We consider the problem of sequential learning from categorical observations bounded in [0,1]. We establish an ordering between the Dirichlet posterior over categorical outcomes and a Gaussian posterior under observations with N(0,1) noise. We establish that, conditioned upon identical data with at least two observatio…
A new method for Bayesian inference using diffusion models.
problem Bayesian inference in simulator-based models.
method Score-based diffusion models trained with a sequential training procedure.
result Comparable or superior performance compared to existing methods.
New algorithms for fast online decision making using neural networks and martingale posteriors.
problem Online sequential decision making under uncertainty.
method Martingale posterior neural networks for fast online learning and decision making.
result Achieves competitive performance-speed trade-offs in non-stationary contextual bandits and Bayesian optimization.
New method improves generative model performance by fully conditioning variational posteriors.
problem Inaccurate inference due to partial conditioning of variational posteriors in sequential LVMs.
method Introduces fully-conditioned approximate posteriors to improve generative model performance.
result Improves generative modelling and multi-step prediction performance.
Efficiently updates posterior tree distributions over meta-trees.
problem Updating posterior distributions over meta-trees efficiently.
method Batch updating method for posterior tree distributions.
result More efficient batch updating method.
SNPLA uses normalizing flows for efficient inference in implicit models.
problem Efficient inference in implicit models with complex likelihood and posterior learning.
method Sequential Neural Posterior and Likelihood Approximation (SNPLA) algorithm using normalizing flows.
result SNPLA achieves competitive performance with faster posterior draws compared to MCMC methods.
Simulation-based inference methods can produce unreliable posterior approximations.
problem Reliability of simulation-based inference methods for scientific use cases.
method Benchmarked algorithms including Neural Posterior Estimation, Neural Ratio Estimation, Sequential Neural Likelihood, and Approximate Bayesian Computation.
result Ensembling posterior surrogates provides more reliable approximations.
A new method improves uncertainty quantification in Bayesian inference.
problem Poor uncertainty quantification in traditional Gibbs posteriors.
method Sequential Gibbs posteriors with a Bernstein-von Mises theorem.
result Sequential Gibbs posteriors provide better frequentist coverage.
VAR-GPs solve continual learning by updating posteriors sequentially.
problem Catastrophic forgetting in sequential learning tasks.
method Sparse inducing point approximations and auto-regressive variational distribution.
result VAR-GPs prevent catastrophic forgetting and outperform baselines.
TSNPE improves SBI efficiency and scalability.
problem Efficient and scalable simulation-based inference for complex models.
method Sequential inference with truncated proposals.
result TSNPE performs on par with previous methods and scales to complex models.
Bayesian RL tackles uncertainty with deep generative models and sequential samplers.
problem Optimal decision-making in uncertain environments with limited data.
method Bayesian approach using deep generative models and prequential scoring rule for posterior inference. Policy learning via expected Thompson sampling.
result Improves policy learning in high-dimensional parameter spaces and continuous action spaces.
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.
Warm-start strategies speed up GP inference by 19x.
problem Efficient sequential inference in Gaussian processes.
method Three warm-start strategies exploiting smaller linear systems.
result Warm-starting achieves up to 19x speed-up in convergence.
This paper speeds up iterative GP inference with warm starting.
problem Improving scalability of Gaussian process inference.
method Warm starting sequential posteriors using known solutions.
result Significant speed-ups and improved Bayesian optimisation performance.
Paper proposes nested MLMC for SNPE with intractable likelihoods.
problem Estimating posterior distributions from intractable likelihoods.
method Nested MLMC for loss function and gradients, with convergence results.
result Effective methods for approximating complex multimodal posteriors.
A key limitation of sampling algorithms for approximate inference is that it is difficult to quantify their approximation error. Widely used sampling schemes, such as sequential importance sampling with resampling and Metropolis-Hastings, produce output samples drawn from a distribution that may be far from the target …
A new method for efficient inference in sequential latent-variable models.
problem Computational challenges in integrating subject-specific random effects.
method Anchored variational inference framework to approximate posterior distributions.
result The method achieves accurate estimation with significant computational gains.
Enhances SMC² with Hessian info for more efficient posterior approximation.
problem Improving accuracy and efficiency in Bayesian inference.
method Integrates second-order information (Hessian) into SMC²'s proposal distribution.
result Second-order proposals lead to more accurate posterior approximations and better step-size selection.
SFSVI uses Gaussian mixtures to approximate neural network outputs for continual learning.
problem Learning new tasks without forgetting old ones in neural networks.
method Sequential function-space variational inference with Gaussian mixture approximation.
result Gaussian mixture SFSVI outperforms other methods in continual learning.
Sparse Gaussian process quantile regression tackles computational challenges in Bayesian quantile regression.
problem Nonconjugacy and computational cost in Gaussian process quantile regression.
method Sparse Gaussian process framework with Laplace approximation, adaptive inducing-input placement, and sequential data acquisition.
result Accuracy of Laplace approximation and effectiveness of adaptive mechanisms in reducing predictive uncertainty.
Prequential posteriors tackle data assimilation for deep generative forecasting models.
problem Challenges in assimilating data into deep generative forecasting models due to intractable likelihood functions.
method Introduces prequential posteriors based on a predictive-sequential loss function, proving consistency under mild conditions, and using parallelizable SMC samplers for scalable inference.
result Prequential posteriors concentrate around parameters with optimal predictive performance, validating method on synthetic and real-world datasets.
A new Fusion method combines multiple distributions efficiently.
problem Combining multiple distributions for big data or privacy.
method Recursive divide-and-conquer Monte Carlo approach.
result A robust Fusion method for many sub-posteriors.
A new method improves SNPE for intractable likelihood models.
problem Simulation-based models with intractable likelihoods.
method Adaptive calibration kernel and variance reduction techniques.
result The proposed method provides a better approximation of the posterior.
New SMC sampler improves diffusion model sampling efficiency.
problem Sampling generative diffusion models efficiently.
method Constructs correlated observation paths and designs a sampler.
result Improved statistical efficiency, especially under outlier conditions.
Improved inference efficiency for complex simulations.
problem Challenges in performing inference under resource-intensive stochastic simulators.
method Active sequential neural posterior estimation (ASNPE) integrating active learning into posterior estimation.
result Improved sample efficiency with low computational overhead.
Postprocessing reduces Bayesian optimization steps for global optima.
problem Slow convergence in Bayesian optimization for high-dimensional problems.
method Prohibits duplicated samples in the dataset postprocessing method.
result Significantly reduces the number of sequential steps to find the global optimum.
Bayesian neural networks with dependent weights converge to Gaussian mixtures.
problem Limitations of standard Gaussian priors in neural networks.
method Posterior analysis with Gaussian likelihood for networks with dependent weights.
result Posterior distribution identified in the wide-width limit, ensuring invertibility of random covariance matrix.
PDTS improves robustness in sequential decision-making.
problem Robust active task sampling for efficient and reliable decision-making.
method Characterizes robust active task sampling as a Markov decision process, proposes PDTS method.
result Significantly improves zero-shot and few-shot adaptation robustness.
vsOED optimizes experiment design with reinforcement learning for Bayesian models.
problem Optimizing the sequence of experiments in Bayesian models for efficient data collection.
method Reinforcement learning with variational posterior approximations to optimize design policy.
result vsOED achieves superior sample efficiency compared to existing methods.
Many recent advances in large scale probabilistic inference rely on variational methods. The success of variational approaches depends on (i) formulating a flexible parametric family of distributions, and (ii) optimizing the parameters to find the member of this family that most closely approximates the exact posterior…
Online method for state estimation and parameter learning in SSMs.
problem State estimation and parameter learning in state-space models.
method Stochastic gradient optimization of variational lower bound, using backward decompositions and Bellman recursions.
result Ability to operate online without revisiting historic observations.
Parallelizes active learning for Bayesian inference using Nested Sampler.
problem Expensive likelihood evaluations in complex experiments.
method Uses Nested Sampler to generate nearly-optimal batches of candidates in parallel.
result Comparable accuracy to sequential conditioning with efficient parallelization.
Most of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) algorithms in existing probabilistic programming systems suboptimally use only model priors as proposal distributions. In this work, we describe an approach for training a discriminative model, namely a neural network, in order to approximate the …
PASOA optimizes Bayesian design by improving SMC samplers and EIG.
problem Sequential design optimization for accurate parameter inference.
method Sequential optimization using contrastive estimation, SMC samplers, and tempering.
result PASOA optimizes design and inference with improved consistency.
New method uses transport maps for efficient Bayesian inference.
problem Efficiently perform sequential Bayesian inference of static model parameters.
method Estimation of structured transport maps to extract conditional distributions.
result Gradient-based characterization of posterior density for online parameter estimation.
Adaptive querying learns user psychometrics with AI personas.
problem Learning user psychometrics within query budgets.
method Persona-induced latent variable model with AI personas and large language model response distributions.
result Persona-based posteriors deliver accurate probabilistic predictions.
Thompson sampling (TS) is a class of algorithms for sequential decision-making, which requires maintaining a posterior distribution over a model. However, calculating exact posterior distributions is intractable for all but the simplest models. Consequently, efficient computation of an approximate posterior distributio…
New method improves high-dimensional Bayesian optimization efficiency using MCMC.
problem High-dimensional optimization challenges and computational complexity.
method Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to efficiently sample from approximated posterior.
result Metropolis-Hastings and Langevin Dynamics versions outperform state-of-the-art methods.
Novel Bayesian approach for non-stationary linear contextual bandits.
problem Non-stationary linear contextual bandits.
method Weighted Sequential Bayesian (WSB) inference.
result Established frequentist regret guarantees for new algorithms.
Unified analysis of Gaussian Process Thompson Sampling without discretization.
problem Sequential decision-making over continuous action spaces.
method Frequentist regret analysis based on fractional Gaussian process posteriors.
result Unified discretization-free regret bound for various kernel classes.
LSBI approximates likelihood with linear functions for cosmological parameter estimation.
problem Estimating cosmological parameters from complex data.
method Sequential Linear Simulation-based Inference (LSBI) using Gaussian approximations.
result LSBI achieves convergence after 4-5 rounds of simulations, comparable to neural methods.
We propose a general formalism of iterated random functions with semigroup property, under which exact and approximate Bayesian posterior updates can be viewed as specific instances. A convergence theory for iterated random functions is presented. As an application of the general theory we analyze convergence behaviors…
Gaussian process regression is a popular method for non-parametric probabilistic modeling of functions. The Gaussian process prior is characterized by so-called hyperparameters, which often have a large influence on the posterior model and can be difficult to tune. This work provides a method for numerical marginalizat…
Pseudo-Likelihood Inference improves ABC for high-dimensional Bayesian inference.
problem Intractable likelihood in Bayesian system identification.
method PLI combines neural approximation with integral probability metrics and adaptive bandwidth.
result PLI outperforms SNPE on challenging tasks, especially with more data.
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 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.
Stochastic gradient descent approximates Gaussian process posteriors efficiently.
problem Efficiently sampling from Gaussian process posteriors with limited computational resources.
method Developed stochastic gradient optimization objectives for sampling from Gaussian process posteriors.
result Stochastic gradient descent produces accurate predictive distributions, even in non-convergent cases.
State space models (SSM) have been widely applied for the analysis and visualization of large sequential datasets. Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) is a very popular particle-based method to sample latent states from intractable posteriors. However, SSM is significantly influenced by the choice of the proposal. Recently Ha…