency and accuracy of random features in machine learning.
method Using optimal transport theory to find couplings that reduce variance in random features.
result Theoretical and practical gains in efficiency and accuracy for various machine learning models.