Self-distillation improves model performance by increasing teacher diversity and smoothing predictions.
problem Improving model generalization and performance through self-distillation.
method Interpreting self-distillation as MAP estimation and proposing instance-specific label smoothing.
result Self-distillation enhances model performance by increasing teacher diversity and smoothing predictions.
RL agents fail to generalize to unseen environments, even when dynamics are similar.
problem RL agents fail to generalize to unseen environments despite similar dynamics.
method Analyzed policy learning in POMDPs, formalized training dynamics as instances, and introduced a shared belief representation over an ensemble of specialized policies.
result Maximizing rewards induces instance-specific policies that are suboptimal on the training set.
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.
Meta-algorithm selection aims to choose the best algorithm selector for a given problem instance.
problem Selecting the best algorithm selector for a specific problem instance.
method Apply algorithm selection to the selection of other algorithms (meta-algorithm selection).
result Meta-algorithm selection can be beneficial in some cases but faces challenges in solving the meta-level problem.
Efficiently solves heterogeneous QPs by reducing variables using instance-specific projections.
problem Solving high-dimensional quadratic programming problems efficiently.
method Data-driven framework with a graph neural network generating projections tailored to each QP instance.
result Produces high-quality solutions with reduced computation time, outperforming existing methods.
New algorithm IAC recovers hidden communities in labeled SBM with optimal performance.
problem Recovering hidden communities in Labeled Stochastic Block Model with varying cluster sizes.
method IAC (Instance-Adaptive Clustering) algorithm, consisting of spectral clustering and iterative likelihood-based improvements.
result IAC achieves optimal performance matching instance-specific lower bounds in expectation and with high probability.
Adversarial online multi-task RL with task separation.
problem Minimize regret in an adversarial online multi-task setting with unknown MDPs.
method Prove minimax and instance-specific lower bounds, develop a clustering algorithm with optimal sample complexity and regret.
result Tight sample complexity and regret bounds for adversarial online multi-task RL.
Study improves model robustness in noisy datasets.
problem Instance-specific label noise in robust classification tasks.
method Coordinated Sparse Recovery (CSR) method introduces a collaboration matrix and confidence weights to reduce generalization error.
result CSR and CSR+ significantly reduce generalization error compared to existing methods.
Develops first optimal algorithm for logistic bandits.
problem Pure exploration in logistic bandits.
method Logistic track-and-stop (Log-TS) algorithm.
result Asymptotically matches lower bound for expected sample complexity.
We give a complete characterization of the sampling complexity of best Markovian arm identification in one-parameter Markovian bandit models. We derive instance specific nonasymptotic and asymptotic lower bounds which generalize those of the IID setting. We analyze the Track-and-Stop strategy, initially proposed for th…
As machine learning becomes more pervasive, there is an urgent need for interpretable explanations of predictive models. Prior work has developed effective methods for visualizing global model behavior, as well as generating local (instance-specific) explanations. However, relatively little work has addressed regional …
We design a general framework for answering adaptive statistical queries that focuses on providing explicit confidence intervals along with point estimates. Prior work in this area has either focused on providing tight confidence intervals for specific analyses, or providing general worst-case bounds for point estimate…
Interactions such as double negation in sentences and scene interactions in images are common forms of complex dependencies captured by state-of-the-art machine learning models. We propose Mahé, a novel approach to provide Model-agnostic hierarchical éxplanations of how powerful machine learning models, such as deep ne…
Amortized variational inference (AVI) replaces instance-specific local inference with a global inference network. While AVI has enabled efficient training of deep generative models such as variational autoencoders (VAE), recent empirical work suggests that inference networks can produce suboptimal variational parameter…
This paper introduces and addresses a wide class of stochastic bandit problems where the function mapping the arm to the corresponding reward exhibits some known structural properties. Most existing structures (e.g. linear, Lipschitz, unimodal, combinatorial, dueling, ...) are covered by our framework. We derive an asy…
Recent work has shown that state-of-the-art classifiers are quite brittle, in the sense that a small adversarial change of an originally with high confidence correctly classified input leads to a wrong classification again with high confidence. This raises concerns that such classifiers are vulnerable to attacks and ca…
We consider effort allocation in crowdsourcing, where we wish to assign labeling tasks to imperfect homogeneous crowd workers to maximize overall accuracy in a continuous-time Bayesian setting, subject to budget and time constraints. The Bayes-optimal policy for this problem is the solution to a partially observable Ma…
Inverse classification uses an induced classifier as a queryable oracle to guide test instances towards a preferred posterior class label. The result produced from the process is a set of instance-specific feature perturbations, or recommendations, that optimally improve the probability of the class label. In this work…
In practical applications of machine learning, it is necessary to look beyond standard metrics such as test accuracy in order to validate various qualitative properties of a model. Partial dependence plots (PDP), including instance-specific PDPs (i.e., ICE plots), have been widely used as a visual tool to understand or…
In this paper, we deal with the task of building a dynamic ensemble of chain classifiers for multi-label classification. To do so, we proposed two concepts of classifier chains algorithms that are able to change label order of the chain without rebuilding the entire model. Such modes allows anticipating the instance-sp…
Optimal best-arm identification in linear bandits reduces sampling budget.
problem Identifying the best arm with fixed confidence in stochastic linear bandits.
method A simple algorithm that tracks an optimal proportion of arm draws, updated as rarely as desired.
result The algorithm's sampling complexity matches known lower bounds, asymptotically almost surely and in expectation.
Study on sample complexity for pure exploration in feedback graph settings.
problem Sample complexity of pure exploration in online learning with feedback graphs.
method Derive instance-specific lower bounds and present asymptotically optimal algorithm TaS-FG.
result TaS-FG is asymptotically optimal and efficient across different graph configurations.
Batch Normalization (BN)(Ioffe and Szegedy 2015) normalizes the features of an input image via statistics of a batch of images and hence BN will bring the noise to the gradient of the training loss. Previous works indicate that the noise is important for the optimization and generalization of deep neural networks, but …
Adaptive exploration scheme for evaluating multiple policies with different rewards.
problem Online multi-reward multi-policy evaluation.
method Adapted (ε,δ)-PAC perspective and MR-NaS exploration scheme to minimize sample complexity. result Demonstrated effectiveness of adaptive exploration in tabular domains.
Dynamic classifier chains with XGBoost reduces multi-label classification costs and improves label dependency handling.
problem Static label ordering in multi-label classification limits model performance.
method Combining dynamic classifier chains with XGBoost for efficient multi-label prediction.
result Dynamic label ordering improves model performance and reduces training costs.
Contextual information helps identify the best arm more efficiently.
problem Best arm identification with contextual covariate information.
method Proposed a context-aware version of the 'Track-and-Stop' strategy.
result Expected number of arm draws matches lower bound asymptotically.
New algorithms identify best policies in discounted linear MDPs efficiently.
problem Identifying the best policy in discounted linear MDPs with limited samples.
method Derive lower bounds and devise simple yet near-optimal algorithms.
result Upper bound on sample complexity matches existing bounds.
This work develops a non-parametric test for relational independence in non-i.i.d. data.
problem Testing independence in relational systems where data samples are not i.i.d.
method Kernel mean embedding for relational variables, consistent non-parametric scalable kernel test.
result Empirically validated effectiveness compared to state-of-the-art tests.
New predictive bandit model with noise for better decision making.
problem Optimizing decisions with limited information and noise.
method Introduced predictive bandits, derived regret bounds, and developed algorithms.
result Developed algorithms matching theoretical regret bounds.
The research proposes a stopping rule for reinforcement learning algorithms based on instance-dependent confidence.
problem Dramatic variation in convergence rates of reinforcement learning algorithms due to problem structure.
method Develops instance-dependent confidence regions and a data-dependent stopping rule for MDP policy evaluation and optimal value estimation.
result Proposes a stopping rule that adapts to the instance-specific difficulty of the problem, allowing for early termination.
New method estimates optimal Q-values with better accuracy for specific problems.
problem Estimating optimal Q-values in reinforcement learning is difficult and varies by problem instance.
method Local minimax framework and variance-reduced Q-learning.
result Sharp lower bounds on estimation accuracy for Q-learning.
Sensory data are often comprised of independent content and transformation factors. For example, face images may have shapes as content and poses as transformation. To infer separately these factors from given data, various ``disentangling'' models have been proposed. However, many of these are supervised or semi-super…
In open set recognition (OSR), almost all existing methods are designed specially for recognizing individual instances, even these instances are collectively coming in batch. Recognizers in decision either reject or categorize them to some known class using empirically-set threshold. Thus the decision threshold plays a…
New algorithm identifies best policy in MDPs faster.
problem Identifying the best policy in Markov Decision Processes.
method Problem-dependent lower bound and first algorithm with instance-specific sample complexity.
result First algorithm with reduced exploration rate for faster convergence.
Optimal rank-adaptive matrix estimation from linear measurements.
problem Estimating high-dimensional matrices from linear measurements with adaptive rank selection.
method Combines Least-Squares estimator with universal singular value thresholding.
result Algorithm performance nearly matches fundamental limits.
A method to approximate instance-dependent label noise using instance-confidence embedding.
problem Real-world label noise that depends on individual instances.
method Variational approximation with instance embedding to capture instance-specific label corruption.
result ICE method effectively approximates instance-dependent noise and detects ambiguous instances.
New algorithm interpolates data with neural nets, independent of sample size.
problem Understanding neural networks' ability to memorize training data.
method Randomized algorithm for constructing interpolating neural networks.
result Guarantees that are independent of the number of samples, moving beyond worst-case memorization capacity bounds.
New bounds show current methods overestimate system parameter errors.
problem Current bounds overestimate parameter errors in system identification.
method Utilized asymptotic normality and second-order decomposition.
result Obtained finite-sample bounds matching optimal rates up to constants.
New method R-LOCO improves local feature importance analysis.
problem Local attribution methods fail to accurately identify important features.
method R-LOCO segments input space into regions and applies global methods within.
result R-LOCO delivers more accurate local attributions.
Study optimizes solving fixed-point equations using subspace search.
problem Solving linear fixed point equations in Hilbert spaces.
method Linear stochastic approximation scheme with Polyak--Ruppert averaging.
result Established optimal approximation factor for temporal difference learning methods.
We study methods for aggregating pairwise comparison data in order to estimate outcome probabilities for future comparisons among a collection of n items. Working within a flexible framework that imposes only a form of strong stochastic transitivity (SST), we introduce an adaptivity index defined by the indifference se…
Despite remarkable recent progress on both unconditional and conditional image synthesis, it remains a long-standing problem to learn generative models that are capable of synthesizing realistic and sharp images from reconfigurable spatial layout (i.e., bounding boxes + class labels in an image lattice) and style (i.e.…
This paper improves understanding of knowledge distillation and its effects.
problem Improving model quality with a fixed capacity budget.
method Categorizing teacher's knowledge into three levels and studying their effects on distillation.
result The three hierarchical levels of teacher's knowledge (universe, domain, instance) significantly impact knowledge distillation.
Modern learning algorithms excel at producing accurate but complex models of the data. However, deploying such models in the real-world requires extra care: we must ensure their reliability, robustness, and absence of undesired biases. This motivates the development of models that are equally accurate but can be also e…
Improved forecast accuracy for energy systems through decision-focused fine-tuning.
problem Challenges in integrating forecast values into time series models for diverse and specific instances.
method Decision-focused fine-tuning within time series foundation models for dispatchable feeder optimization.
result Improvement of 9.45% in average total daily costs.
New framework improves differential privacy for asymmetric datasets.
problem Improving differential privacy for asymmetric datasets.
method Adapts inverse sensitivity mechanism with sparse vector technique.
result Efficiently estimates general functions with improved privacy.
Paper tackles anomaly detection in restless Markov arms with unknown TPMs.
problem Detecting an anomalous arm in a multi-armed bandit with unknown transition probability matrices.
method Developed a policy based on the principle of certainty equivalence, achieving the lower bound arbitrarily closely under specific assumptions.
result Achieved the lower bound on expected time required to find the odd arm index, demonstrating the policy's effectiveness.
Improved adaptive algorithms for identifying the best arm in MABs with fixed budget.
problem Identifying the best arm in stochastic Multi-Armed Bandits with a fixed sampling budget.
method Established a connection between Large Deviation Principles and adaptive algorithms, improving error probability bounds and devising new algorithms.
result The \sred algorithm outperforms existing algorithms in identifying the best arm.