LAZO reduces query complexity and variance in ZO methods.
problem High query complexity and variance in zeroth-order optimization.
method LAZO uses adaptive lazy queries to reduce variance and save queries.
result LAZO achieves lower regret and query complexity compared to existing methods.
Improved online gradient descent with fewer queries for dynamic environments.
problem Efficiently tracking changes in functions with varying gradients and smoothness.
method Developed a new theoretical framework to analyze online gradient descent in dynamic settings, reducing query complexity.
result Achieved state-of-the-art dynamic regret with significantly fewer gradient queries, independent of condition number.
Algorithm approximates target distribution using weight queries.
problem Approximating a distribution without sampling.
method Interactive algorithm using weight queries and UCB approach.
result Approximation bound on total variation distance.
C-IP improves LLMs' query selection for interactive tasks by estimating uncertainty robustly.
problem Minimizing the number of queries for interactive LLMs.
method Conformal Information Pursuit (C-IP) using conformal prediction sets.
result C-IP achieves better predictive performance and shorter query-answer chains.
This work sets lower bounds on the number of score queries needed for diffusion sampling.
problem Establishing information-theoretic limits on the number of score evaluations required for diffusion sampling.
method Proving lower bounds on the number of adaptive score queries needed for sampling.
result Any sampling algorithm requires at least \(\widetilde{\Omega}(\sqrt{d})\) adaptive score queries for \(d\)-dimensional distributions.
Improved API to achieve optimal error bound and query complexity in local planning.
problem Efficient local planning in discounted MDPs with linear approximation.
method Confident Approximate Policy Iteration (CAPI) for stationary policies, applying to local access simulators.
result Achieves optimal accuracy and query complexity bounds, improving over API.
Efficient local planning with linear approximations for agents with limited simulator access.
problem Planning with limited simulator access in reinforcement learning.
method Confident Monte Carlo Least Square Policy Iteration (Confident MC-LSPI) and Politex (Confident MC-Politex) algorithms.
result The algorithms can learn the optimal policy with local simulator access, even for linear Q-functions.
Constraint-based clustering algorithms exploit background knowledge to construct clusterings that are aligned with the interests of a particular user. This background knowledge is often obtained by allowing the clustering system to pose pairwise queries to the user: should these two elements be in the same cluster or n…
Active Inverse Reward Design improves AI agent training by querying users for reward function preferences.
problem Iterative reward function tuning in AI agents is inefficient and may not generalize well.
method Structured queries to the user to compare reward functions, updating posterior with IRD.
result Substantially outperforms IRD in test environments, inferring non-linear rewards.
In this paper, we consider active information acquisition when the prediction model is meant to be applied on a targeted subset of the population. The goal is to label a pre-specified fraction of customers in the target or test set by iteratively querying for information from the non-target or training set. The number …
Meta-algorithm for efficient reinforcement learning from human preferences.
problem Learning from human preference comparisons in Markov decision processes.
method Randomized exploration and experimental design for batch comparison queries.
result Meta-algorithm achieves both regret and last-iterate guarantees with minimal preference queries.
We prove a \emph{query complexity} lower bound on rank-one principal component analysis (PCA). We consider an oracle model where, given a symmetric matrix M∈Rd×d, an algorithm is allowed to make T \emph{exact} queries of the form w(i)=Mv(i) for i∈{1,…,T}, where v(i)…
Simple method for black-box adversarial attacks with low query efficiency.
problem Efficient construction of adversarial images in the black-box setting.
method Randomly sampling from an orthonormal basis and adjusting images.
result Demonstrated unprecedented query efficiency in both untargeted and targeted attacks.
A model verifies during classification to reduce memorization, matching baseline accuracy with fewer parameters.
problem Classification systems require memorizing all classes, leading to increased memory usage and poor sample efficiency.
method Iterative nondifferentiable queries for verification during classification, balancing recognition and verification.
result The model can match baseline accuracy while using fewer parameters, but requires careful balance between recognition and verification.
We prove a \emph{query complexity} lower bound for approximating the top r dimensional eigenspace of a matrix. We consider an oracle model where, given a symmetric matrix M∈Rd×d, an algorithm Alg is allowed to make T exact queries of the form $\mathsf{w}^{(i)} =…
A new one-point feedback scheme improves ZO algorithms for black-box optimization.
problem Optimizing black-box functions without gradient information.
method Proposes a one-point feedback scheme to estimate gradients using residuals.
result Matches query complexity of two-point schemes for deterministic Lipschitz functions.
New method optimises learning via surrogate PAC-Bayes bounds.
problem Computational intractability of optimising generalisation bounds.
method Iteratively optimising surrogate training objectives derived from PAC-Bayes bounds.
result Iteratively optimising surrogates implies optimising original generalisation bounds.
BILBO optimizes bilevel problems without repeated lower-level optimizations.
problem Challenges in bilevel optimization, especially in noisy, constrained, and derivative-free settings.
method BILevel Bayesian Optimization (BILBO) that optimizes both levels simultaneously, using confidence-bounds and function query selection.
result Theoretical and empirical evidence of BILBO's effectiveness on various problems.
New research shows exponential lower bounds for planning in MDPs with linearly-realizable optimal action-value functions.
problem Determining the minimum number of queries needed for sound planners in MDPs with linear function approximation.
method Analyzing fixed-horizon and discounted MDPs with a generative model, showing lower bounds on the number of queries required.
result Sound planners need at least exponential number of queries in both fixed-horizon and discounted settings.
ALIS uses probabilistic sampling to minimize true loss in active learning.
problem Efficiently choosing data points to label in active learning.
method Proposes ALIS algorithm with optimal sampling distribution.
result Derives upper bounds on true loss for any sampling procedure.
CEGA addresses GNN security by enabling cost-effective model acquisition.
problem Vulnerability of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to model extraction attacks (MEAs).
method Proposes an adaptive node querying strategy to refine node selection over multiple learning cycles.
result Demonstrates superior performance in accuracy, fidelity, and F1 score under strict query-size constraints.
This work tackles model-based RL by optimizing state-action queries to learn policies with minimal data.
problem Expensive state transitions in practical RL problems limit the use of standard RL algorithms.
method Bayesian optimal experimental design to guide selection of state-action queries.
result Data-efficient RL approach that learns optimal policies with up to 1,000x less data.
No-regret optimization for time-varying functions using uncertainty injection.
problem Optimizing time-varying functions with no-regret in bandit feedback.
method W-SparQ-GP-UCB, incorporating uncertainty injection and additional queries.
result Achieves no-regret with a vanishing number of additional queries per iteration.
Quriosity analyzes curiosity-driven questions from diverse sources.
problem Understanding and analyzing human curiosity-driven questions.
method Collection of 13.5K questions from various sources, development of an iterative prompt improvement framework.
result 42% of questions are causal, revealing unique linguistic properties.
Square Attack efficiently attacks deep models with random updates.
problem Efficiently attacking deep learning models without gradient information.
method Randomized search of localized square updates.
result Significantly more query-efficient and higher success rate compared to state-of-the-art methods.
The paper addresses learner privacy in convex optimization with feedback.
problem Privacy risks from eavesdropping adversaries observing learner's queries.
method Optimally obfuscating learner's queries to make their learned optimal value hard to estimate.
result Query complexity overhead is additive in L in the minimax formulation, multiplicative in L in the Bayesian formulation. In this paper, we make an important step towards the black-box machine teaching by considering the cross-space machine teaching, where the teacher and the learner use different feature representations and the teacher can not fully observe the learner's model. In such scenario, we study how the teacher is still able to …
New method uses zeroth-order queries to approximate proximal sampling efficiently.
problem Approximating proximal sampling with zeroth-order information.
method Direct simulation of heat flow dynamics, treating intermediate distribution as Gaussian mixture.
result Inherits exponential convergence under isoperimetric conditions, avoids rejection sampling.
New protocol identifies impossible edge orientations in causal graphs.
problem Causal-discovery algorithms cannot distinguish edge directions without assumptions.
method Discrete impossibility certificates and oracle queries.
result Upper bound of 1+K expert interactions for DAG recovery. Paper develops efficient nonmyopic active search methods for drug and materials discovery.
problem Efficiently identifying many members of a class in high-throughput screening.
method Bayesian decision framework, nonmyopic approximations, efficient computation.
result Proposed policy outperforms sequential and batch settings in drug and materials discovery.
New algorithms reduce rejection sampling complexity for shape-constrained distributions.
problem Generating exact samples from shape-constrained distributions efficiently.
method Sublinear query complexity algorithms for rejection sampling.
result Sublinear complexity algorithms for sampling from shape-constrained distributions.
New method attacks black-box models with fewer queries.
problem Attacking machine learning models without model information.
method Formulated as a real-valued optimization problem, solved with zeroth order optimization.
result Demonstrated to outperform random walk approach on various datasets.
Accelerates Bayesian optimization of function networks with partial evaluations.
problem Optimizing expensive-to-evaluate function networks with varying node costs.
method Proposes an accelerated algorithm that uses global Monte Carlo simulations to select node-specific candidate inputs.
result Achieves up to a 16x speedup over the original p-KGFN algorithm while maintaining competitive query efficiency.
MAC Net improves natural language question answering with data-driven reasoning.
problem Natural Language Question Answering requires complex reasoning.
method MAC Net architecture separates memory and control for iterative reasoning.
result MAC Net achieves high efficiency and interpretability in NLP tasks.
Adapts example weights to optimize black-box metrics.
problem Optimizing metrics defined by black-box functions.
method Adaptive example weighting and iterative post-shifting.
result Improves classification performance compared to baselines.
New active learning methods use statistical leverage scores to select examples efficiently.
problem Efficiently selecting labeled examples for high model accuracy with limited labeled data.
method Proposes ALEVS and DBALEVS methods based on statistical leverage scores.
result DBALEVS selects diverse, representative examples efficiently.
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a popular and successful general-purpose tool for Bayesian inference. However, MCMC cannot be practically applied to large data sets because of the prohibitive cost of evaluating every likelihood term at every iteration. Here we present Firefly Monte Carlo (FlyMC) an auxiliary variabl…
New algorithms solve games to find optimal exploration strategies.
problem Sequentially gather information to answer queries about stochastic environments.
method Interpret optimisation problem as a game and use iterative strategies to estimate its saddle point.
result First finite confidence guarantees for pure exploration in exponential families.
Paper studies model stealing for low-rank language models.
problem Model stealing threatens proprietary models' security and data privacy.
method Theoretical study of model stealing for Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and low-rank language models using the conditional query model.
result Efficient algorithm for learning any low-rank distribution in the conditional query model.
We consider the problem of strongly-convex online optimization in presence of adversarial delays; in a T-iteration online game, the feedback of the player's query at time t is arbitrarily delayed by an adversary for d_t rounds and delivered before the game ends, at iteration t+d_t-1. Specifically for \algo{online-gradi…
Solves TOD systems' query annotation problem without explicit annotations.
problem Training TOD systems without explicit KB query annotation.
method Reinforcement learning (RL) and pipelined approach for query prediction and system training.
result Improved RL agent with modifications for TOD tasks.
The paper tackles sequential mode estimation with oracle queries.
problem Adaptively PAC-learning a probability distribution's mode.
method Two query models: index queries and pair queries. Sequential algorithms for mode estimation.
result Lower bounds on optimal query complexity for both models.
The paper optimizes querying schemes for crowdsourced classification using XOR queries.
problem Optimizing querying schemes for crowdsourced classification.
method Modeling crowdsourced labeling/classification as source coding problem, leveraging connections to channel coding.
result Provides querying schemes with almost optimal number of queries, each involving a constant number of labels.
Adaptive and robust algorithm for convex optimization under noisy feedback.
problem Minimizing unknown convex functions with noisy gradient feedback.
method Biased random walk on a binary tree with adaptive confidence bounds.
result Achieves optimal regret orders for various function classes.
Improved query complexity for adaptive learning of decision trees.
problem Learning decision trees of depth at most d from membership queries.
method Randomized and deterministic polynomial time algorithms with improved query complexity.
result Queries reduced for both randomized and deterministic algorithms.
Study exact community recovery in noisy SBM with limited queries.
problem Community recovery in noisy stochastic block models with limited queries.
method Balanced uniform querying, two-stage adaptive strategy, sublinear queries, subsampled graph.
result Adaptive querying can improve exact recovery limits in noisy SBM.
The study examines how many samples are needed to minimize a noisy convex function with inaccurate gradient estimates.
problem Determining the number of samples needed to minimize a noisy convex function with inaccurate gradient estimates.
method Using Stochastic Convex Optimization as a case study, the study analyzes the relationship between the number of samples and the accuracy of gradient estimates.
result The study provides partial answers to the question, showing that a general analyst requires Ω(1/ε3) samples and that under certain assumptions, ildeΩ(1/ε2.5) samples are necessary for gradient descent to interact with the oracle. Efficiently classifies binary labels with XOR queries, even under noisy conditions.
problem Binary classification with unknown labels using XOR queries.
method Effective query type and an efficient inference algorithm for noisy conditions.
result Achieves information-theoretic limit on optimal number of queries.