CausalCompass evaluates TSCD robustness under violations of modeling assumptions.
problem Widespread adoption of TSCD is hindered by untestable causal assumptions and lack of robustness evaluation.
method CausalCompass is a flexible benchmark framework for assessing TSCD robustness under violations of modeling assumptions.
result No single method consistently attains optimal performance across all settings, but deep learning-based methods perform well.
We consider to learn a causal ordering of variables in a linear non-Gaussian acyclic model called LiNGAM. Several existing methods have been shown to consistently estimate a causal ordering assuming that all the model assumptions are correct. But, the estimation results could be distorted if some assumptions actually a…
Differentiable causal discovery methods perform robustly under model violations.
problem Causal discovery algorithms struggle with real-world data due to unverifiable causal assumptions.
method Benchmarked differentiable causal discovery methods under eight model assumption violations.
result Differentiable causal discovery methods exhibit robust performance under Structural Hamming Distance and Structural Intervention Distance metrics.
The study analyzes and mitigates errors in PC-based causal discovery methods.
problem Errors in PC-based causal discovery methods can lead to incorrect graphs.
method The study introduces coherency scores to detect assumption violations and small sample errors in PC-based methods.
result The coherency scores can detect errors that other methods cannot, bridging between global and local error detection.
We consider learning a causal ordering of variables in a linear non-Gaussian acyclic model called LiNGAM. Several existing methods have been shown to consistently estimate a causal ordering assuming that all the model assumptions are correct. But, the estimation results could be distorted if some assumptions actually a…
The assumption of positivity in causal inference (also known as common support and co-variate overlap) is necessary to obtain valid causal estimates. Therefore, confirming it holds in a given dataset is an important first step of any causal analysis. Most common methods to date are insufficient for discovering non-posi…
This paper detects Markov violations in RL with noise, improving policy development.
problem Partial observability and sensor/actuator noise invalidate Markovian assumptions in RL.
method Combines PCMCI causal discovery with Markov Violation score (MVS).
result Even substantial noise doesn't always disrupt multi-step dependencies.
The positivity assumption, or the experimental treatment assignment (ETA) assumption, is important for identifiability in causal inference. Even if the positivity assumption holds, practical violations of this assumption may jeopardize the finite sample performance of the causal estimator. One of the consequences of pr…
IMA improves representation learning even when assumptions are violated.
problem Recovering true latent codes from mixed data.
method IMA, which assumes independent causal mechanisms.
result IMA's benefits extend to violations of its assumptions.
Proposes real-time risk monitoring for machine learning systems under unknown shifts.
problem Dynamic distribution shifts challenge real-world machine learning systems' risk assurances.
method Sequential hypothesis testing with 'testing by betting' to detect risk violations.
result Effective real-time risk monitoring under various unknown shifts.
New method constructs synthetic treatment groups without mean exchangeability assumption.
problem Violations of mean exchangeability assumption in randomized controlled trials.
method Weighted mixture of treatment groups from source populations, minimizing conditional maximum mean discrepancy.
result Asymptotic normality of synthetic treatment group estimator established.
Detect hidden confounding in observational data using multiple environments.
problem Detect hidden confounding in observational data.
method Theoretical framework and simulation studies to test for hidden confounding.
result The proposed procedure correctly predicts hidden confounding, especially when bias is large.
New framework for understanding BSS robustness under model violations.
problem Understanding how BSS solutions behave under statistical prior assumptions violations.
method Introducing an informative topology on the space of possible causes and explicit continuity guarantees.
result First comprehensive robustness framework for BSS.
Simulation study evaluates causal ML models under confounding violations.
problem Assessing conditional exchangeability in causal machine learning models.
method Simulation study with varying confounding, sample size, and NCO structures.
result Causal ML models fail to recover true treatment effect heterogeneity under violations of conditional exchangeability.
Study detects concept shift in online data using martingales.
problem Detecting concept shift in online datasets.
method Exchangeable martingales and conformal prediction techniques.
result Decomposes concept shift into detectable components.
We show how deep learning methods can be applied in the context of crowdsourcing and unsupervised ensemble learning. First, we prove that the popular model of Dawid and Skene, which assumes that all classifiers are conditionally independent, is {\em equivalent} to a Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) with a single hidd…
Bell's Theorem shows that quantum mechanical correlations can violate the constraints that the causal structure of certain experiments impose on any classical explanation. It is thus natural to ask to which degree the causal assumptions -- e.g. locality or measurement independence -- have to be relaxed in order to allo…
New method aggregates Gaussian experts by detecting conditional independence violations.
problem Aggregation of dependent Gaussian experts leads to sub-optimal solutions.
method Uses Gaussian graphical model to detect and correct conditional independence violations.
result Improves aggregation of Gaussian experts, outperforming SOTA DGP approaches.
Given only positive (P) and unlabeled (U) data, PU learning can train a binary classifier without any negative data. It has two building blocks: PU class-prior estimation (CPE) and PU classification; the latter has been well studied while the former has received less attention. Hitherto, the distributional-assumption-f…
Testing procedures for predictive regressions with lagged autoregressive variables imply a suboptimal inference in presence of small violations of ideal assumptions. We propose a novel testing framework resistant to such violations, which is consistent with nearly integrated regressors and applicable to multi-predictor…
Researchers develop methods for causal inference with imperfect instrumental variables.
problem Quantifying cause and effect relationships with imperfect instrumental variables.
method Established a quantitative relationship between violations of instrumental inequalities and minimal measurement dependence, providing adapted inequalities valid in the presence of relaxed measurement dependence.
result Adapted inequalities for average causal effect in instrumental scenarios with binary outcomes, addressing violations of instrumental inequalities.
When dealing with Heston's stochastic volatility model, the change of measure from the subjective measure P to the objective measure Q is usually investigated under the assumption that the Feller condition is satisfied. This paper closes this gap in the literature by deriving sufficient conditions for the existence of …
Paper relaxes faithfulness assumption for causal discovery using interventions.
problem Violation of faithfulness assumption in natural systems leads to incorrect causal structure identification.
method Use intervention-immediacy faithfulness assumption to identify causal structures with hard interventions.
result Interventions contain information about causal structure that can identify causal structures when faithfulness is violated.
Proposes TSCI method to infer causal effects with weak or invalid instruments using machine learning.
problem Causal inference with weak or invalid instrumental variables.
method Two-stage curvature identification (TSCI) using machine learning.
result Asymptotically unbiased and Gaussian estimator for causal effects.
This paper addresses the problem of formally verifying desirable properties of neural networks, i.e., obtaining provable guarantees that neural networks satisfy specifications relating their inputs and outputs (robustness to bounded norm adversarial perturbations, for example). Most previous work on this topic was limi…
New methods reduce constraint violations to certainty in stochastic optimization.
problem Finding a point with certain constraint satisfaction and near-stationarity.
method Single-loop variance-reduced stochastic first-order methods with truncated momentum schemes.
result Achieves strong convergence guarantees for ε-stochastic stationary points with certain constraint satisfaction. The paper addresses causal estimation for text data with apparent overlap violations.
problem Estimating causal effects from text data with unknown confounders and apparent overlap.
method Uses supervised representation learning to create a representation that preserves confounding information while eliminating predictive information, satisfying overlap assumptions.
result Shows how to obtain robust causal estimation in the presence of apparent overlap violations.
Paper introduces MVS to detect non-Markovian observations in reinforcement learning.
problem Real-world sensors violate Markov property, leading to suboptimal reinforcement learning performance.
method Uses prediction-based Markov Violation Score (MVS) combining random forest and ridge regression.
result MVS detects non-Markovian structure in observation trajectories, quantifying its impact.
The paper develops methods for time-varying constrained online convex optimization.
problem Time-varying loss and constraint functions in online convex optimization.
method Model-based augmented Lagrangian methods (MALM) for time-varying and delayed feedback.
result Sublinear regret and constraint violation for both time-varying and delayed feedback scenarios.
Taleb (2018) claimed a novel approach to evaluating the quality of probabilistic election forecasts via no-arbitrage pricing techniques and argued that popular forecasts of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election had violated arbitrage boundaries. We show that under mild assumptions all such political forecasts are arbitra…
Study tests if input gradients highlight discriminative features, finds they often fail.
problem Validity of assumption that input gradients highlight discriminative features in model predictions.
method Developed DiffROAR framework and BlockMNIST dataset to test assumption on four benchmarks.
result Input gradients of standard models often fail to highlight discriminative features, while robust models do.
TSCI estimates treatment effects using machine learning and data-adaptive methods for invalid instruments.
problem Estimating treatment effects with invalid instruments.
method Two-stage algorithm: first stage uses machine learning for nonlinearities, second stage selects and projects out instrument violations.
result Effective treatment effect estimation even with invalid instruments.
Causal discovery algorithms infer causal relations from data based on several assumptions, including notably the absence of measurement error. However, this assumption is most likely violated in practical applications, which may result in erroneous, irreproducible results. In this work we show how to obtain an upper bo…
CATR rationalizes text data to stabilize causal effect estimation.
problem Observational positivity violation in high-dimensional text data.
method Confounding-Aware Token Rationalization (CATR) selects necessary subset of tokens.
result CATR yields more accurate and stable causal effect estimates.
ARCH and GARCH models assume either i.i.d. or (what economists lable as) white noise as is usual in regression analysis while assuming memory in a conditional mean square fluctuation with stationary increments. We will show that ARCH/GARCH is inconsistent with uncorrelated increments, violating the i.i.d. and white ass…
CLOPS improves deep learning for continuous physiological data.
problem Deep learning struggles with streaming, multi-sensor clinical data.
method CLOPS is a replay-based continual learning strategy.
result CLOPS outperforms state-of-the-art methods in continual learning scenarios.
Proposes a weaker faithfulness assumption for causal discovery.
problem Violation of the faithfulness assumption in causal discovery.
method Proposes a new assumption called 2-adjacency faithfulness and a modified Grow and Shrink algorithm.
result Proves the correctness of the modified algorithm under weaker assumptions.
New method predicts aphasia severity with narrower uncertainty intervals.
problem Predicting aphasia severity in stroke patients using neuroimages.
method Sparse heteroscedastic Bayesian high-dimensional regression with H-PROBE algorithm.
result H-PROBE provides narrower prediction intervals for aphasia severity.
Deep-MIL models fail to respect key MIL assumption, leading to incorrect learning.
problem Deep-MIL models learn anti-correlated instances, violating the standard MIL assumption.
method Proposed algorithmic unit tests to identify violations of MIL assumptions.
result Five prominent deep-MIL models fail algorithmic unit tests, revealing incorrect learning.
Domain adaptation refers to the problem of leveraging labeled data in a source domain to learn an accurate model in a target domain where labels are scarce or unavailable. A recent approach for finding a common representation of the two domains is via domain adversarial training (Ganin & Lempitsky, 2015), which attempt…
Safe linear bandits over unknown polytopes avoid safety violations and suboptimal actions.
problem Online approach to linear programming with unknown constraints and risks.
method Doubly-optimistic strategy (DOSS) for safe linear bandits over polytopes.
result DOSS achieves tight bounds on efficacy regret and safety violations.
In a binary classification problem the feature vector (predictor) is the input to a scoring function that produces a decision value (score), which is compared to a particular chosen threshold to provide a final class prediction (output). Although the normal assumption of the scoring function is important in many applic…
Paper extends causal inference methods beyond unconfoundedness and overlap assumptions.
problem Treatment effect identification in studies violating unconfoundedness and overlap.
method Statistical learning theory approach to identify ATE and ATT.
result General conditions for identifying ATE and ATT, including scenarios like Regression Discontinuity designs.
RLHF performs well despite violating social choice theory axioms.
problem RLHF's empirical success contradicts social choice theory axioms.
method Showed RLHF satisfies pairwise majority and Condorcet consistency under mild assumptions, and introduced new alignment criteria.
result RLHF satisfies pairwise majority and Condorcet consistency under mild assumptions, explaining its practical success.
Bayesian methods detect significant IIA violations in similarity choice data.
problem Detecting IIA violations in similarity choice data complicates classical models.
method Proposed two statistical methods: classical goodness-of-fit test and Bayesian PPC.
result Significant IIA violations confirmed in both datasets, driven by context effects.
The paper analyzes how much data points can be altered to change their rank in nearest neighbor searches.
problem Vulnerability of nearest neighbor search in high-dimensional data.
method Statistical analysis of perturbation needed to change neighbor rank.
result Derived statistical distribution of perturbation needed to modify neighbor rank.
Researchers improve Gaussian processes to model inconsistent preferences.
problem Model inconsistent preferences and clusters of comparable items.
method Generalized Gaussian processes with spectral decomposition and universal RKHS.
result Competitive with state-of-the-art methods on simulated and real-world data.
This work investigates fundamental questions related to learning features in convolutional neural networks (CNN). Empirical findings across multiple architectures such as VGG, ResNet, Inception, DenseNet and MobileNet indicate that weights near the center of a filter are larger than weights on the outside. Current regu…