New theory shows how learning algorithms can create a bias towards negative outcomes.
problem Negativity bias in adaptive learning algorithms.
method Generalization of the Hot Stove Effect to settings with negative estimates leading to smaller sample sizes.
result Negativity bias persists even when negative estimates do not lead to avoidance.
Adaptive data collection leads to biased estimates, which this paper corrects.
problem Adaptive data collection introduces systematic negative bias in sample means.
method Proved negative bias, proposed debiasing algorithm based on selective inference.
result Debiasing algorithm effectively reduces bias and estimation error.
Paper connects sampling and labeling biases in large-output spaces.
problem Efficient training in large-output spaces with label imbalance.
method Unified approach to address sampling and labeling biases.
result Different negative sampling schemes trade-off performance on dominant and rare labels.
The paper corrects bias in synthetic data for imbalanced learning.
problem Challenges in balancing false positive and negative rates in imbalanced data.
method Proposes a bias correction procedure to generate synthetic data for minority groups.
result Enhances prediction accuracy while avoiding overfitting.
The paper analyzes bias in sample means of multi-armed bandits.
problem Analyzing bias in sample means of multi-armed bandits.
method Decoupling three sources of bias: sampling, stopping, choosing; using optimism to capture monotonic behaviors.
result Optimistic sampling induces negative bias, while optimistic stopping and choosing induce positive bias.
Bayesian active learning tackles nuisance parameters, leading to bias and dilemmas.
problem Bayesian active learning with nuisance parameters leads to bias and dilemmas.
method Characterizes and mitigates negative interference by accurately estimating nuisance parameters.
result The extent of negative interference can be extremely large, and accurate estimation of nuisance parameters is critical.
GNCL algorithm controls diversity in deep ensembles.
problem Managing bias and variance in deep ensembles.
method Generalized bias-variance decomposition for arbitrary loss functions, leading to GNCL algorithm.
result Explicit control over ensemble diversity and smooth interpolation between independent and joint training.
Depth uncertainty networks don't improve with bias correction, contrary to expectations.
problem Improving performance in active learning with overparameterised models like NNs.
method Depth uncertainty networks, compared to underparameterised models, show no improvement in performance with bias correction.
result Depth uncertainty networks do not improve with bias correction, unlike underparameterised models.
Study shows gender bias in occupation classification tasks.
problem Gender bias in machine learning for occupation classification.
method Analyzed impact of explicit gender indicators in semantic representations of biographies.
result True positive rates differ between genders, correlating with existing gender imbalances.
Estimates parameters of a rectified Gaussian distribution using ReLU networks.
problem Estimating parameters of a rectified Gaussian distribution from i.i.d. samples.
method Simple algorithm using O(1/ε2) samples and O(d2/ε2) time. result Estimates distribution up to ε in total variation distance. New NMF method aims to improve fairness in machine learning.
problem Fairness and bias in machine learning algorithms.
method Modification of NMF objective function using min-max formulation, with two minimization methods.
result The method can sometimes improve fairness but may increase error for some individuals.
Machine learning models predict brain age with systematic bias, corrected in this study.
problem Systematic bias in machine learning regression models for brain age prediction.
method General constrained optimization approach to correct bias.
result Our method effectively eliminates the bias from brain age predictions.
ADB framework improves OOD generalization by increasing ID bias during training.
problem Machine learning models degrade on new data distributions.
method ADB framework introduces controlled statistical diversity during training.
result Higher in-distribution bias leads to better out-of-distribution generalization.
New methods learn from PU data with non-representative positives.
problem Learning from PU data with non-representative positive classes.
method Integrates negative-unlabeled and unlabeled-unlabeled learning, or uses a recursive risk estimator.
result Effective across various real-world datasets and forms of positive bias.
Deep RL algorithms can overfit to early experiences, leading to poor performance.
problem Overfitting to early interactions in deep reinforcement learning.
method Proposed a mechanism to periodically reset part of the agent to mitigate overfitting.
result Periodic resetting improves performance in both discrete and continuous action domains.
This paper evaluates debiasing methods on word embeddings to reduce religious bias.
problem Social biases persist in word embeddings, potentially amplifying them in AI applications.
method Investigates and evaluates three multiclass debiasing techniques on three word embeddings.
result ConceptorDebiasing is the most effective method, reducing religious bias by 82-96%.
This paper examines fairness and arbitrariness in bias mitigation methods.
problem Understanding how different bias mitigation strategies affect individual predictions and whether they introduce arbitrariness.
method FRAME framework to evaluate bias mitigation through five dimensions: Impact Size, Change Direction, Decision Rates, Affected Subpopulations, and Neglected Subpopulations.
result Significant differences in the behaviors of debiasing methods were exhibited, highlighting the limitations of current fairness criteria and the inherent arbitrariness in the debiasing process.
Model captures asymmetric extreme events in financial returns.
problem Capturing asymmetric extreme events in financial returns.
method Two-tailed peak-over-threshold Hawkes model.
result Extreme losses contribute twice as much as gains but decay more quickly.
New method corrects risk estimation bias, improving backtesting results.
problem Underestimation of risk by existing methods, especially in small samples.
method Proposes a new algorithm for bias correction using generalized Pareto distributions.
result The new algorithm leads to improved efficiency in estimating risk with heavy tails or heteroscedasticity.
New algorithm corrects risk estimation bias for heavy-tailed data.
problem Underestimation of risk in banking and insurance due to bias in estimation procedures.
method Proposes a new algorithm for bias correction and applies it to generalized Pareto distributions.
result The algorithm leads to more accurate risk estimation, especially in heavy-tailed data.
Unsupervised preprocessing can bias cross-validation estimates in regression models.
problem Bias in cross-validation estimates due to unsupervised preprocessing.
method Analysis of three preprocessing procedures: feature selection, grouping, and rescaling.
result Unsupervised preprocessing can introduce substantial bias into cross-validation estimates.
Paper proposes MS-k-NN for improved convergence rate in k-NN classification.
problem Improving convergence rate of k-NN classification methods.
method Proposes MS-k-NN that extrapolates unweighted k-NN estimators to k=0.
result MS-k-NN achieves improved convergence rate under certain conditions.
Improved visual representation learning with conditional negative sampling.
problem Learning strong unsupervised visual representations using contrastive learning.
method Introduce a family of mutual information estimators that sample negatives conditionally.
result Improves accuracy by 2-5% points on four standard image datasets.
DCEM algorithm reduces bias in machine learning models trained on selective labels.
problem Bias in machine learning models trained on selective labels.
method Disparate Censorship Expectation-Maximization (DCEM) algorithm.
result DCEM improves bias mitigation without sacrificing discriminative performance.
Boundary effects inflate variance in Gaussian processes, leading to acquisition bias.
problem Boundary-induced acquisition bias in Gaussian processes.
method Traced root cause to geometric mechanism of kernel truncation at domain boundaries.
result Boundary effects create distortion that worsens with dimensionality, affecting acquisition behavior.
From only positive (P) and unlabeled (U) data, a binary classifier could be trained with PU learning, in which the state of the art is unbiased PU learning. However, if its model is very flexible, empirical risks on training data will go negative, and we will suffer from serious overfitting. In this paper, we propose a…
Regularized training of an autoencoder typically results in hidden unit biases that take on large negative values. We show that negative biases are a natural result of using a hidden layer whose responsibility is to both represent the input data and act as a selection mechanism that ensures sparsity of the representati…
Feed-forward nets fail to learn equality relations, but adding DR units helps.
problem Feed-forward neural networks struggle to learn equality relations reliably.
method Introduced differential rectifier (DR) units to create an inductive bias.
result DR units enable feed-forward nets to learn equality relations reliably.
Bayesian method corrects bias in class-aggregated values.
problem Bias in aggregated values from classification algorithms.
method Bayesian inference with constraints on model parameters.
result Outperforms existing methods in mean squared error.
A new differentiable divergence for time series comparison.
problem Computing discrepancies between time series of varying lengths.
method Proposed a new divergence, soft-DTW divergence, addressing issues of differentiability and positivity.
result Showed that the new divergence is a valid divergence: non-negative and minimized when time series are equal.
The paper tackles bandit problems with biased offline data by using causal methods.
problem Improving bandit algorithms with biased offline data that includes confounding and selection biases.
method Formalizes the problem from a causal perspective, categorizes biases, and derives robust bounds for each arm.
result Causal bounds can guide the bandit agent to learn a nearly-optimal decision policy and consistently reduce asymptotic regret.
New method corrects bias in estimating entropic risk for better decision-making.
problem Underestimation of entropic risk when data are limited.
method Parametric bootstrap procedure to overestimate entropic risk.
result Corrected method provides better risk estimates, leading to improved decision-making.
New RLHF approach mitigates bias in aligning LLMs with human preferences.
problem Algorithmic bias in RLHF leading to preference collapse.
method Preference Matching (PM) RLHF, using PM regularizer and conditional variant.
result 29% to 41% improvement in alignment with human preferences.
The paper explores fairness and calibration in machine learning models.
problem Tackles the tension between fairness and calibration in predictive models.
method Investigates the compatibility of minimizing error disparity and maintaining calibrated probability estimates.
result Calibration is compatible only with a single error constraint (equal false-negatives rates across groups), and any algorithm satisfying this relaxation is no better than randomizing predictions.
Study of negative ads on social media during U.S. midterm elections.
problem Understanding the effectiveness and mechanisms of negative advertising on social media.
method Machine learning for sentiment analysis, AI image recognition, ordinal regressions.
result Negative ads are less effective than previously thought, anger is a key mechanism.
Paper introduces SLS to improve label smoothing regularization.
problem Improve generalization of neural networks by softening labels.
method Structural Label Smoothing (SLS) to mitigate bias in Bayes error rate.
result Empirical validation shows SLS outperforms traditional label smoothing.
The paper examines fairness issues in decision-making systems when protected class labels are unobserved.
problem Fairness assessment challenges when protected class labels are unavailable.
method Decomposes biases in estimating outcome disparity via threshold-based imputation and proposes a weighted estimator.
result Threshold-based imputation generally overestimates disparities, while the weighted estimator has a simpler negative bias.
Paper proposes an adversarial sampling method for efficient extreme classification.
problem Training classifiers over many classes is computationally expensive.
method Adversarial sampling to draw negative samples from an adversarial model.
result Significantly reduces training time by an order of magnitude.
Proposes a method to increase diversity without sacrificing meritocracy.
problem Systemic bias in datasets affecting diversity and meritocracy.
method Optimally flipping outcome labels and training classification models simultaneously.
result The price of diversity is low and sometimes negative, enhancing diversity without significantly affecting meritocracy.
Conventional collaborative filtering techniques treat a top-n recommendations problem as a task of generating a list of the most relevant items. This formulation, however, disregards an opposite - avoiding recommendations with completely irrelevant items. Due to that bias, standard algorithms, as well as commonly used …
GWIB improves counterfactual regression by balancing latent distributions and reducing selection bias.
problem Selection bias between control and treatment groups negatively impacts counterfactual regression performance.
method GWIB uses Gromov-Wasserstein information bottleneck to maximize mutual information between covariates and outcomes while penalizing kernelized mutual information between latent representations and covariates.
result GWIB consistently outperforms state-of-the-art CFR methods in ITE estimation tasks.
ZeroS improves Transformers by adding negative weights, matching or beating softmax attention.
problem Limited performance of linear attention methods, especially in long context sequences.
method Proposes Zero-Sum Linear Attention (ZeroS) that removes the zero-order term and reweights zero-sum softmax residuals.
result ZeroS matches or exceeds standard softmax attention across various benchmarks, theoretically expanding representable functions.
A new method improves the DNN estimator for mean regression, achieving optimal convergence rates.
problem Lack of distributional results and suboptimal convergence rates for DNN estimator.
method Two-scale distributional nearest neighbors (TDNN) estimator, combining two DNN estimators with different subsampling scales.
result The two-scale DNN estimator achieves the optimal nonparametric convergence rate under fourth-order smoothness.
New method models negative correlations in knowledge graphs.
problem Lack of negative correlation in probabilistic extensions of order embeddings.
method Box lattice measures for probabilistic modeling of negative correlations.
result Models can now capture negative correlations and disjoint concepts.
New method identifies causal relationships using proxy variables in the presence of unmeasured confounders.
problem Challenges in inferring causal relationships due to unmeasured confounding.
method Develops a general nonparametric approach using a single negative control outcome (NCO) and negative control exposure (NCE).
result Establishes a new identification result and proposes a kernel-based testing procedure.
RS-PINN uses randomized smoothing to speed up high-dimensional PDE simulations without sacrificing accuracy.
problem High computational cost and bias in PINNs for high-dimensional PDEs.
method Introduces Gaussian noise for stochastic smoothing of PINNs, enabling Monte Carlo derivative approximation.
result Proposes bias correction techniques and a hybrid method to optimize the bias-variance trade-off.
Tree-based models biased when trained on imbalanced data, requiring new calibration methods.
problem Bias in tree-based models trained on imbalanced datasets.
method Analytical calibration of random forest models, demonstrating bias in decision trees.
result Calibrating tree-based models on imbalanced data negatively impacts predictions, especially for the minority class.
We introduce a new dynamical system for sequentially observed multivariate count data. This model is based on the gamma--Poisson construction---a natural choice for count data---and relies on a novel Bayesian nonparametric prior that ties and shrinks the model parameters, thus avoiding overfitting. We present an effici…