Algorithm identifies best arm with biased proxy and selective ground truth audits.
problem Fixed-confidence best-arm identification with biased proxy and selective ground truth.
method Propensity-weighted estimator and adaptive auditing algorithm.
result Plug-in Neyman rule achieves near-oracle audit efficiency.
Estimates proxy-based inference adjustments for distribution shifts.
problem Imperfect proxy data leads to biased inference.
method Empirical calibration of proxy-primary metric discrepancy as a random effect.
result Empowers inference without individual-level response data.
Develops methods to improve demand counterfactuals from imperfect proxies.
problem Imperfect proxies in demand models lead to biased counterfactuals and invalid inference.
method Practical toolkit for market-level and individual data, requiring minimal computation.
result Improves substitution prediction and counterfactual performance.
Study data biases to predict algorithmic discrimination, developing a Data Bias Profile.
problem Data biases contribute to algorithmic discrimination, but their impact is understudied.
method Analyzed three common data biases across various datasets and models, developing a Data Bias Profile.
result Combination of proxies and label bias can lead to more significant discrimination than underrepresentation alone.
Study accelerates NAS research with a large dataset of ZC proxies.
problem Speeding up neural architecture search with ZC proxies.
method Created NAS-Bench-Suite, evaluated 13 ZC proxies across 28 tasks, and provided a unified codebase.
result ZC proxies capture substantial complementary information and can improve NAS algorithm performance.
Algorithm reduces audit costs by identifying best service configurations from biased textual evidence.
problem Designing service systems from textual evidence requires accurate selection despite biased automated scoring.
method Developed PP-LUCB algorithm combining LLM scores and selective audits to minimize costs.
result Correctly identified the best model in 40/40 trials with 90% cost reduction.
FairJob dataset for job recommendations in advertising, preserving fairness and utility.
problem Fairness in online job recommendations for advertising.
method Anonymized dataset with proxy for sensitive attributes, fairness metric computation.
result Demonstrated potential improvements in fairness with trade-offs in utility.
Fair Adversarial Networks remove bias from data.
problem Bias in datasets leads to biased outcomes, making analysis illegal and sub-optimal.
method Remove bias from data by altering all proxy variables, ensuring fairness without changing analytical pipelines.
result Fair Adversarial Networks effectively remove bias from data.
When quantitative models are used to support decision-making on complex and important topics, understanding a model's ``reasoning'' can increase trust in its predictions, expose hidden biases, or reduce vulnerability to adversarial attacks. However, the concept of interpretability remains loosely defined and applicatio…
ML models predict water table depth more accurately than PB models, especially in data-scarce regions.
problem Uncertainty in large-scale simulations of water table depth due to biased observational data and model flexibility.
method Constructed three ML models using XGBoost and over 20 million real and proxy observations across the US and Canada.
result ML models correlate 0.6-0.75 with real and proxy observations, significantly better than PB models (0.21-0.40).
New method mitigates bias without sensitive data using causal graph and variational autoencoder.
problem Lack of fairness strategies when sensitive attributes are not collected.
method SRCVAE framework based on causal graph for inferring a proxy sensitive attribute.
result Significant improvements in fairness metrics over existing methods.
Survey on biases in image analysis for industrial safety.
problem Bias in machine learning algorithms affects industrial safety-critical applications.
method Survey and analysis of recent advances in bias detection and mitigation.
result Need for new methods to detect and mitigate biases in image analysis for safety-critical applications.
Measures of implied volatility roughness corrected for bias.
problem Bias in measuring implied volatility roughness.
method Examined implied volatility of short-term options and VIX index, corrected for bias.
result Corrected measures indicate appropriate proxies for underlying volatility.
Bayesian optimization for long-term outcomes using fast and slow experiments.
problem Optimizing long-term system effects with short-term misleading results.
method Combining fast and slow experiments for Bayesian optimization.
result Sequential optimization over large action spaces in a short time.
Gemini uses inexpensive measurements to correct biases in expensive property evaluations.
problem Accurate estimation of materials properties using expensive measurements is hindered in scientific discovery campaigns.
method Gemini is a data-driven model that corrects systematic biases between property evaluation methods using inexpensive measurements.
result Gemini reduces the number of expensive evaluations needed for Bayesian optimization in materials discovery.
A new method for discrete data normalizing flows using latent transformations.
problem Challenges in parameterizing bijective transformations for discrete data.
method Predict a distribution over latent transformations to make the marginal likelihood differentiable.
result Discrete-data normalizing flows can be trained using gradient-based learning with unbiased score function estimation.
Study shows noisy data collection in ImageNet leads to biased model performance.
problem Noisy data collection in ImageNet datasets causes biased model performance.
method Human studies on ImageNet dataset to investigate design choices and their impact.
result Systematic misalignment between ImageNet benchmark and real-world task.
Study replicates reference-dependent preferences impact on risk-return trade-off in Chinese stock market.
problem Impact of reference-dependent preferences on risk-return trade-off in Chinese stock market.
method Utilized CGO proxy, econometric techniques (Dependent Double Sorting, Fama-MacBeth regressions), and data from 1995-2024.
result Reference-dependent preferences have a weaker or absent positive risk-return relationship in the Chinese market.
Proposes a new selective regression method using conformal prediction.
problem The need for models to abstain from predictions in cases of uncertainty.
method Leverages conformal prediction to provide grounded confidence measures for individual predictions based on model-specific biases.
result Demonstrates an advantage over state-of-the-art baselines in selective regression.
Assessing the fairness of a decision making system with respect to a protected class, such as gender or race, is challenging when class membership labels are unavailable. Probabilistic models for predicting the protected class based on observable proxies, such as surname and geolocation for race, are sometimes used to …
A new framework improves VaR recalibration by balancing reliance on imperfect volatility proxies.
problem How to balance reliance on imperfect volatility proxies in one-sided VaR recalibration.
method Proxy-reliance control framework that interpolates between constant-shift and proxy-scaled corrections.
result Lower or intermediate proxy reliance can outperform fully proxy-scaled recalibration in stressed left-tail VaR control.
PPAT uses predictions to improve risk estimation in active testing.
problem Exploiting informative predictions from black-box models for efficient risk estimation.
method Combines LURE estimator with prediction-powered control variate.
result PPAT outperforms existing methods in risk estimation and uncertainty quantification.
Paper proposes using unlabeled data for fair decision-making.
problem Bias in decision-making algorithms due to biased labels and selective labeling.
method Variational autoencoder for learning unbiased data representations from both labeled and unlabeled data.
result Method learns fair and stable decision policies with high utility.
Unified framework for analyzing neural networks trained by gradient descent.
problem Lack of generalizable guarantees for neural networks trained by gradient descent.
method Proxy convexity and proxy Polyak-Lojasiewicz inequalities.
result Unified guarantees for neural networks trained by gradient descent.
Embodied cognition states that semantics is encoded in the brain as firing patterns of neural circuits, which are learned according to the statistical structure of human multimodal experience. However, each human brain is idiosyncratically biased, according to its subjective experience history, making this biological s…
When predictive models are used to support complex and important decisions, the ability to explain a model's reasoning can increase trust, expose hidden biases, and reduce vulnerability to adversarial attacks. However, attempts at interpreting models are often ad hoc and application-specific, and the concept of interpr…
Dropout is a simple but effective technique for learning in neural networks and other settings. A sound theoretical understanding of dropout is needed to determine when dropout should be applied and how to use it most effectively. In this paper we continue the exploration of dropout as a regularizer pioneered by Wager,…
Study semi-supervised learning with noisy proxy covariates, deriving bounds and showing gains.
problem Learning from noisy proxy covariates with scarce labels.
method Two-stage estimator learning kernel eigenfeatures from all proxy covariates and fitting a ridge predictor on labeled data.
result Finite sample bounds show fast labeled sample rates and consistent gains over supervised and semi-supervised baselines.
DFPV improves PCL for confounded bandit policy evaluation.
problem Estimating causal effects in confounded settings with high-dimensional data.
method Deep feature proxy variable method (DFPV) for high-dimensional, nonlinear relationships.
result DFPV outperforms state-of-the-art methods on synthetic benchmarks and confounded bandit problems.
New technique reduces bias in DNN models without sensitive attribute annotations.
problem Existing bias mitigation methods require instance-level annotations and do not guarantee removal of all sensitive information.
method Representation Neutralization for Fairness (RNF) debiases only the classification head of DNN models using neutralized representations.
result RNF effectively reduces discrimination of DNN models with minimal performance degradation.
A framework uses proxies to prioritize treatment without estimating causal effects.
problem Prioritizing treatment when causal effects are hard to estimate.
method Decision-focused framework identifying conditions for proxy usefulness.
result Proxies can recover correct effect ordering under specific conditions.
New method recovers latent confounders from high-dimensional proxy variables.
problem Detecting latent confounders from high-dimensional proxy variables.
method Proxy Confounder Factorization (PCF) framework using ICA-PCF and GD-PCF.
result ICA-PCF recovers confounders with high correlation and low error in synthetic and real-world data.
Single proxy variable helps estimate causal effects from confounders.
problem Estimating causal effects from treatment to outcome when unobserved confounders are present.
method Assumes a single, potentially multi-dimensional proxy variable of the unobserved confounder and a known mechanism generating the proxy from the confounder. Proves causal effects are identifiable under completeness assumption.
result Causal effects are identifiable under SPICE assumption.
A scalable method for deep metric learning using chance constraints.
problem Improving deep metric learning by addressing feasibility issues.
method Relating DML to chance constraints, reformulating as a feasibility problem, and iteratively training proxies.
result The method effectively improves deep metric learning performance across multiple benchmarks.
New method handles many noisy proxy controls for causal inference.
problem Causal inference with many noisy proxy controls and unknown confounders.
method Linear models with rank-restricted and sparse nuisance parameters, penalization methods.
result Estimators achieve better performance in high dimensions, especially with many proxies.
DD algorithm tracks test error from train error without validation data.
problem Systematic generalization gap between train and test errors in modern model training.
method Decoupled descent (DD) algorithm that cancels data reuse biases via approximate message passing.
result DD algorithm rigorously demonstrates zero-cost validation and 100% data utilization.
Predicting delayed outcomes is an important problem in recommender systems (e.g., if customers will finish reading an ebook). We formalize the problem as an adversarial, delayed online learning problem and consider how a proxy for the delayed outcome (e.g., if customers read a third of the book in 24 hours) can help mi…
The increasing impact of algorithmic decisions on people's lives compels us to scrutinize their fairness and, in particular, the disparate impacts that ostensibly-color-blind algorithms can have on different groups. Examples include credit decisioning, hiring, advertising, criminal justice, personalized medicine, and t…
Softmax confidence misrepresents uncertainty in neural networks.
problem Neural networks fail to increase uncertainty on out-of-distribution data.
method Investigates two implicit biases in softmax confidence.
result Softmax confidence correlates with epistemic uncertainty due to decision boundary structure and deep network filtering.
A machine learning model may exhibit discrimination when used to make decisions involving people. One potential cause for such outcomes is that the model uses a statistical proxy for a protected demographic attribute. In this paper we formulate a definition of proxy use for the setting of linear regression and present …
New conditions show proxy data can improve policy learning in sparse expert data contexts.
problem Improving sample complexity of policy learning with sparse expert data.
method Sufficient conditions for proxy data to improve sample complexity, adaptable to LLMs.
result Provable improvement in sample complexity for policy learning with proxy data.
A new probabilistic approach improves deep metric learning by considering image uncertainties and class-specific variances.
problem Proxy-based deep metric learning struggles with image uncertainties and class-specific structures.
method Introduces non-isotropic probabilistic proxy-based deep metric learning using directional von Mises-Fisher distributions.
result Improves generalization performance and competitive on standard benchmarks.
Proposes a method to create robust linear models with noisy proxies of unobserved variables.
problem Learning robust linear models to handle interventions on unobserved variables with noisy proxies.
method Regularization term that balances in-distribution performance and robustness to interventions.
result Single proxy can create prediction optimal estimators under interventions of bounded strength.
One of the biggest bottlenecks in a machine learning workflow is waiting for models to train. Depending on the available computing resources, it can take days to weeks to train a neural network on a large dataset with many classes such as ImageNet. For researchers experimenting with new algorithmic approaches, this is …
Bayesian method estimates causal effects with proxy networks.
problem Estimating causal effects with only proxy measurements of a latent interference network.
method Structural causal model with Block Gibbs sampler and Locally Informed Proposals.
result Accurately estimates causal effects even with noisy proxy networks.
Kernel methods estimate causal effects with a single proxy for deterministic confounders.
problem Estimating causal effects with a single proxy for an unobserved confounder.
method Two kernel-based methods: two-stage regression and maximum moment restriction.
result Both kernel methods can consistently estimate the causal effect.
Study shows how adjusting for a binary proxy can bound causal effects.
problem Bounding causal effects with a binary confounder and proxy.
method Monotonicity assumption applied to a binary confounder and observed proxy.
result Adjusting for a proxy produces a measure of the effect between unadjusted and true measures.
New framework for choosing optimal proxy metrics from past experiments.
problem Difficult to measure long-term treatment effects in experiments.
method Statistical framework to define and construct optimal proxy metrics.
result Optimal proxy metric depends on experiment's sample size.