Step-DAD improves BED by periodically updating a design policy during experiments.
problem Improving flexibility and robustness in Bayesian experimental design.
method Semi-amortized, policy-based approach that updates a design policy during data collection.
result Consistently superior decision-making and robustness compared to current BED methods.
A new framework designs experiments for better decision-making.
problem Suboptimal experimental designs for downstream decision-making.
method Amortized decision-aware Bayesian Experimental Design (BED) with Transformer Neural Decision Process (TNDP).
result TNDP effectively designs experiments and facilitates accurate decision-making.
Adaptive teacher improves sample efficiency and mode coverage in sampling tasks.
problem Efficient exploration and mode coverage in sampling tasks with amortized inference.
method An adaptive training distribution (teacher) guides the training of the primary sampler (student).
result Improves sample efficiency and mode coverage across various tasks.
Improved diffusion models for sampling from given distributions.
problem Training diffusion models to sample from a given distribution.
method Benchmarked and improved off-policy methods for diffusion sampling.
result A novel exploration strategy improves sample quality.
Inspired by the seminal work on Stein Variational Inference and Stein Variational Policy Gradient, we derived a method to generate samples from the posterior variational parameter distribution by \textit{explicitly} minimizing the KL divergence to match the target distribution in an amortize fashion. Consequently, we a…
Delta-AI speeds up inference in sparse PGMs by local credit assignment.
problem Efficient inference in sparse probabilistic graphical models.
method Local credit assignment in agent's policy learning objective.
result Trained sampler recovers marginals and conditional distributions.
Novel approach to Bayesian experimental design for non-exchangeable data.
problem Optimal experimental design for non-exchangeable data.
method Inside-Out SMC2 algorithm embedded in particle Markov chain Monte Carlo framework. result Efficacy demonstrated on a set of dynamical systems.
DAD learns to design experiments quickly, outperforming traditional methods.
problem Real-time decision-making in sequential Bayesian experimental design.
method Amortized design network trained with contrastive information bounds.
result DAD outperforms alternative strategies on various problems.
New method optimizes experiments under constraints.
problem Adapting BED to dynamic constraints in real-world tasks.
method Offline pre-training of an amortized policy and posterior network with online multi-step lookahead planning.
result Significantly more informative design sequences than existing methods.
Applying Q-learning to high-dimensional or continuous action spaces can be difficult due to the required maximization over the set of possible actions. Motivated by techniques from amortized inference, we replace the expensive maximization over all actions with a maximization over a small subset of possible actions sam…
Deriving and applying Proximal Policy Optimization to GFlowNets for efficient training of discrete sampling policies
problem Training stochastic policies to sample from structured discrete probability distributions
method Deriving policy gradient algorithms for GFlowNets and applying Proximal Policy Optimization
result Improved convergence speed and data efficiency compared to standard GFlowNet training objectives
A new method improves actor-critic RL by integrating HMC, enhancing policy distribution and exploration.
problem Actor-critic RL yields suboptimal policies due to amortization gap and insufficient exploration.
method Integrating Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) into the actor-critic RL framework.
result Improves policy distribution and exploration, leading to better policy estimates and higher returns.
DABS uses a policy network to select experiments in high-dimensional design spaces.
problem Adaptive factorial screening in high-dimensional discrete design spaces.
method DABS learns a policy network offline to sequentially select experiments, incorporating sparsity and interactions via a spike-and-slab prior.
result DABS achieves superior accuracy and scalability over classical and Bayesian baselines under tight experimental budgets.
Local search improves GFlowNets' ability to generate high-reward samples.
problem GFlowNets struggle with over-exploration in high-reward space.
method Local search focusing on high-reward samples via backtracking and reconstruction.
result Significant performance improvement in biochemical tasks.
JADAI optimizes design and inference for parameter estimation.
problem Parameter estimation with active optimization of design variables.
method Jointly trains a policy, history network, and inference network to minimize posterior error.
result Achieves superior or competitive performance across benchmarks.
Paper introduces IO-NPF for efficient Bayesian experimental design.
problem Efficient Bayesian experimental design in non-exchangeable settings.
method Inside-Out Nested Particle Filter (IO-NPF) for non-Markovian state-space models.
result IO-NPF achieves O(T2) computational complexity, improving efficiency. POLAR learns efficient data acquisition policies using pretrained belief representations.
problem Challenges in learning effective policies for adaptive data acquisition.
method POLAR decouples representation learning from policy learning by leveraging pretrained predictive foundation models as belief-state encoders.
result POLAR outperforms state-of-the-art methods across diverse tasks while requiring fewer training samples.
A new method for dynamic feature selection outperforms existing approaches.
problem Sequentially selecting features based on current information in machine learning.
method Greedy selection of features based on conditional mutual information, combined with a learning approach for optimization.
result The method outperforms existing feature selection methods in experiments.
EB-GFN models discrete data with amortized MCMC sampling.
problem Probabilistic modeling of high-dimensional discrete data.
method EB-GFN combines GFlowNets with energy-based models for efficient sampling.
result EB-GFN effectively models various discrete data tasks.
Current approaches to amortizing Bayesian inference focus solely on approximating the posterior distribution. Typically, this approximation is, in turn, used to calculate expectations for one or more target functions - a computational pipeline which is inefficient when the target function(s) are known upfront. In this …
This paper reviews recent advancements in amortized Variational Inference.
problem Scalability and efficiency issues in traditional Variational Inference.
method Systematic review of various Variational Inference techniques, focusing on amortized approaches.
result Amortized Variational Inference improves scalability and efficiency for generative modeling tasks.
Improves point-cloud reconstruction by optimizing projections with self-attention.
problem Inefficient and non-metric projection methods for sliced Wasserstein distances.
method Proposes distributional sliced Wasserstein distance with self-attention for permutation-invariant and metric optimization.
result Self-attention amortized distributional projection optimization achieves better performance in point-cloud reconstruction.
The paper reclassifies RL algorithms using inference concepts.
problem To provide a unified perspective on RL algorithms.
method Using the control as inference framework, the paper classifies RL algorithms as amortised and iterative inference.
result A wide range of RL algorithms can be classified in this new manner.
New option type preserves fungibility by amortizing payments over time.
problem Traditional installment options destroy fungibility and lapse when payments stop.
method Introduces amortizing perpetual options (AmPOs) with an implicit payment scheme.
result Valuation of AmPOs reduces to vanilla perpetual American options.
iDAD uses neural networks to quickly adapt experiments without likelihoods.
problem Performing adaptive experiments in real-time with implicit models.
method iDAD learns a design policy network upfront to make quick design decisions.
result iDAD can make design decisions in milliseconds, unlike traditional BOED approaches.
A new method optimizes projection directions for sliced Wasserstein distances.
problem Finding informative projecting directions for sliced Wasserstein distances is computationally expensive.
method Amortized projection optimization to predict directions efficiently.
result Proposed amortized models improve generative modeling performance.
Integrates skills and world models for efficient task solving and transfer.
problem Quickly solve new tasks in complex environments using reusable knowledge.
method Leverages partial amortization for fast adaptation and online skill planning.
result Improved sample efficiency in single tasks and transfer between tasks.
Adaptive workflow combines fast amortized inference with MCMC for many datasets.
problem Trade-off between computational speed and sampling accuracy in Bayesian inference.
method Adaptive workflow integrating amortized inference and MCMC with principled diagnostics.
result Efficiency gains with high posterior quality on tens of thousands of datasets.
The variational autoencoder (VAE) is a popular model for density estimation and representation learning. Canonically, the variational principle suggests to prefer an expressive inference model so that the variational approximation is accurate. However, it is often overlooked that an overly-expressive inference model ca…
ASPIRE improves amortized posterior inference for Bayesian inverse problems.
problem Bayesian inverse problems are computationally challenging due to uncertainty quantification.
method Iterative refinement of amortized posteriors using physics-based and summary statistics.
result ASPIRE achieves better posterior approximations with minimal extra computations.
This paper examines how neural architectures support amortized Bayesian inference and its performance under varying conditions.
problem Understanding and evaluating amortized inference under signal-to-noise variation and distribution shift.
method Statistical analysis of neural architectures including feedforward networks, Deep Sets, and Transformers.
result Neural architectures support amortized Bayesian inference, offering controlled generalization error and robustness under varying conditions.
While implicit feedback (e.g., clicks, dwell times, etc.) is an abundant and attractive source of data for learning to rank, it can produce unfair ranking policies for both exogenous and endogenous reasons. Exogenous reasons typically manifest themselves as biases in the training data, which then get reflected in the l…
JANA trains networks to approximate Bayesian models efficiently.
problem Intractable likelihood functions and posterior densities in Bayesian models.
method End-to-end training of three networks: summary, posterior, and likelihood networks.
result JANA provides accurate amortized marginal likelihood and posterior predictive estimation.
CausalPFN automates causal effect estimation from observational data.
problem Manual selection of causal effect estimators is time-consuming and requires domain expertise.
method CausalPFN is a transformer that learns to infer causal effects from raw observations without task-specific adjustments.
result CausalPFN achieves superior performance on various benchmarks and real-world tasks.
Improved diffusion sampling for inverse problems with faster and more robust inference.
problem High computational cost and lack of robustness in diffusion posterior sampling.
method Amortized variational inference with explicit likelihood guidance.
result Improved trade-off between inference speed and robustness to unseen degradations.
Efficiently predicts optimal transport plans using sliced potentials.
problem Predicting optimal transport plans across multiple measure pairs efficiently.
method Regression-based and objective-based amortization strategies using sliced optimal transport potentials.
result Efficient and accurate prediction of optimal transport plans for various tasks.
BayesFlow trains neural networks for fast Bayesian inference.
problem Fast Bayesian inference for complex models.
method Amortized neural networks for intractable posterior distributions.
result Fast inference through pre-trained neural networks.
Simformer uses transformer models to perform flexible Bayesian inference.
problem Current simulation-based inference methods are inflexible and require fixed priors.
method Trains a probabilistic diffusion model with transformer architectures.
result Outperforms state-of-the-art methods on various benchmarks.
New method improves generalization of VAEs by reducing overfitting.
problem Generalization issues in VAEs overfitting to training data.
method Proposed a new training objective to improve amortized inference.
result Improved performance in image modeling and lossless compression.
Adversarial robustness of amortized Bayesian inference is studied, showing it can be improved.
problem Adversarial robustness of amortized Bayesian inference.
method Simulation-based estimation, regularization scheme based on Fisher information.
result Adversarial robustness can be improved with a regularization scheme.
The paper tackles efficient computation of optimal transport by approximating conjugates with amortized optimization.
problem Efficient computation of convex conjugates in optimal transport is challenging and limits the quality of transport maps.
method The approach combines amortized approximations of conjugates with a fine-tuning solver to improve transport map quality.
result The method significantly improves the quality of transport maps for the Wasserstein-2 benchmark and models many 2D couplings and flows.
Neural processes approximate Gaussian process inference, revealing three key costs.
problem Approximating Gaussian process inference with neural processes.
method Bounding KL divergence into three components: label contamination, information bottleneck, and amortization error.
result Characterization of three costs of amortizing Gaussian process inference with neural processes.
Self-consistency improves the accuracy of model comparison methods.
problem Improving the accuracy of model comparison methods when simulation models are misspecified.
method Supplement traditional simulation-based training with a self-consistency loss on unlabeled real data.
result Self-consistency training improves model comparison accuracy, especially in open-world scenarios.
Improved community detection in graphs with probabilistic models.
problem Lack of probabilistic formulation and fixed number of communities in GNN-based methods.
method Combines GNNs with amortized clustering for variable numbers of clusters.
result Improved performance on synthetic and real datasets compared to previous methods.
Classical approaches for approximate inference depend on cleverly designed variational distributions and bounds. Modern approaches employ amortized variational inference, which uses a neural network to approximate any posterior without leveraging the structures of the generative models. In this paper, we propose Amorti…
Proposes an amortized variational framework for Deep Q Networks.
problem Efficient exploration in deep reinforcement learning.
method Amortized variational inference for action value function approximation.
result Significantly less learning parameters and better performance.
This paper compares amortized methods for Bayesian posterior estimation.
problem Bayesian inference difficulties with iterative routines.
method Amortized in-context Bayesian posterior estimation using transformers and normalizing flows.
result Reverse KL estimator superior for predictive problems.
Exploration is critical to a reinforcement learning agent's performance in its given environment. Prior exploration methods are often based on using heuristic auxiliary predictions to guide policy behavior, lacking a mathematically-grounded objective with clear properties. In contrast, we recast exploration as a proble…