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.
Research suggests using deep learning for better recommendation systems.
problem Recommender systems rely on proxies for A/B testing, leading to random success.
method Advocates for using deep learning to improve recommendation performance.
result Deep learning can potentially optimize reward in recommendation systems.
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.
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…
Proposes a method to correct for covariate shift in meta-analysis of randomized trials.
problem Invalidation of standard IPD meta-analysis due to covariate shift across studies.
method Placebo-anchored transport framework that treats source-trial outcomes as proxy signals and target-trial placebo outcomes as gold labels.
result Yields target-identified effect estimates in connected targets and a principled screen--then--transport procedure in disconnected targets.
Two proxy methods for causal identification are compared.
problem Identifying causal effects in the presence of unmeasured variables.
method Bridge equation methods vs. array decomposition methods.
result Model restrictions and implications of assumptions differ between methods.
New method removes unwanted information from representations efficiently.
problem Learning representations that are uninformative about a target variable.
method Adversarial training with a novel proxy metric for mutual information, leading to an analytically computable approximation.
result Our method effectively removes unwanted information with limited time budget.
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.
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.
Estimates model performance under distribution shift using domain-invariant predictors.
problem Poor performance of models on test distributions different from training distributions.
method Uses domain-invariant predictors as a proxy for unknown target labels.
result Shows that the complexity of latent representations influences target risk.
New method identifies latent treatment effects from proxy models.
problem Identifying heterogeneous treatment effects under unobserved confounding.
method Compressed observable operator and spectral analysis of treatment effects.
result Eigenvalues of the operator represent latent treatment effects.
New method improves ensemble inference for high-class tasks.
problem High inference costs for ensemble models.
method Proxy-Dirichlet target to minimize reverse KL-divergence.
result Resolves gradient issues for large-scale classification tasks.
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 …
Recent policy optimization approaches (Schulman et al., 2015a; 2017) have achieved substantial empirical successes by constructing new proxy optimization objectives. These proxy objectives allow stable and low variance policy learning, but require small policy updates to ensure that the proxy objective remains an accur…
Activists align with large fund preferences for success.
problem Aligning with large fund preferences increases activist success.
method Analyzed previous proxy voting behavior to estimate preferences and correlated them with activist success.
result Campaigns with higher alignment receive more votes and are more successful.
Spatial machine learning improves poverty targeting in Indonesia.
problem Conventional PMT methods have high exclusion and inclusion errors due to spatial dependencies and regional heterogeneity.
method Integrates spatial contiguity matrices into SML models to identify and compare poverty clusters.
result SML reduces exclusion errors from 28% to 20% compared to standard machine learning models.
New approach predicts under latent shifts using high-dimensional images.
problem Prediction under latent subgroup shifts with high-dimensional observations.
method Recognition-parametrised model (RPM) for identifying causal latent structure.
result Successfully adapts predictions for high-dimensional image data.
The paper targets optimal interventions for long-term outcomes using imputed data and policy learning.
problem Maximizing long-term outcomes observed only in the future.
method Imputing missing long-term outcomes and using a doubly-robust approach for policy evaluation and optimization.
result The approach outperforms simple short-term proxies and achieves significant revenue impact over three years.
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.
Improved transfer learning with expert models, reducing compute and speeding up performance.
problem Improving sample efficiency and reducing computational requirements for new tasks.
method Training a diverse set of experts using existing label structures and performance proxies to select the relevant expert for each target task.
result Significant speed-up of 2-3 orders of magnitude compared to competing approaches.
When society maintains a competitive system to promote an abstract goal, competition by necessity relies on imperfect proxy measures. For instance profit is used to measure value to consumers, patient volumes to measure hospital performance, or the Journal Impact Factor to measure scientific value. Here we note that \t…
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.
Paper analyzes self-supervised learning using causal methods and proposes a new objective.
problem Lack of theoretical understanding of self-supervised learning success.
method Uses a causal framework to enforce invariance constraints on proxy classifiers.
result ReLIC objective improves generalization guarantees and outperforms existing methods.
Neural architecture search (NAS) has a great impact by automatically designing effective neural network architectures. However, the prohibitive computational demand of conventional NAS algorithms (e.g. 104 GPU hours) makes it difficult to \emph{directly} search the architectures on large-scale tasks (e.g. ImageNet).…
The paper proposes a neural network architecture inspired by Langevin Monte Carlo for sampling from target distributions.
problem Sampling from complex target distributions efficiently.
method A neural network architecture inspired by Langevin Monte Carlo is proposed to map samples from a simple reference distribution to samples from the target.
result The proposed neural network architecture achieves approximation rates in the Wasserstein-2 distance for smooth, log-concave target distributions.
We study the problem of unsupervised domain adaptation, which aims to adapt classifiers trained on a labeled source domain to an unlabeled target domain. Many existing approaches first learn domain-invariant features and then construct classifiers with them. We propose a novel approach that jointly learn the both. Spec…
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.
Improved sampling efficiency for inverse problems using variance-reduced diffusion methods.
problem Efficiently estimating noisy scores in inverse problems.
method Developed a nonparametric self-normalized importance sampling estimator and a state-dependent blending rule.
result Improved sample quality for fixed simulation budgets in synthetic targets and PDE-governed inverse problems.
Adversarial attacks have exposed a significant security vulnerability in state-of-the-art machine learning models. Among these models include deep reinforcement learning agents. The existing methods for attacking reinforcement learning agents assume the adversary either has access to the target agent's learned paramete…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Proposes a falsification framework to test algorithmic discriminant validity.
problem Unintended model behavior in predictive algorithms.
method Falsification framework based on statistical tests comparing prediction losses across outcomes.
result Establishes discriminant validity for some outcomes but not others.
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.
Paper addresses fairness issues in error-prone outcomes.
problem Fairness in error-prone outcomes.
method Combining fair ML methods and measurement models.
result Using a latent variable model removes detected unfairness.
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…
Proposes a test to ensure predictive algorithms predict intended outcomes better than unintended ones.
problem Unintended model behavior leading to prediction of unintended outcomes.
method Falsification framework using nonparametric hypothesis testing to compare prediction losses across outcomes.
result Establishes discriminant validity with respect to gender but not race in an admissions setting.
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 …
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.
New methods target conditional demographic parity using optimal transport distances.
problem Auditing and enforcing conditional demographic parity (CDP) in models with complex conditioning variables.
method Developed novel measures of conditional demographic disparity (CDD) based on optimal transport distances and regularization-based approaches.
result Validated methods airbit{} and airlp{} effectively target CDP in real-world datasets with continuous model outputs.
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.
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.
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.
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.