Study estimates 163 million online freelancers globally.
problem Estimating the number of online workers globally.
method Combining data from various online labour platforms.
result Headline estimate of 163 million registered profiles.
On-device research index
arXiv research
A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.
168,695 papers · 148 categories
Trend · papers per month
48 results for “online workers”
The paper offers algorithms for managing freelancers and in-house workers in online labor markets.
problem Managing freelancers and in-house workers in online labor markets efficiently.
method Developed algorithms for team formation with outsourcing in an online setting.
result Efficient online algorithms for minimizing costs in hiring and outsourcing.
Study fair team formation in online labor marketplaces.
problem Design fair algorithms for team formation in online labor marketplaces.
method Define and analyze the Fair Team Formation problem, provide inapproximability results, and develop four algorithms.
result Developed four algorithms for fair team formation in online labor marketplaces.
Crowdsourcing is a relatively economic and efficient solution to collect annotations from the crowd through online platforms. Answers collected from workers with different expertise may be noisy and unreliable, and the quality of annotated data needs to be further maintained. Various solutions have been attempted to ob…
An online labor platform faces an online learning problem in matching workers with jobs and using the performance on these jobs to create better future matches. This learning problem is complicated by the rise of complex tasks on these platforms, such as web development and product design, that require a team of worker…
Noisy labeled data is more a norm than a rarity for crowd sourced contents. It is effective to distill noise and infer correct labels through aggregation results from crowd workers. To ensure the time relevance and overcome slow responses of workers, online label aggregation is increasingly requested, calling for solut…
Today, the prominence of data science within organizations has given rise to teams of data science workers collaborating on extracting insights from data, as opposed to individual data scientists working alone. However, we still lack a deep understanding of how data science workers collaborate in practice. In this work…
Tight Convergence Rates for Online Distributed Linear Estimation with Adversarial Measurementsstat.ML
Study improves distributed linear estimation under adversarial conditions.
problem Mean estimation of a random vector with adversarial measurements and asynchrony.
method Two-timescale ℓ1-minimization algorithm with tight convergence rates.
result Unified finite-time characterization of robustness, identifiability, and statistical efficiency.
Most of the prior work on multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) achieves optimal collaboration by directly controlling the agents to maximize a common reward. In this paper, we aim to address this from a different angle. In particular, we consider scenarios where there are self-interested agents (i.e., worker agent…
Clapping reduces memory usage in distributed optimization by reusing data samples.
problem Significant communication overhead and impractical memory overhead in pipeline-parallel distributed optimization.
method Lazy sampling strategy to reuse data samples across steps, supporting convergence without unbiased gradient assumptions.
result Clapping achieves convergence in few-epoch or online training regimes without sample-size memory overhead.
Crowdsourced labeling recovers task types with minimal queries.
problem Labeling tasks accurately with minimal queries.
method Worker clustering, skill estimation, weighted majority voting.
result Achieves any targeted recovery accuracy with minimum queries.
A Worker-Task Specialization Model for Crowdsourcing: Efficient Inference and Fundamental Limitscs.HC
New model optimizes worker-task specialization for crowdsourcing.
problem Inferring correct labels from noisy answers across varying worker and task skills.
method Introduced a -type specialization model to account for varying worker and task types, and proposed algorithms achieving optimal sample complexity.
result Optimal label inference algorithms for crowdsourcing with unknown worker and task types.
Crowdsourcing provides a popular paradigm for data collection at scale. We study the problem of selecting subsets of workers from a given worker pool to maximize the accuracy under a budget constraint. One natural question is whether we should hire as many workers as the budget allows, or restrict on a small number of …
A new algorithm reduces training time for distributed machine learning by dynamically assigning backup workers.
problem Time-consuming synchronization phase due to slow workers (stragglers).
method Dynamic allocation of backup workers to minimize waiting time.
result Achieves linear speedup in convergence performance with more workers.
Due to concerns about human error in crowdsourcing, it is standard practice to collect labels for the same data point from multiple internet workers. We here show that the resulting budget can be used more effectively with a flexible worker assignment strategy that asks fewer workers to analyze easy-to-label data and m…
Consider unsupervised clustering of objects drawn from a discrete set, through the use of human intelligence available in crowdsourcing platforms. This paper defines and studies the problem of universal clustering using responses of crowd workers, without knowledge of worker reliability or task difficulty. We model sto…
We propose Zeno++, a new robust asynchronous Stochastic Gradient Descent~(SGD) procedure which tolerates Byzantine failures of the workers. In contrast to previous work, Zeno++ removes some unrealistic restrictions on worker-server communications, allowing for fully asynchronous updates from anonymous workers, arbitrar…
While training a machine learning model using multiple workers, each of which collects data from their own data sources, it would be most useful when the data collected from different workers can be {\em unique} and {\em different}. Ironically, recent analysis of decentralized parallel stochastic gradient descent (D-PS…
The number of Italian firms in function of the number of workers is well approximated by an inverse power law up to 15 workers but shows a clear downward deflection beyond this point, both when using old pre-1999 data and when using recent (2014) data. This phenomenon could be associated with employent protection legis…
New principle reduces load imbalance in LLM serving systems, saving up to 52% energy.
problem Wasted computational power due to load imbalance in LLM serving systems.
method Developed a universal load-balancing principle for barrier-synchronized systems with non-migratable state.
result Proves worst-case theoretical guarantees for imbalance reduction and energy savings.
Integrates multiple datasets to solve open set crowdsourcing problems.
problem Crowdsourcing with unknown label space and unfamiliar tasks.
method Integrates multiple crowdsourced datasets, weights them based on category correlation, and uses open set transfer learning.
result Proves OSCrowd solves open set crowdsourcing problems and outperforms related solutions.
DynBRO learns robustly from dynamic Byzantine workers.
problem Fault-tolerant distributed learning with dynamic Byzantine workers.
method Multi-level Monte Carlo (MLMC) gradient estimation and adaptive learning rate.
result DynaBRO nearly matches static setting's convergence rate with Byzantine worker changes.
Generative AI at Workecon.GN
Generative AI boosts productivity and improves customer service quality.
problem Productivity and quality of customer support agents.
method Staggered introduction of a generative AI-based conversational assistant in customer support.
result AI increases productivity by 15% on average, with significant heterogeneity across workers.
In this paper, we focus on approaches to parallelizing stochastic gradient descent (SGD) wherein data is farmed out to a set of workers, the results of which, after a number of updates, are then combined at a central master node. Although such synchronized SGD approaches parallelize well in idealized computing environm…
Anytime MiniBatch speeds up online distributed optimization by handling slow nodes.
problem Mitigating the impact of slow nodes (stragglers) in distributed optimization.
method Proposes an online distributed optimization method that averages minibatch gradients via consensus rounds.
result Prevents stragglers from slowing progress without wasting work.
A method to robustly federate learning with non-i.i.d. data and Byzantine workers.
problem Byzantine workers sending malicious messages in federated learning with non-i.i.d. data.
method Resampling strategy to reduce inner and outer variation, stochastic average gradient, robust geometric median aggregation.
result The method reaches a neighborhood of the optimal solution at a linear convergence rate and learning error depends on the number of Byzantine workers.
Cost-efficient distributed learning via combinatorial bandits.
problem Trade-off between error and runtime in distributed SGD.
method Combinatorial multi-armed bandit model to learn fastest workers.
result Significantly lower errors with same computational efforts and less communication.
Classification methods based on sparse estimation have drawn much attention recently, due to their effectiveness in processing high-dimensional data such as images. In this paper, a method to improve the performance of a sparse representation classification (SRC) approach is proposed; it is then applied to the problem …
To accelerate the training of machine learning models, distributed stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and its variants have been widely adopted, which apply multiple workers in parallel to speed up training. Among them, Local SGD has gained much attention due to its lower communication cost. Nevertheless, when the data …
We consider the problem faced by a service platform that needs to match limited supply with demand but also to learn the attributes of new users in order to match them better in the future. We introduce a benchmark model with heterogeneous "workers" (demand) and a limited supply of "jobs" that arrive over time. Job typ…
Paper improves communication in distributed optimization, reducing worker-to-server data exchanges.
problem Efficiency in server-to-worker communication in distributed optimization.
method MARINA-P, a novel downlink compression method using correlated compressors; M3, combining MARINA-P with uplink compression.
result MARINA-P achieves provably superior server-to-worker communication complexity with increasing number of workers.
RelaySum improves decentralized deep learning by uniformly distributing data across workers.
problem Handling data heterogeneity in decentralized deep learning.
method RelaySum uses spanning trees to distribute information exactly uniformly across all workers with finite delays.
result RelaySum is independent of data heterogeneity and scales to many workers, enabling highly accurate decentralized deep learning.
New algorithm reduces communication traffic in decentralized learning.
problem Communication bottleneck in decentralized learning for low-bandwidth workers.
method Sparsification and adaptive peer selection to reduce communication traffic.
result Significant reduction in communication traffic compared to existing methods.
In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm for stochastic smooth, non-convex optimization. We assume a worker-server architecture where nodes, each having (potentially infinite) number of samples, collaborate with the help of a central server to perform the optimization task. The global objective is to m…
Crowdsourcing systems, in which numerous tasks are electronically distributed to numerous "information piece-workers", have emerged as an effective paradigm for human-powered solving of large scale problems in domains such as image classification, data entry, optical character recognition, recommendation, and proofread…
We consider unreliable distributed learning systems wherein the training data is kept confidential by external workers, and the learner has to interact closely with those workers to train a model. In particular, we assume that there exists a system adversary that can adaptively compromise some workers; the compromised …
Ringmaster ASGD improves Asynchronous SGD's efficiency under varying worker times.
problem Suboptimal performance of Asynchronous SGD under heterogeneous worker computation times.
method Ringmaster ASGD, a novel Asynchronous SGD method with optimal time complexity.
result Ringmaster ASGD achieves optimal time complexity under arbitrary worker heterogeneity.
In crowd labeling, a large amount of unlabeled data instances are outsourced to a crowd of workers. Workers will be paid for each label they provide, but the labeling requester usually has only a limited amount of the budget. Since data instances have different levels of labeling difficulty and workers have different r…
The event-driven and elastic nature of serverless runtimes makes them a very efficient and cost-effective alternative for scaling up computations. So far, they have mostly been used for stateless, data parallel and ephemeral computations. In this work, we propose using serverless runtimes to solve generic, large-scale …
Asynchronous distributed machine learning solutions have proven very effective so far, but always assuming perfectly functioning workers. In practice, some of the workers can however exhibit Byzantine behavior, caused by hardware failures, software bugs, corrupt data, or even malicious attacks. We introduce \emph{Karda…
Collaborative filtering, especially latent factor model, has been popularly used in personalized recommendation. Latent factor model aims to learn user and item latent factors from user-item historic behaviors. To apply it into real big data scenarios, efficiency becomes the first concern, including offline model train…
The prediction of workers' safety behaviour can help identify vulnerable workers who intend to undertake unsafe behaviours and be useful in the design of management practices to minimise the occurrence of accidents. The latest literature has evidenced that there is within-population diversity that leads people's intend…
Improves distributed SGD convergence speed with reduced computation load.
problem Mitigating stragglers in distributed SGD to speed up convergence.
method Modeling communication and computation times, adapting number of workers and computation load dynamically.
result Significantly reduces computation load while improving convergence speed.
Partial model averaging improves Federated Learning performance.
problem Periodic model averaging causes significant model discrepancy in Federated Learning.
method Proposes a partial model averaging framework that encourages local models to stay close to each other.
result Partial averaging achieves up to 2.2% higher validation accuracy than full averaging.
We consider worker skill estimation for the single-coin Dawid-Skene crowdsourcing model. In practice, skill-estimation is challenging because worker assignments are sparse and irregular due to the arbitrary and uncontrolled availability of workers. We formulate skill estimation as a rank-one correlation-matrix completi…
Study user engagement in mobile health apps for health workers in resource-poor settings.
problem Detect churn and tailor content for health workers in mobile health apps.
method Probabilistic and survival analysis of behavioral logs.
result Personalized measures of meaningful engagement can enhance health outcomes.
Machine Learning (ML) solutions are nowadays distributed and are prone to various types of component failures, which can be encompassed in so-called Byzantine behavior. This paper introduces LiuBei, a Byzantine-resilient ML algorithm that does not trust any individual component in the network (neither workers nor serve…
COMRADE is a communication-efficient, Byzantine-resilient second-order optimization algorithm.
problem Byzantine failures in distributed optimization.
method COMRADE is a communication-efficient, second-order optimization algorithm that uses a simple norm-based thresholding rule to filter out Byzantine workers.
result COMRADE achieves linear-quadratic convergence and is robust against Byzantine workers.