Natural-gradient methods enable fast and simple algorithms for variational inference, but due to computational difficulties, their use is mostly limited to \emph{minimal} exponential-family (EF) approximations. In this paper, we extend their application to estimate \emph{structured} approximations such as mixtures of E…
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48 results for “gradient approximations”
Stochastic gradient descent on manifolds improves low-rank approximation.
problem Efficiently approximate large matrices with lower rank.
method Stochastic gradient descent on a manifold.
result Algorithm outperforms Euclidean space methods on Netflix Prize data.
Paper explores Fisher-Rao gradient flows and their kernel approximations.
problem Understanding and analyzing approximations of Fisher-Rao gradient flows.
method Rigorous investigation of Fisher-Rao and Wasserstein type gradient flows, focusing on kernel approximations.
result Proves evolutionary Γ-convergence for kernel-approximated Fisher-Rao flows, providing theoretical guarantees.
Gradient coding is a technique for straggler mitigation in distributed learning. In this paper we design novel gradient codes using tools from classical coding theory, namely, cyclic MDS codes, which compare favorably with existing solutions, both in the applicable range of parameters and in the complexity of the invol…
New method controls gradient error for sparse MRFs.
problem Efficient learning for sparse discrete MRFs with NP-hard inference.
method Stochastic proximal gradient (SPG) with controlled gradient approximation error.
result Novel bounds control gradient approximation quality.
Gradient descent trains shallow neural networks to approximate functions in 1D.
problem Approximating functions in 1D with shallow neural networks trained by gradient descent.
method Gradient descent optimization of non-convex weight space for finite width networks in 1D.
result Gradient descent can approximate functions in 1D with a minimal number of weights, balancing practical performance and theoretical capabilities.
Optimal neural network approximation for Wasserstein gradient direction via convex optimization.
problem Approximating Wasserstein gradient direction with limited data.
method Two-layer networks with squared-ReLU activations, SDP relaxation.
result Optimal approximation of Wasserstein gradient direction in two-layer networks.
Policy gradient methods with aggregated states can achieve better performance than approximate policy iteration.
problem Approximation errors in policy and value function approximations.
method State-aggregated representations and policy gradient methods.
result Policy gradient methods can achieve a per-period regret bounded by ε, while approximate policy iteration and value iteration have a higher regret.
AR-DAE approximates entropy gradient for machine learning models.
problem Intractable computation of entropy gradient for continuous distributions.
method Amortized residual denoising autoencoder (AR-DAE) to approximate entropy gradient.
result AR-DAE provides an unbiased gradient approximation for entropy.
Paper introduces a new multi-kernel algorithm for better gradient approximation.
problem Improving gradient approximation in high-dimensional problems.
method Develops a multi-kernel passive stochastic gradient algorithm with variance reduction.
result The multi-kernel algorithm performs better in high-dimensional problems.
The paper provides approximation guarantees for neural networks trained with gradient flow.
problem Approximating neural networks trained with gradient flow in continuous -norm.
method NTK argument for non-convex second but last layer, under-parametrized regime.
result Gradient flow convergence guarantees for neural networks under Sobolev smoothness assumptions.
Analytical method approximates ELBO gradient in clutter problem.
problem Clutter problem in Bayesian networks with Gaussian likelihood.
method Reparameterization trick, local approximation of likelihood factors.
result Good accuracy and linear computational complexity compared to classical methods.
AOPU stabilizes NN training by approximating natural gradient, improving stability and convergence.
problem Stability and interpretability in online NN training for industrial soft sensors.
method AOPU truncates gradient backpropagation, optimizing trackable parameters, and approximating natural gradient.
result AOPU achieves stable convergence and superior performance on chemical process datasets.
Rank-1 Approximation of Inverse Fisher for Natural Policy Gradients in Deep Reinforcement Learningcs.LG
Paper presents a rank-1 approximation method for natural policy gradients in deep RL.
problem Computing natural gradients requires inverting the Fisher Information Matrix, which is computationally expensive.
method Develops a rank-1 approximation to the inverse Fisher Information Matrix for efficient natural policy optimization.
result The rank-1 approximation converges faster and has similar sample complexity to stochastic policy gradient methods.
Riemannian stochastic gradient descent approximates a diffusion process called Riemannian stochastic modified flow.
problem Improving convergence rate of Riemannian stochastic gradient descent.
method Using stochastic differential geometry, the paper shows RSGD can be approximated by the Riemannian stochastic modified flow (RSMF).
result RSGD can be approximated by the solution to the RSMF driven by an infinite-dimensional Wiener process, increasing the order of approximation.
We present ErasureHead, a new approach for distributed gradient descent (GD) that mitigates system delays by employing approximate gradient coding. Gradient coded distributed GD uses redundancy to exactly recover the gradient at each iteration from a subset of compute nodes. ErasureHead instead uses approximate gradien…
Variational inference approximates the posterior distribution of a probabilistic model with a parameterized density by maximizing a lower bound for the model evidence. Modern solutions fit a flexible approximation with stochastic gradient descent, using Monte Carlo approximation for the gradients. This enables variatio…
Stochastic gradient descent optimizes Nyström samples for kernel matrix approximation.
problem Optimizing Nyström samples for kernel matrix approximation.
method Stochastic gradient descent applied to multisets of landmark points (Nyström samples) using a surrogate criterion (radial SKD).
result Local minimization of the radial SKD yields improved Nyström approximation accuracy.
Stochastic approximation algorithms show exponential progress bounds.
problem Analyzing the convergence of stochastic approximation algorithms.
method Developed geometric ergodicity proofs to establish exponential concentration bounds.
result Proved faster convergence rates for specific algorithms.
Distributed implementations of gradient-based methods, wherein a server distributes gradient computations across worker machines, suffer from slow running machines, called 'stragglers'. Gradient coding is a coding-theoretic framework to mitigate stragglers by enabling the server to recover the gradient sum in the prese…
We develop the mathematical foundations of the stochastic modified equations (SME) framework for analyzing the dynamics of stochastic gradient algorithms, where the latter is approximated by a class of stochastic differential equations with small noise parameters. We prove that this approximation can be understood math…
We propose Kernel Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (KMC), a gradient-free adaptive MCMC algorithm based on Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC). On target densities where classical HMC is not an option due to intractable gradients, KMC adaptively learns the target's gradient structure by fitting an exponential family model in a Reprod…
New gradient coding schemes reduce decoding error in both random and adversarial straggler settings.
problem Creating efficient approximate gradient coding schemes for distributed optimization.
method Introduced novel approximate gradient codes based on expander graphs, achieving optimal decoding coefficients.
result Achieved nearly optimal error in random setting and nearly half the error in adversarial setting compared to existing codes.
Paper approximates risk measures using SGD with Langevin dynamics.
problem Approximating arbitrary law invariant risk measures.
method Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (SGD-Langevin) for general risk measures.
result Non-asymptotic convergence rates of the approximation algorithm.
Fine-grained analysis of gradient descent with momentum provides modified loss equations.
problem Understanding the dynamics of gradient descent with momentum.
method Fine-grained analysis and derivation of modified loss equations.
result Global approximation bounds and continuous modified equations for HB.
Adapting functional gradients improves FGD's practicality and theoretical guarantees.
problem Implementing FGD in practice due to infinite-dimensional functional gradients.
method Adapting the representation of functional gradients.
result Establishes convergence to a stationary point for smooth losses and a global minimizer under smoothness + Polyak-Lojasiewicz condition.
Study on policy gradient for stochastic bandits using diffusion approximation.
problem Improving policy gradient methods for stochastic bandits with optimal regret bounds.
method Continuous-time diffusion approximation of policy gradient with learning rate analysis.
result Proved optimal regret bound of for .
The paper studies the solution of stochastic optimization problems in which approximations to the gradient and Hessian are obtained through subsampling. We first consider Newton-like methods that employ these approximations and discuss how to coordinate the accuracy in the gradient and Hessian to yield a superlinear ra…
A new method for Gaussian filtering using gradient flows and Wasserstein metrics.
problem Approximating Gaussian and mixture-of-Gaussians filtering for complex systems.
method Variational approximation via gradient-flow representation on Wasserstein metric space.
result Competitive performance in posterior representation and parameter estimation for systems with multiplicative noise and multi-modal distributions.
In reinforcement learning, temporal difference (TD) is the most direct algorithm to learn the value function of a policy. For large or infinite state spaces, exact representations of the value function are usually not available, and it must be approximated by a function in some parametric family. However, with \emph{no…
Modal regression is aimed at estimating the global mode (i.e., global maximum) of the conditional density function of the output variable given input variables, and has led to regression methods robust against heavy-tailed or skewed noises. The conditional mode is often estimated through maximization of the modal regre…
A scalable method for BED with implicit models using approximate gradients.
problem Efficiently estimating posterior distribution and maximizing MI for implicit models.
method Stochastic approximate gradient ascent with smoothed variational MI estimator.
result Significantly improves scalability of BED in high-dimensional problems.
Off-policy stochastic actor-critic methods rely on approximating the stochastic policy gradient in order to derive an optimal policy. One may also derive the optimal policy by approximating the action-value gradient. The use of action-value gradients is desirable as policy improvement occurs along the direction of stee…
New discretization scheme for Wasserstein gradient flows using Schrödinger bridges.
problem Computing Wasserstein gradient flows efficiently and without score functions.
method Iterated Schrödinger bridge approximation with particle-based Sinkhorn algorithm.
result The scheme converges to Wasserstein gradient flows for certain flows, including heat flow.
Unified framework for analyzing batch updating methods with noisy gradients.
problem Analyzing convergence of batch updating methods with noisy gradients and approximations.
method Unified framework using convergence of stochastic processes.
result Establishes a general theorem for most known convergence results.
AdaSwarm optimizes deep learning models with swarm intelligence, outperforming Adam.
problem Optimization challenges in deep learning models.
method AdaSwarm uses EMPSO to approximate gradients for optimization.
result AdaSwarm outperforms Adam and handles various loss functions.
This study explains why approximate NGD works well in wide neural networks.
problem Understanding why NGD with approximate Fisher information converges fast in wide neural networks.
method Analyzing asymptotic training dynamics in function space via the neural tangent kernel.
result NGD with approximate Fisher information achieves the same fast convergence as exact NGD under specific conditions.
New Banach spaces for ReLU networks enable better function approximation and gradient dynamics analysis.
problem Function approximation and gradient dynamics in multi-layer ReLU networks.
method Developed Banach spaces for ReLU networks, defined new function representations, and analyzed gradient flow dynamics.
result Gradient flow dynamics of the new representation is the continuous analog of gradient descent for ReLU networks.
SLANG: Fast Structured Covariance Approximations for Bayesian Deep Learning with Natural Gradientcs.LG
Uncertainty estimation in large deep-learning models is a computationally challenging task, where it is difficult to form even a Gaussian approximation to the posterior distribution. In such situations, existing methods usually resort to a diagonal approximation of the covariance matrix despite, the fact that these mat…
New convergence guarantees for learning with unknown nuisance parameters.
problem Learning problems with unknown nuisance parameters.
method Stochastic gradient optimization with Neyman orthogonality and approximately orthogonalized updates.
result Stochastic gradient algorithms can converge under conditions of nuisance parameters.
The Black Box Variational Inference (Ranganath et al. (2014)) algorithm provides a universal method for Variational Inference, but taking advantage of special properties of the approximation family or of the target can improve the convergence speed significantly. For example, if the approximation family is a transforma…
New method reduces training cost by using approximate gradients.
problem Training neural networks is computationally expensive.
method Uses control variates to approximate gradients without full backward pass.
result Efficacy demonstrated on a vision transformer classification task.
We present a novel approximate inference method for diffusion processes, based on the Wasserstein gradient flow formulation of the diffusion. In this formulation, the time-dependent density of the diffusion is derived as the limit of implicit Euler steps that follow the gradients of a particular free energy functional.…
Taylor Learningstat.ML
New learning algorithm for real analytic functions without gradient descent.
problem Learning real analytic functions without gradient descent.
method Taylor approximation and sampling data distribution.
result Nonuniform learning result for real analytic functions.
Improves posterior approximation speed for Dirichlet process mixture models.
problem Inefficiency of stochastic variational inference in large datasets.
method Uses stochastic gradient ascent with adaptive stepsize optimization.
result Adaptive stepsize improves speed and performance of posterior approximation.
SIFG uses noisy particles to efficiently sample from complex distributions.
problem Efficient sampling from complex distributions using particle-based methods.
method SIFG introduces a semi-implicit functional gradient flow with Gaussian noise to improve sampling efficiency and accuracy.
result SIFG achieves strong theoretical convergence guarantees and efficient sampling.
Improved kernel herding algorithm for faster quadrature rule convergence.
problem Slow convergence speed of standard kernel herding algorithm.
method Improved gradient approximation to obtain sparser solutions.
result The cosine of the angle between negative gradient and approximate gradient determines convergence speed.
New DP optimization methods for sparse gradients, improving on existing algorithms.
problem Differentially private optimization with sparse gradients in high-dimensional settings.
method Improved bounds for mean estimation, pure- and approximate-DP algorithms for stochastic convex optimization.
result First nearly dimension-independent rates for DP optimization with sparse gradients.