This study benchmarks likelihood-free inference methods for models with heavy-tailed or discrete data.
problem Comparing likelihood-free inference methods for models with structural features like heavy-tails or discreteness.
method Four approaches: MLE, NBE, EOT, and AW-NBE are evaluated using simulations.
result The choice of evaluation tools is crucial for models with extremes and discrete data.
Engine for Likelihood-Free Inference (ELFI) is a Python software library for performing likelihood-free inference (LFI). ELFI provides a convenient syntax for arranging components in LFI, such as priors, simulators, summaries or distances, to a network called ELFI graph. The components can be implemented in a wide vari…
Likelihood-free (a.k.a. simulation-based) inference problems are inverse problems with expensive, or intractable, forward models. ODE inverse problems are commonly treated as likelihood-free, as their forward map has to be numerically approximated by an ODE solver. This, however, is not a fundamental constraint but jus…
Bayesian neural networks improve likelihood-free inference efficiency.
problem Efficient parameter inference from simulation models with uncertainty.
method Bayesian neural networks for summary statistics, adaptive sampling.
result More robust and efficient posterior estimation.
Unified approach for sequence design combining likelihood-free inference and black-box optimization.
problem Designing biological sequences efficiently and accurately.
method Unified probabilistic framework integrating likelihood-free inference and black-box optimization.
result Previous optimization methods can be adapted and new algorithms proposed within this framework.
A new method improves likelihood-free Bayesian inference by transforming summary statistics and using efficient Variational Bayes.
problem Incorrectly assuming normally distributed summary statistics in likelihood-free Bayesian inference.
method Wasserstein Gaussianization transformation combined with robust BSL and efficient Variational Bayes.
result Highly efficient and reliable approximate Bayesian inference for likelihood-free problems.
Improved likelihood-free inference by localizing and refining low-dimensional approximations.
problem Poor performance of common likelihood-free methods in high-dimensional models.
method Localisation followed by refinement of low-dimensional summaries.
result Improved accuracy in marginal posteriors through localized and refined approximations.
Optimal algorithm selects biological models without prior info.
problem Determining the correct biological model without prior knowledge.
method Systems biology models and likelihood-free inference.
result Improved model selection performance over conventional methods.
Likelihood-free inference is concerned with the estimation of the parameters of a non-differentiable stochastic simulator that best reproduce real observations. In the absence of a likelihood function, most of the existing inference methods optimize the simulator parameters through a handcrafted iterative procedure tha…
ALFI improves likelihood-free inference for black-box generators.
problem Limitations of likelihood-free inference on black-box generators.
method Adversarial Likelihood-Free Inference (ALFI) to estimate posterior distributions.
result ALFI achieves best parameter estimation accuracy with limited simulation.
Likelihood-free methods perform parameter inference in stochastic simulator models where evaluating the likelihood is intractable but sampling synthetic data is possible. One class of methods for this likelihood-free problem uses a classifier to distinguish between pairs of parameter-observation samples generated using…
New method estimates HMM hidden states efficiently.
problem Inaccurate posterior predictive distribution in HMMs.
method Autoregressive-flow for estimating hidden states.
result Estimates comparable to SMC algorithm.
Deep Gaussian Processes improve likelihood-free inference for complex distributions.
problem Limited flexibility of Bayesian Optimization with GPs for multimodal distributions.
method Proposes Deep Gaussian Processes (DGPs) as a surrogate model for likelihood-free inference.
result DGPs outperform GPs on multimodal distributions while maintaining comparable performance on unimodal cases.
A new method extends Bayesian optimization to more models and utilities.
problem Extending Bayesian optimization to a broader class of models and utilities.
method Likelihood-free Bayesian Optimization (LFBO) which directly models the acquisition function without separate inference.
result LFBO outperforms state-of-the-art black-box optimization methods on real-world problems.
Improved MMD estimator for likelihood-free inference.
problem Computational challenges in estimating MMD for likelihood-free inference.
method Optimally-weighted MMD estimator with improved sample complexity.
result Significantly improved sample complexity for accurate MMD estimation.
Automatically learns summary features from time series data for likelihood-free inference.
problem Necessity of hand-tailored summary features for time series data in likelihood-free inference.
method Data-driven approach to automatically learn summary features.
result Learning summary features from data can outperform hand-crafted values in likelihood-free inference.
Likelihood-free inference involves inferring parameter values given observed data and a simulator model. The simulator is computer code which takes parameters, performs stochastic calculations, and outputs simulated data. In this work, we view the simulator as a function whose inputs are (1) the parameters and (2) a ve…
Paper proposes a new method for probabilistic electricity price forecasting.
problem Accurate estimation of forecast uncertainties for optimal decision making.
method Implicit generative ensemble post-processing using an ensemble of point forecasting models.
result Method outperforms well-established model combination benchmarks.
Proposes ABC method for discrete data, improving likelihood-free inference.
problem Discrete data likelihood-free inference problems.
method Population-based MCMC ABC framework with a new Markov kernel inspired by Differential Evolution.
result High potential and superiority of the new Markov kernel demonstrated.
New method uses neural exponential families for likelihood-free inference.
problem Bayesian Likelihood-Free Inference with intractable likelihood.
method Score Matching neural conditional exponential families for approximate likelihood.
result State-of-the-art performance in posterior sampling for intractable likelihood models.
I consider two problems in machine learning and statistics: the problem of estimating the joint probability density of a collection of random variables, known as density estimation, and the problem of inferring model parameters when their likelihood is intractable, known as likelihood-free inference. The contribution o…
Reconstructing the position of an interaction for any dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) with the best precision is key to directly detecting Dark Matter. Using the likelihood-free framework, a new algorithm to reconstruct the 2-D (x; y) position and the size of the charge signal (e) of an interaction is presente…
Proposes LFGP for likelihood-free Gaussian process regression.
problem Inability to set likelihood functions in unknown probability models.
method Clusters and approximates likelihood using asymptotic normality.
result Reduces assumptions and computational costs for scalable problems.
A new method reduces dimensionality for better likelihood-free parameter estimation.
problem Estimating parameters from data with no closed-form likelihood.
method Combines reconstruction map estimation with dimension-reduction techniques.
result The proposed method outperforms existing techniques in accuracy and efficiency.
Likelihood-free inference refers to inference when a likelihood function cannot be explicitly evaluated, which is often the case for models based on simulators. Most of the literature is based on sample-based `Approximate Bayesian Computation' methods, but recent work suggests that approaches based on deep neural condi…
A new framework bridges classical and machine learning methods for reliable inference from complex models.
problem Intractable likelihood functions in complex systems make classical statistics ineffective for likelihood-free inference.
method Likelihood-Free Frequentist Inference (LF2I) framework that combines classical statistics and machine learning.
result Valid confidence sets with near finite-sample validity can be constructed for any parameter value.
Parametric statistical models that are implicitly defined in terms of a stochastic data generating process are used in a wide range of scientific disciplines because they enable accurate modeling. However, learning the parameters from observed data is generally very difficult because their likelihood function is typica…
New method for conditional sampling using M-GANs, likely-free inference.
problem Conditional sampling of probability measures.
method Developed a novel computational approach called M-GANs based on block triangular transport.
result Accurate sampling of conditional measures in various applications.
Direct neural ratio estimator for likelihood-free inference.
problem Efficient likelihood estimation for complex models.
method Amortized likelihood ratio estimation using neural networks.
result DNRE often outperforms previous ratio estimators.
EnVAE uses energy score for likelihood-free VAEs, improving image reconstructions.
problem Likelihood misspecification in VAEs leads to blurry reconstructions and poor data fidelity.
method Deterministic decoder, energy score as reconstruction loss, fast variant for efficiency.
result EnVAE achieves superior reconstruction and generation quality compared to likelihood-based baselines.
Likelihood-free methods such as approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) have extended the reach of statistical inference to problems with computationally intractable likelihoods. Such approaches perform well for small-to-moderate dimensional problems, but suffer a curse of dimensionality in the number of model parameter…
A new method for experimental design focuses on predicting downstream quantities of interest.
problem Designs that maximize parameter learning may not maximize downstream quantity prediction.
method Likelihood-free goal-oriented optimal experimental design (LF-GO-OED) using ABC density ratio estimation.
result LF-GO-OED maximizes the expected information gain for downstream quantities.
New method improves likelihood-free parameter estimation in complex models.
problem Estimating parameters in simulation-based models with unknown likelihood.
method Nested multi-time-scale stochastic approximation (NMTS) method.
result Eliminates bias and accelerates convergence in likelihood-free inference.
New method for state inference in state-space models with unknown dynamics.
problem State inference in state-space models with computationally expensive and undefined dynamics.
method Estimate state transition dynamics using a multi-output Gaussian process and Bayesian Neural Network as a surrogate model.
result Significant improvement in accuracy for state inference and prediction in non-stationary user models.
An explosion of high-throughput DNA sequencing in the past decade has led to a surge of interest in population-scale inference with whole-genome data. Recent work in population genetics has centered on designing inference methods for relatively simple model classes, and few scalable general-purpose inference techniques…
Likelihood-free inference for simulator-based statistical models has developed rapidly from its infancy to a useful tool for practitioners. However, models with more than a handful of parameters still generally remain a challenge for the Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) based inference. To advance the possibiliti…
Improved likelihood-free inference using preconditioned neural posterior estimation.
problem Inaccurate posterior estimation in likelihood-free inference methods.
method Preconditioned Neural Posterior Estimation (PNPE) and Sequential PNPE (PSNPE) methods.
result PNPE and PSNPE improve posterior estimation accuracy over NPE and SNPE.
We introduce a framework using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for likelihood--free inference (LFI) and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) where we replace the black-box simulator model with an approximator network and generate a rich set of summary features in a data driven fashion. On benchmark data sets, …
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…
The paper tackles hypothesis testing for likelihood-free inference with a new kernel-based approach.
problem Testing hypotheses with limited labeled data in likelihood-free inference.
method Kernel-based tests using maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) for non-parametric density comparison.
result Existence of an asymmetric trade-off between labeled and unlabeled data samples.
Improves likelihood-free inference by using a new sampling approach to avoid biased data collection.
problem Efficient Bayesian inference without likelihood evaluation for real-world datasets.
method Introduces Neural Proposal (NP) to sample simulation inputs i.i.d. for unbiased posterior inference.
result Demonstrates improved performance, especially for multi-modal posteriors, through experiments.
In likelihood-free settings where likelihood evaluations are intractable, approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) addresses the formidable inference task to discover plausible parameters of simulation programs that explain the observations. However, they demand large quantities of simulation calls. Critically, hyperpara…
Our paper deals with inferring simulator-based statistical models given some observed data. A simulator-based model is a parametrized mechanism which specifies how data are generated. It is thus also referred to as generative model. We assume that only a finite number of parameters are of interest and allow the generat…
EG-LF-MCMC infers posterior densities without likelihoods.
problem Posterior inference for models with intractable likelihoods.
method Two-phase approach: error recording and classification for MCMC.
result EG-LF-MCMC provides approximate posterior densities efficiently.
Active learning method for ABC statistics selection reduces expert work and improves posterior estimates.
problem Handling intractable likelihood functions in models with domain knowledge.
method Active learning method for selecting summary statistics in ABC.
result Better posterior estimates than existing methods, especially with limited simulation budget.
The paper proposes using path signatures for better inference in time series data.
problem Simulation models with time series data often lack tractable likelihood functions.
method Approximate Bayesian Computation with path signatures to handle sequential data.
result Theoretical guarantees on the resultant posteriors for Bayesian parameter inference.
This paper proposes a new method to approximate posterior distributions using generative neural networks trained via scoring rule minimization.
problem Bayesian Likelihood-Free Inference for models with intractable likelihood.
method Approximate posterior with generative neural networks trained via scoring rule minimization, avoiding the instability of adversarial training.
result Scoring Rule minimization leads to better performance and uncertainty quantification compared to adversarial training.
Paper proposes energy objective for training normalizing flows without determinants.
problem Challenges in training normalizing flows due to Jacobian determinants.
method Introduces energy objective based on proper scoring rules, determinant-free.
result Energy objective supports novel model families and competitive performance.