TM-VI uses flexible transformation models to approximate complex posteriors in Bayesian models.
problem Approximating complex posteriors in Bayesian models with limited flexibility.
method Transformation models for variational inference (TM-VI).
result TM-VI allows accurate approximation of complex posteriors in models with one parameter and works in a mean-field fashion for multi-parameter models.
Flexible VAEs using FIFs improve model likelihood on image datasets.
problem Limitations of diagonal Gaussian posteriors in VAEs.
method Regularized Free-form Injective Flow (FIF) for flexible posterior.
result Full covariance VAEs outperform diagonal Gaussian posteriors.
Variational auto-encoders (VAE) are scalable and powerful generative models. However, the choice of the variational posterior determines tractability and flexibility of the VAE. Commonly, latent variables are modeled using the normal distribution with a diagonal covariance matrix. This results in computational efficien…
Variational Bayesian neural networks combine the flexibility of deep learning with Bayesian uncertainty estimation. However, inference procedures for flexible variational posteriors are computationally expensive. A recently proposed method, noisy natural gradient, is a surprisingly simple method to fit expressive poste…
Variational inference relies on flexible approximate posterior distributions. Normalizing flows provide a general recipe to construct flexible variational posteriors. We introduce Sylvester normalizing flows, which can be seen as a generalization of planar flows. Sylvester normalizing flows remove the well-known single…
Variational autoencoders often collapse, showing latent variables are non-identifiable.
problem Posterior collapse in variational autoencoders due to non-identifiable latent variables.
method Proves latent variable non-identifiability causes posterior collapse. Proposes latent-identifiable models using Brenier maps and input convex neural networks.
result Latent-identifiable models resolve posterior collapse and provide meaningful representations.
BF-VI improves posterior approximation in complex models.
problem Inefficient posterior approximations in complex models.
method Combines normalizing flows and Bernstein polynomial transformations.
result BF-VI outperforms other VI methods in approximating complex multivariate posteriors.
New framework quantifies uncertainty in flexible density-based clustering.
problem Uncertainty quantification in clustering with non-parametric density estimation.
method Martingale posterior distributions and density-based clustering.
result Efficient GPU-compatible inference on clustering structures with uncertainty.
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.
Variational autoencoder is a powerful deep generative model with variational inference. The practice of modeling latent variables in the VAE's original formulation as normal distributions with a diagonal covariance matrix limits the flexibility to match the true posterior distribution. We propose a new transformation, …
FTIP uses normalizing flows to improve posterior inference in function space.
problem Challenges in posterior inference with implicit-process priors.
method FTIP uses normalizing flows to define a richer variational distribution over combination weights.
result FTIP captures asymmetric and multimodal posterior structure better than Gaussian coefficient approximations.
Adapts VAEs for Bayesian inverse problems, quantifying uncertainty.
problem Bayesian inverse problems in scientific simulations.
method UQ-VAE: hybrid framework combining divergence-based variational inference and adjustable hyperparameters.
result Flexible, adaptive training of neural networks for posterior distribution.
Generative ParVI learns flexible sampling from posterior distributions.
problem Avoiding arbitrary parametric assumptions in variational inference.
method Neural sampler trained with functional gradient of KL-divergence.
result GPVI outperforms previous generative ParVI methods and is competitive with other approaches.
We introduce a new approach to learning in hierarchical latent-variable generative models called the "distributed distributional code Helmholtz machine", which emphasises flexibility and accuracy in the inferential process. In common with the original Helmholtz machine and later variational autoencoder algorithms (but …
Flexible Bayesian approach for generalized linear models, especially for sparse logistic regression.
problem Sparse logistic regression challenges in machine learning.
method Empirical Bayes approach with mean-field variational inference, tuning-free and scalable.
result Superior predictive performance in sparse logistic regression compared to existing methods.
We utilize copulas to constitute a unified framework for constructing and optimizing variational proposals in hierarchical Bayesian models. For models with continuous and non-Gaussian hidden variables, we propose a semiparametric and automated variational Gaussian copula approach, in which the parametric Gaussian copul…
How can one perform Bayesian inference on stochastic simulators with intractable likelihoods? A recent approach is to learn the posterior from adaptively proposed simulations using neural network-based conditional density estimators. However, existing methods are limited to a narrow range of proposal distributions or r…
A scalable framework uses Langevin sampling to approximate neural network models of evolving processes.
problem Uncertainty quantification in neural network models of dynamic systems.
method Flexible data model based on NODE, joint learning of data model and posterior parameters, Langevin sampling.
result Demonstrated performance on chemical reaction and material physics data, compared favorably to variational inference.
We use neural networks to estimate complex model posteriors efficiently.
problem Intractable likelihood functions in complex models.
method Train a neural network to map data to posterior distributions of model parameters.
result Our method converges to true posteriors in Kullback-Leibler divergence.
SNVI combines likelihood estimation with variational inference for efficient Bayesian inference.
problem Bayesian inference in models with intractable likelihoods.
method Sequential Neural Variational Inference (SNVI) that combines likelihood-estimation with variational inference.
result SNVI is more computationally efficient than previous algorithms without sacrificing accuracy.
Flexible empirical Bayes for large-scale multiple linear regression.
problem Large-scale multiple linear regression with flexible priors and efficient computation.
method Adaptive shrinkage priors combined with variational approximations for hyperparameter estimation.
result The posterior mean from the empirical Bayes method solves a penalized regression problem.
New algorithm improves inference for flexible models with infinite latent features.
problem Inference for models with infinite latent features is computationally challenging and limiting.
method Adaptive slice sampling for posterior inference with general completely random measures.
result Higher effective sample size and predictive performance compared to existing methods.
Variational methods that rely on a recognition network to approximate the posterior of directed graphical models offer better inference and learning than previous methods. Recent advances that exploit the capacity and flexibility in this approach have expanded what kinds of models can be trained. However, as a proposal…
Variational inference (VI) provides fast approximations of a Bayesian posterior in part because it formulates posterior approximation as an optimization problem: to find the closest distribution to the exact posterior over some family of distributions. For practical reasons, the family of distributions in VI is usually…
Recent progress in variational inference has paid much attention to the flexibility of variational posteriors. One promising direction is to use implicit distributions, i.e., distributions without tractable densities as the variational posterior. However, existing methods on implicit posteriors still face challenges of…
Many recent advances in large scale probabilistic inference rely on variational methods. The success of variational approaches depends on (i) formulating a flexible parametric family of distributions, and (ii) optimizing the parameters to find the member of this family that most closely approximates the exact posterior…
A new method for deep Wishart processes improves kernel-based models.
problem Inference in deep Wishart processes is challenging due to the need for flexible distributions over positive semi-definite matrices.
method Developed a novel approach to flexible distributions over positive semi-definite matrices using the Bartlett decomposition of the Wishart probability density. Used this to create an approximate posterior for the DWP.
result Improved performance of inference in the DWP compared to DGP with equivalent prior.
This paper introduces a spline-based method for nonparametric ADVI that handles complex posterior distributions.
problem Learning complex posterior distributions with skewness, multimodality, and bounded support.
method Develops a spline-based nonparametric approximation approach for ADVI.
result Establishes the asymptotic consistency of the derived lower bound for importance weighted autoencoder.
BI-EqNO improves Bayesian inference with flexible neural operators.
problem Inaccurate estimation of marginal likelihoods in approximate Bayesian methods.
method Equivariant neural operator framework for generalized approximate Bayesian inference.
result BI-EqNO enhances both deterministic and stochastic approaches to Bayesian inference.
PMM uses Bayesian inference to generate data from noisy approximations.
problem Creating flexible generative models for various data types.
method Bayesian inference and conjugate pairs of distributions.
result PMM achieves performance competitive with existing generative models.
The choice of approximate posterior distribution is one of the core problems in variational inference. Most applications of variational inference employ simple families of posterior approximations in order to allow for efficient inference, focusing on mean-field or other simple structured approximations. This restricti…
Enhances predictive performance in Bayesian deep learning via generalized Laplace approximation.
problem Inconsistency in Bayesian deep learning.
method Interprets posterior tempering as a correction for model misspecification and recalibration of priors. Introduces generalized Laplace approximation.
result Generalized Laplace approximation enhances predictive performance.
A new method improves posterior approximation for complex distributions.
problem Difficulty in capturing multimodal and heavy-tailed posteriors with standard normalizing flows.
method StiCTAF: stick-breaking mixture base with component-wise tail adaptation.
result Improved tail recovery and better mode coverage compared to benchmarks.
New method uses kernel Stein discrepancy for measure transport without strict continuity constraints.
problem Minimizing Kullback-Leibler divergence for posterior approximation.
method Proposes minimizing kernel Stein discrepancy instead of Kullback-Leibler divergence.
result Demonstrates consistency and competitiveness of the new method.
Proposes MIVI for efficient posterior estimation and design of MCMC transitions.
problem Efficiently estimating posterior distributions in constrained time.
method Combines variational inference and MCMC with a variational distribution and optimized Markov chain.
result Optimized Markov chain improves variational distribution and vice versa, leading to more accurate posteriors.
The variational autoencoder (VAE; Kingma, Welling (2014)) is a recently proposed generative model pairing a top-down generative network with a bottom-up recognition network which approximates posterior inference. It typically makes strong assumptions about posterior inference, for instance that the posterior distributi…
We propose a vector-valued regression problem whose solution is equivalent to the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) embedding of the Bayesian posterior distribution. This equivalence provides a new understanding of kernel Bayesian inference. Moreover, the optimization problem induces a new regularization for the …
Latent force models are systems whereby there is a mechanistic model describing the dynamics of the system state, with some unknown forcing term that is approximated with a Gaussian process. If such dynamics are non-linear, it can be difficult to estimate the posterior state and forcing term jointly, particularly when …
CIFs improve VI by providing flexible posteriors for complex topologies.
problem Complex posterior distributions in VI problems.
method Using CIFs as part of an auxiliary VI scheme, exploiting conditional independence.
result CIFs yield low-variance estimators of model evidence and improve VI results.
Paper bridges VAEs and KDEs for more flexible posterior estimation.
problem Limitations of Gaussian latent space in VAEs and challenges in KL-divergence estimation.
method Approximate posterior with KDEs and derive upper bound of KL-divergence in ELBO.
result Epanechnikov kernel minimizes KL-divergence upper bound asymptotically.
Deep latent variable models (LVM) such as variational auto-encoder (VAE) have recently played an important role in text generation. One key factor is the exploitation of smooth latent structures to guide the generation. However, the representation power of VAEs is limited due to two reasons: (1) the Gaussian assumption…
We develop a scalable method for Bayesian neural networks with stochastic differential equations.
problem Uncertainty quantification in deep neural networks.
method Gradient-based stochastic variational inference in continuous-depth Bayesian neural networks.
result Gradient estimator with zero variance as the approximation improves.
Study on optimal information acquisition in Kyle model with entropy cost.
problem Optimal information acquisition in Kyle model with entropy cost.
method Continuous signals are optimal, and any signal with a logit posterior distribution yields the same ex-ante value.
result Posterior expected payoff becomes normally distributed as information acquisition cost increases.
DDVI uses diffusion models for variational inference, improving latent variable model performance.
problem Improving variational inference in latent variable models.
method Introduces diffusion-based variational posteriors trained with a regularized ELBO.
result Outperforms alternative variational posteriors on various benchmarks and a biology task.
The paper provides theoretical guarantees for transformation-based models in variational inference.
problem Theoretical justification for transformation-based models in variational inference.
method Theoretical analysis of non-linear latent variable models and Gaussian process priors.
result Theoretical guarantees for implicit variational inference, achieving optimal risk bounds and approximating the true posterior.
Bayesian models combine experts with a flexible gating mechanism for complex data.
problem Theoretical properties of Bayesian mixture-of-experts models with softmax gating remain unexplored.
method Investigated asymptotic behavior of posterior distribution for density estimation, parameter estimation, and model selection.
result Established posterior contraction rates for density estimation and parameter estimation, providing insights for practical model design.
In this paper we propose a model with a Dirichlet process mixture of gamma densities in the bulk part below threshold and a generalized Pareto density in the tail for extreme value estimation. The proposed model is simple and flexible allowing us posterior density estimation and posterior inference for high quantiles. …
A new method improves Bayesian inference for multimodal posteriors.
problem Insensitivity to well-separated modes in multimodal posteriors.
method Weighted Kernel Stein Discrepancy method.
result Significantly improved mode sensitivity compared to standard KSD-Bayes.