Develops methods to improve demand counterfactuals from imperfect proxies.
problem Imperfect proxies in demand models lead to biased counterfactuals and invalid inference.
method Practical toolkit for market-level and individual data, requiring minimal computation.
result Improves substitution prediction and counterfactual performance.
New conditions show proxy data can improve policy learning in sparse expert data contexts.
problem Improving sample complexity of policy learning with sparse expert data.
method Sufficient conditions for proxy data to improve sample complexity, adaptable to LLMs.
result Provable improvement in sample complexity for policy learning with proxy data.
DFPV improves PCL for confounded bandit policy evaluation.
problem Estimating causal effects in confounded settings with high-dimensional data.
method Deep feature proxy variable method (DFPV) for high-dimensional, nonlinear relationships.
result DFPV outperforms state-of-the-art methods on synthetic benchmarks and confounded bandit problems.
Due to the recent advances on Neural Architecture Search (NAS), it gains popularity in designing best networks for specific tasks. Although it shows promising results on many benchmarks and competitions, NAS still suffers from its demanding computation cost for searching high dimensional architectural design space, and…
Predictive analytics is increasingly used to guide decision-making in many applications. However, in practice, we often have limited data on the true predictive task of interest, and must instead rely on more abundant data on a closely-related proxy predictive task. For example, e-commerce platforms use abundant custom…
Study semi-supervised learning with noisy proxy covariates, deriving bounds and showing gains.
problem Learning from noisy proxy covariates with scarce labels.
method Two-stage estimator learning kernel eigenfeatures from all proxy covariates and fitting a ridge predictor on labeled data.
result Finite sample bounds show fast labeled sample rates and consistent gains over supervised and semi-supervised baselines.
Estimates proxy-based inference adjustments for distribution shifts.
problem Imperfect proxy data leads to biased inference.
method Empirical calibration of proxy-primary metric discrepancy as a random effect.
result Empowers inference without individual-level response data.
Bayesian method estimates causal effects with proxy networks.
problem Estimating causal effects with only proxy measurements of a latent interference network.
method Structural causal model with Block Gibbs sampler and Locally Informed Proposals.
result Accurately estimates causal effects even with noisy proxy networks.
New method recovers latent confounders from high-dimensional proxy variables.
problem Detecting latent confounders from high-dimensional proxy variables.
method Proxy Confounder Factorization (PCF) framework using ICA-PCF and GD-PCF.
result ICA-PCF recovers confounders with high correlation and low error in synthetic and real-world data.
Data selection methods, such as active learning and core-set selection, are useful tools for machine learning on large datasets. However, they can be prohibitively expensive to apply in deep learning because they depend on feature representations that need to be learned. In this work, we show that we can greatly improv…
The paper shows how to use proxy attributes for fairness in machine learning models with missing sensitive group data.
problem Measuring and enforcing fairness in machine learning models with incomplete sensitive group data.
method Using proxy-sensitive attributes to derive upper bounds on multiaccuracy and multicalibration violations and adjust models to satisfy these fairness notions.
result Provable upper bounds on multiaccuracy and multicalibration violations can be derived using proxy-sensitive attributes in the absence of sensitive group data.
One of the biggest bottlenecks in a machine learning workflow is waiting for models to train. Depending on the available computing resources, it can take days to weeks to train a neural network on a large dataset with many classes such as ImageNet. For researchers experimenting with new algorithmic approaches, this is …
Develops a method to estimate treatment effects using noisy proxies over time.
problem Estimating individualized treatment effects from noisy proxies of confounders.
method Deconfounding Temporal Autoencoder (DTA) combining autoencoder and causal regularization.
result Improves treatment effect estimates by leveraging noisy proxies and learning hidden confounders.
A new framework improves VaR recalibration by balancing reliance on imperfect volatility proxies.
problem How to balance reliance on imperfect volatility proxies in one-sided VaR recalibration.
method Proxy-reliance control framework that interpolates between constant-shift and proxy-scaled corrections.
result Lower or intermediate proxy reliance can outperform fully proxy-scaled recalibration in stressed left-tail VaR control.
Proposes a method to create robust linear models with noisy proxies of unobserved variables.
problem Learning robust linear models to handle interventions on unobserved variables with noisy proxies.
method Regularization term that balances in-distribution performance and robustness to interventions.
result Single proxy can create prediction optimal estimators under interventions of bounded strength.
Method for creating synthetic multi-fidelity data sets.
problem Lack of representative synthetic datasets for multifidelity optimisation benchmarks.
method Systematic generation of synthetic fidelities from preexisting datasets.
result Allows systematic investigation of lower fidelity proxies' influence.
Regulators require financial institutions to estimate counterparty default risks from liquid CDS quotes for the valuation and risk management of OTC derivatives. However, the vast majority of counterparties do not have liquid CDS quotes and need proxy CDS rates. Existing methods cannot account for counterparty-specific…
Estimates causal effect using proxies in multi-domain settings.
problem Estimating causal effect in settings with unobserved confounders across domains.
method Proposes estimation techniques using proxy variables for discrete or categorical data.
result Proves identifiability and consistency of causal effect estimation.
A proxy network for few-shot learning improves model generalization.
problem Training models with limited data for new classes.
method Meta-learning architecture with a proxy network that learns class representatives and distance metrics.
result The proxy network outperforms state-of-the-art methods in few-shot learning tasks.
SAGE generates subsurface velocity models from sparse well logs and seismic images.
problem Lack of high-quality subsurface velocity models due to limited data availability.
method Subsurface AI-driven geostatistical extraction using proxy posterior.
result SAGE produces geologically plausible and statistically accurate velocity realizations.
Bayesian method mitigates negative transfer in unknown source data.
problem Negative transfer in transfer learning where target performance worsens after source data consideration.
method Proxy-informed robust method for probabilistic transfer learning (PROMPT).
result Negative transfer can be mitigated without prior knowledge of source data.
Study accelerates NAS research with a large dataset of ZC proxies.
problem Speeding up neural architecture search with ZC proxies.
method Created NAS-Bench-Suite, evaluated 13 ZC proxies across 28 tasks, and provided a unified codebase.
result ZC proxies capture substantial complementary information and can improve NAS algorithm performance.
Unified framework for analyzing neural networks trained by gradient descent.
problem Lack of generalizable guarantees for neural networks trained by gradient descent.
method Proxy convexity and proxy Polyak-Lojasiewicz inequalities.
result Unified guarantees for neural networks trained by gradient descent.
Q-NETs use neural networks to estimate integrals of low-dimensional functions efficiently.
problem Estimating integrals of multidimensional functions with costly evaluations.
method Fixed neural networks (Q-NETs) that operate on proxy function parameters to calculate exact integrals over subsets of dimensions.
result Q-NETs can calculate integrals over any subset of dimensions without resampling or retraining the proxy.
As data sets grow in size, the ability of learning methods to find structure in them is increasingly hampered by the time needed to search the large spaces of possibilities and generate a score for each that takes all of the observed data into account. For instance, Bayesian networks, the model chosen in this paper, ha…
New methods identify causal effects without needing complete proxy variables.
problem Identifying causal effects in the presence of unmeasured confounders.
method Partial identification methods that do not require completeness of proxy variables.
result Obtain bounds on causal effects using available proxy variables.
PROBE optimizes best-arm identification with cheap proxies, improving sample complexity.
problem Fixed-confidence best-arm identification with costly rewards and correlated cheap proxies.
method PROBE uses control-variate adjustment and phase elimination to learn residual variance online.
result PROBE achieves oracle sample complexity up to a constant factor and additive calibration cost.
Improved 3D MRI classification using contrastive learning with continuous proxy metadata.
problem Insufficient labelled data for 3D medical image classification.
method Proposed a new loss function (y-Aware InfoNCE) to leverage continuous proxy metadata in contrastive learning.
result 3D CNN model pre-trained on 10^4 multi-site healthy brain MRI scans outperforms fully-supervised methods.
Improved MCMC sampling for expensive, irregular likelihoods.
problem Bayesian inference challenges with irregular, expensive likelihoods.
method Adapt subset samplers, introduce data-driven proxies, adaptive controller.
result Improved HINTS algorithm achieves best sampling error in fixed budget.
CUTS removes corruption from models without clean data, improving utility and security.
problem Removing corruption from models without access to clean training data.
method CUTS uses a proxy set to amplify corruption and subtract it from model weights.
result CUTS recovers a large fraction of lost utility and nearly eliminates attacks with minimal damage.
Algorithm identifies best arm with biased proxy and selective ground truth audits.
problem Fixed-confidence best-arm identification with biased proxy and selective ground truth.
method Propensity-weighted estimator and adaptive auditing algorithm.
result Plug-in Neyman rule achieves near-oracle audit efficiency.
PPI uses proxy data to improve inference from limited labels across related tasks.
problem Statistical inference with limited labels across multiple related tasks.
method Prediction-powered inference framework that uses cross-task recalibration to improve power and accuracy.
result Cross-task recalibration can substantially reduce confidence interval widths when labels are scarce.
Estimates causal effects with selection bias and confounding using regression.
problem Estimating causal effects in presence of selection bias and confounding.
method Two-step regression estimator (TSR) that corrects for selection bias and accounts for confounding.
result TSR estimator reduces variance and is validated in simulations.
ML models predict water table depth more accurately than PB models, especially in data-scarce regions.
problem Uncertainty in large-scale simulations of water table depth due to biased observational data and model flexibility.
method Constructed three ML models using XGBoost and over 20 million real and proxy observations across the US and Canada.
result ML models correlate 0.6-0.75 with real and proxy observations, significantly better than PB models (0.21-0.40).
A framework uses proxies to prioritize treatment without estimating causal effects.
problem Prioritizing treatment when causal effects are hard to estimate.
method Decision-focused framework identifying conditions for proxy usefulness.
result Proxies can recover correct effect ordering under specific conditions.
Single proxy variable helps estimate causal effects from confounders.
problem Estimating causal effects from treatment to outcome when unobserved confounders are present.
method Assumes a single, potentially multi-dimensional proxy variable of the unobserved confounder and a known mechanism generating the proxy from the confounder. Proves causal effects are identifiable under completeness assumption.
result Causal effects are identifiable under SPICE assumption.
We often desire our models to be interpretable as well as accurate. Prior work on optimizing models for interpretability has relied on easy-to-quantify proxies for interpretability, such as sparsity or the number of operations required. In this work, we optimize for interpretability by directly including humans in the …
Extends causal inference to hidden mediators with proxies.
problem Identifying causal effects with hidden mediators and error-prone proxies.
method Established causal hidden mediation analysis and hidden front-door criterion.
result Identification of population intervention indirect effect possible with hidden mediators.
A scalable method for deep metric learning using chance constraints.
problem Improving deep metric learning by addressing feasibility issues.
method Relating DML to chance constraints, reformulating as a feasibility problem, and iteratively training proxies.
result The method effectively improves deep metric learning performance across multiple benchmarks.
Motivated by the need to audit complex and black box models, there has been extensive research on quantifying how data features influence model predictions. Feature influence can be direct (a direct influence on model outcomes) and indirect (model outcomes are influenced via proxy features). Feature influence can also …
New method handles many noisy proxy controls for causal inference.
problem Causal inference with many noisy proxy controls and unknown confounders.
method Linear models with rank-restricted and sparse nuisance parameters, penalization methods.
result Estimators achieve better performance in high dimensions, especially with many proxies.
Predicting delayed outcomes is an important problem in recommender systems (e.g., if customers will finish reading an ebook). We formalize the problem as an adversarial, delayed online learning problem and consider how a proxy for the delayed outcome (e.g., if customers read a third of the book in 24 hours) can help mi…
Granger causality analysis, as one of the most popular time series causality methods, has been widely used in the economics, neuroscience. However, unobserved confounders is a fundamental problem in the observational studies, which is still not solved for the non-linear Granger causality. The application works often de…
A machine learning model may exhibit discrimination when used to make decisions involving people. One potential cause for such outcomes is that the model uses a statistical proxy for a protected demographic attribute. In this paper we formulate a definition of proxy use for the setting of linear regression and present …
A new probabilistic approach improves deep metric learning by considering image uncertainties and class-specific variances.
problem Proxy-based deep metric learning struggles with image uncertainties and class-specific structures.
method Introduces non-isotropic probabilistic proxy-based deep metric learning using directional von Mises-Fisher distributions.
result Improves generalization performance and competitive on standard benchmarks.
Adapts to shifts in latent subgroup distributions without labeled target data.
problem Adapting to domain shifts when latent subgroup distributions differ.
method Uses concept and proxy variables from source domain, and unlabeled target data.
result Optimal target predictor can be identified and estimated.
New method identifies proxies for causal effects on multiple outcomes.
problem Estimating causal effects in scenarios with multiple outcomes and treatments.
method Causal discovery method leveraging multiple outcomes as proxies for each treatment effect.
result Parallel studies of multiple outcomes can assist in causal identification.
Kernel methods estimate causal effects with a single proxy for deterministic confounders.
problem Estimating causal effects with a single proxy for an unobserved confounder.
method Two kernel-based methods: two-stage regression and maximum moment restriction.
result Both kernel methods can consistently estimate the causal effect.