GFlowNet-EM learns complex latent variable models with discrete structures.
problem Challenges in modeling posteriors over discrete compositional latents with expectation-maximization.
method Uses GFlowNets to learn stochastic policies for sampling from complex posterior distributions.
result GFlowNet-EM enables training expressive LVMs with discrete compositional latents.
This text explores strategies for learning discrete latent structures in neural networks.
problem Learning discrete latent structures in neural networks is challenging.
method Continuous relaxation, surrogate gradients, and probabilistic estimation.
result Many latent structure learning strategies use the same fundamental building blocks but apply them differently.
PICLE uses probabilistic models to efficiently evaluate and compose modules for continual learning.
problem Challenging search space of module compositions in continual learning.
method Probabilistic framework to cheaply compute module compositions' fitness.
result First modular CL algorithm to achieve perceptual, few-shot, and latent transfer.
We assume that a high-dimensional datum, like an image, is a compositional expression of a set of properties, with a complicated non-linear relationship between the datum and its properties. This paper proposes a factorial mixture prior for capturing latent properties, thereby adding structured compositionality to deep…
CompVAE handles multi-ensemble data with compositional generative model.
problem Handling multi-ensemble data with control and generative models.
method Derived from Bayesian variational principles, CompVAE learns a latent representation leveraging observational and symbolic information.
result Supports compositional generative model enabling multi-ensemble operations.
New findings show disentangled latent representations are not enough for robust compositional generalization.
problem Deep learning models struggle with compositional generalization, especially in out-of-distribution samples.
method Investigated a 2D Gaussian generation task with fully disentangled inputs, then forced disentangled latent representations into full-dimensional output space.
result Forcing disentangled latent representations into full-dimensional output space enables robust compositional generalization.
Compositional structures between parts and objects are inherent in natural scenes. Modeling such compositional hierarchies via unsupervised learning can bring various benefits such as interpretability and transferability, which are important in many downstream tasks. In this paper, we propose the first deep latent vari…
Learning in the latent variable model is challenging in the presence of the complex data structure or the intractable latent variable. Previous variational autoencoders can be low effective due to the straightforward encoder-decoder structure. In this paper, we propose a variational composite autoencoder to sidestep th…
Optimizes natural frequencies of cellular composites with various microstructures.
problem Designing cellular composites with diverse microstructures for maximizing natural frequencies.
method Data-driven topology optimization with a latent-variable Gaussian process model.
result Cellular designs with multiclass microstructures achieve higher natural frequencies.
OCEAN infers online task identities from context variables.
problem Online task inference for compositional tasks with context adaptation.
method Variational inference framework OCEAN models global and local context variables in a joint latent space.
result OCEAN provides more effective task inference with sequential context adaptation.
New model identifies microbial subcommunities robustly, accounting for cross-sample heterogeneity.
problem Inference in LDA is sensitive to the number of subcommunities and often creates artificial ones.
method Incorporates logistic-tree normal (LTN) model into LDA to account for cross-sample heterogeneity.
result Restores robustness of inference and identifies meaningful subcommunities.
LADD models improve discrete diffusion for faster language generation.
problem Practical discrete diffusion models ignore cross-token dependencies, degrading performance.
method Introduces a learnable auxiliary latent channel, diffusing over the joint (token, latent) space.
result LADD models yield improvements on unconditional generation metrics.
A new model for time series using discrete latent states.
problem Efficiently modeling time series data with discrete latent states.
method A Markov chain-based model for training high-dimensional discrete latent data.
result Improved performance on time series datasets.
Proposes a VAE with a discrete bottleneck for better text generation.
problem VAEs struggle with latent variable auto-regressive decoding in text generation.
method Introduces a discretized bottleneck to enforce latent feature matching in a compact space.
result Demonstrates improved text generation capabilities across various tasks.
In this paper we provide a conceptual overview of latent variable models within a probabilistic modeling framework, an overview that emphasizes the compositional nature and the interconnectedness of the seemingly disparate models commonly encountered in statistical practice.
A new method for generative modeling of discrete data using geometric latent subspaces.
problem Learning generative models for discrete data with statistical dependencies.
method Geometric latent-subspace framework in exponential parameter space of product manifolds of categorical distributions.
result Low-dimensional latent space encodes statistical dependencies and accurately models high-dimensional discrete data.
Improved neural network model for predicting latent budgets in compositional data.
problem Predicting response variables in compositional data with non-negativity constraints.
method LBA-NN, a feed forward neural network model that incorporates K-means clustering for interpretation.
result LBA-NN outperforms traditional LBA in prediction accuracy, specificity, recall, and mean square error.
Generative models with both discrete and continuous latent variables are highly motivated by the structure of many real-world data sets. They present, however, subtleties in training often manifesting in the discrete latent being under leveraged. In this paper, we show that such models are more amenable to training whe…
Direct optimization of binary latent VAEs achieves competitive results without sampling.
problem Training VAEs with discrete latent variables using standard methods is challenging.
method Applied evolutionary algorithms to directly optimize discrete latent distributions.
result Direct optimization is efficient and competitive in zero-shot learning.
GLAD improves latent graph generation by quantizing discrete latent space.
problem Latent space graph generative models lack performance and make unnatural assumptions.
method Adapting diffusion bridges to a discrete latent space, avoiding data space decompositions.
result GLAD achieves competitive performance on graph benchmark datasets.
Improved hierarchical discrete VAEs for better stability and performance.
problem Training stable and efficient hierarchical discrete VAEs with numerous latent variables.
method Introducing Relaxed-Responsibility Vector-Quantisation to parameterise discrete latent variables in a hierarchical structure.
result Achieved state-of-the-art bits-per-dim results for various standard datasets.
CADD improves generative quality by augmenting discrete diffusion with continuous latent space.
problem Loss of semantic information between denoising steps in discrete diffusion models.
method Introduces a framework that augments discrete state space with a continuous latent space, allowing for graded, informative masked tokens.
result CADD improves generative quality across text generation, image synthesis, and code modeling.
CoSE models complex drawings by treating strokes as a collection that can be composed.
problem Modeling complex free-form structures like diagrams.
method Generative model using autoencoder to project strokes into a fixed latent space, relational model operates in latent space.
result Model captures both individual strokes and their compositional structure.
A new method reduces variance in training discrete latent variable models.
problem High variance in stochastic gradient estimators for discrete latent variable models.
method Double control variates for score function estimators using Taylor expansions.
result Our method can have lower variance compared to other estimators.
DCRL learns causal relationships from mixed-type discrete data.
problem Challenges in learning causal relationships from discrete, mixed-type data.
method Generative framework modeling directed acyclic graph and sparse bipartite graph, flexible measurement models for different types of data.
result Consistent recovery of latent causal structure from observed data distribution.
Deep Discrete Encoders (DDEs) tackle interpretable generative models for rich data with discrete latent layers.
problem Overparametrized, non-identifiable, and uninterpretable deep generative models in high-stakes applications.
method Directed graphical model with multiple binary latent layers, transparent identifiability conditions, scalable estimation pipeline.
result Transparent identifiability conditions and scalable estimation pipeline for interpretable DDEs.
New method for efficient marginalization of discrete latent variables in neural networks.
problem Computational challenges in training models with discrete latent variables.
method Parameterizing discrete distributions using sparse mappings (sparsemax and structured variants) to reduce support and enable efficient marginalization.
result Achieved good performance in various tasks with efficient and practical training.
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.
Proposes a non-parametric method for deep discrete latent variable models.
problem Learning sparse discrete latent representations in deep models.
method Iterative algorithm with Beta-Bernoulli process prior and local data scaling.
result Improves sparsity and scalability of deep discrete latent variable models.
Probabilistic models with discrete latent variables naturally capture datasets composed of discrete classes. However, they are difficult to train efficiently, since backpropagation through discrete variables is generally not possible. We present a novel method to train a class of probabilistic models with discrete late…
New estimators reduce variance in training variational autoencoders with discrete latent variables.
problem Training variational autoencoders with discrete latent variables requires efficient gradient estimation.
method Introduce ReinMax-Rao and ReinMax-CV estimators using Rao-Blackwellisation and control variates.
result Demonstrate superior performance on training variational autoencoders with discrete latent spaces.
We utilize a recently developed genetic algorithm, in conjunction with discrete wavelets, for carrying out successful forecasts of the trend in financial time series, that includes the NASDAQ composite index. Discrete wavelets isolate the local, small scale variations in these non-stationary time series, after which th…
New methods for predicting compositional data using conformal prediction.
problem No well-established methods for constructing valid prediction sets in compositional data.
method Investigated three conformal prediction-based approaches for Dirichlet regression models.
result HDR approximation approach is robust in terms of coverage, while grid discretization reduces overcoverage.
Novel algorithm solves optimal transport using evolving probability distributions and convolution.
problem Sample-based optimal transport problem.
method Adversarial formulation with convolution of adaptive kernel and evolving measure.
result Algorithm robust to dimensionality and produces complex maps.
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 develops efficient algorithm for probabilistic penetration response of composite plates.
problem Probabilistic modeling of discrete structural response, focusing on binary events like buckling.
method Adaptive domain-based decomposition, sparse grid sampling, assumption of monotonic behavior.
result Efficient computational framework for probabilistic penetration response of composite plates.
New spectral clustering method handles discrete covariates for better community detection.
problem Community detection in networks with discrete covariates.
method Spectral algorithm that separates latent network structure from observed covariates.
result Achieves perfect clustering with high probability in large, sparse networks.
New JSA autoencoders tackle discrete latent variable models for semi-supervised learning.
problem Handling discrete observations and latent codes in deep generative models.
method Joint-stochastic-approximation (JSA) autoencoders that directly maximize data log-likelihood and minimize KL divergence.
result JSA autoencoders achieve comparable performance to continuous latent space models in semi-supervised tasks.
Training of discrete latent variable models remains challenging because passing gradient information through discrete units is difficult. We propose a new class of smoothing transformations based on a mixture of two overlapping distributions, and show that the proposed transformation can be used for training binary lat…
Latent variable models are used to estimate variables of interest quantities which are observable only up to some measurement error. In many studies, such variables are known but not precisely quantifiable (such as "job satisfaction" in social sciences and marketing, "analytical ability" in educational testing, or "inf…
In this work we present Discrete Attend Infer Repeat (Discrete-AIR), a Recurrent Auto-Encoder with structured latent distributions containing discrete categorical distributions, continuous attribute distributions, and factorised spatial attention. While inspired by the original AIR model andretaining AIR model's capabi…
Framework estimates multiple plausible solutions with uncertainty measures.
problem Machine learning models need to propose multiple plausible solutions with meaningful uncertainty.
method Discrete latent variables model one-to-many mappings, allowing effective conditional probability estimation.
result Framework outperforms state-of-the-art in uncertainty estimation and is practical.
New method learns disentangled discrete representations using categorical variational autoencoders.
problem Learning disentangled representations from discrete latent spaces.
method Replaced standard Gaussian VAE with a categorical VAE to mitigate rotational invariance.
result Categorical distributions improve learning of disentangled representations.
We introduce Compositional Imitation Learning and Execution (CompILE): a framework for learning reusable, variable-length segments of hierarchically-structured behavior from demonstration data. CompILE uses a novel unsupervised, fully-differentiable sequence segmentation module to learn latent encodings of sequential d…
We present a framework for learning disentangled and interpretable jointly continuous and discrete representations in an unsupervised manner. By augmenting the continuous latent distribution of variational autoencoders with a relaxed discrete distribution and controlling the amount of information encoded in each latent…
Transformers learn to generalize unseen tasks by composing self-attention layers.
problem How Transformers generalize to unseen, out-of-distribution tasks.
method Examined synthetic examples and pretrained LLMs, focusing on induction heads and latent subspace.
result Transformers can learn hidden rules for unseen tasks by composing self-attention layers, achieving OOD generalization.
Path regularization improves GFlowNets exploration and generalization.
problem Improving GFlowNets exploration and generalization.
method Path regularization based on optimal transport theory.
result Path regularization enhances GFlowNets to generate more diverse and novel candidates.
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can produce images of remarkable complexity and realism but are generally structured to sample from a single latent source ignoring the explicit spatial interaction between multiple entities that could be present in a scene. Capturing such complex interactions between different ob…