We perform the first study of the tradeoff space of access methods and replication to support statistical analytics using first-order methods executed in the main memory of a Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) machine. Statistical analytics systems differ from conventional SQL-analytics in the amount and types of memory …
The paper explores the tradeoffs between fairness measures in machine learning.
problem The challenge of achieving all three fairness notions simultaneously in machine learning models.
method The approach uses partial information decomposition (PID) to analyze the relationships between fairness measures.
result Identifies the regions where fairness measures overlap and disagree, revealing potential tradeoffs.
Study shows a tradeoff between sample complexity and computational efficiency for learning halfspaces with random noise.
problem PAC learning γ-margin halfspaces with Random Classification Noise.
method Established an information-computation tradeoff and provided a simple efficient algorithm with sample complexity O(1/(γ^2 ε^2)). Also, proved lower bounds for SQ algorithms and low-degree polynomial tests.
result Inherent gap between sample complexity and computational efficiency for learning halfspaces with random noise.
Researchers study fairness-accuracy tradeoffs in predictive models for multiple groups.
problem Understanding the tradeoff between fairness and accuracy in models serving multiple demographic groups.
method Characterizing the fairness-accuracy (FA) Pareto frontier, approximating it from limited data, and bounding the worst-case gap.
result Derivation of worst-case-optimal estimators and uniform finite-sample bounds for the entire FA frontier.
New algorithms improve privacy in statistical estimation by making them robust.
problem Improving privacy in statistical estimation methods.
method Black-box reduction from privacy to robustness, using Sum-of-Squares method.
result Design of polynomial-time private estimators with optimal tradeoffs among sample complexity, accuracy, and privacy.
This work explores feature learning tradeoffs in neural networks.
problem Resource tradeoffs in neural feature learning.
method Theoretical and experimental investigation of offline sparse parity learning.
result Width improves sample efficiency in sparse feature learning.
Survey on using low-degree polynomials to assess statistical tasks complexity.
problem Understanding the complexity of statistical tasks using polynomial functions.
method Applying low-degree polynomials to measure the complexity of statistical tasks, including detection, recovery, and estimation.
result Low-degree polynomials provide a framework to predict and explain statistical-computational tradeoffs.
Modern ML methods show unexpected behaviors that contradict classical statistics.
problem Modern machine learning methods exhibit behaviors at odds with classical statistical intuitions.
method Comparison between fixed and random design settings in ML and statistics.
result Moving from fixed to random designs reveals new insights into bias-variance tradeoffs and overfitting.
We study statistical risk minimization problems under a privacy model in which the data is kept confidential even from the learner. In this local privacy framework, we establish sharp upper and lower bounds on the convergence rates of statistical estimation procedures. As a consequence, we exhibit a precise tradeoff be…
The recent explosion in the amount and dimensionality of data has exacerbated the need of trading off computational and statistical efficiency carefully, so that inference is both tractable and meaningful. We propose a framework that provides an explicit opportunity for practitioners to specify how much statistical ris…
How should statistical procedures be designed so as to be scalable computationally to the massive datasets that are increasingly the norm? When coupled with the requirement that an answer to an inferential question be delivered within a certain time budget, this question has significant repercussions for the field of s…
This paper provides performance guarantees for neural estimation of statistical distances.
problem Developing performance guarantees for neural estimation of statistical distances.
method Non-asymptotic error bounds using function approximation theorems and empirical process theory.
result Established a fundamental tradeoff between approximation and estimation errors in neural estimation of statistical distances.
New data structure identifies close match from multiple distributions.
problem Identify the closest distribution to a given sample.
method Developed a sublinear-time data structure for identifying the closest distribution.
result First data structure that identifies the closest distribution in sublinear time.
Faced with massive data, is it possible to trade off (statistical) risk, and (computational) space and time? This challenge lies at the heart of large-scale machine learning. Using k-means clustering as a prototypical unsupervised learning problem, we show how we can strategically summarize the data (control space) in …
Study disproves conjecture about low-degree polynomials in hypothesis testing.
problem Conjecture about limitations of polynomial-time algorithms in hypothesis testing.
method Used counterexamples to refute the conjecture and modified the conjecture to rule out the counterexample.
result Disproved conjecture about limitations of low-degree polynomials in hypothesis testing.
We study the tradeoff between the statistical error and communication cost of distributed statistical estimation problems in high dimensions. In the distributed sparse Gaussian mean estimation problem, each of the m machines receives n data points from a d-dimensional Gaussian distribution with unknown mean θ w…
Sum-of-Squares lower bound shows NGCA requires more samples than known algorithms.
problem Finding a non-Gaussian direction in a high-dimensional dataset.
method Sum-of-Squares (SoS) framework to prove lower bounds.
result First super-constant degree SoS lower bound for NGCA.
Subset selection improves weak supervision performance.
problem Optimizing the use of weakly-labeled data.
method Combining pretrained data representations with the cut statistic for subset selection.
result Subset selection improves weak supervision performance by up to 19%.
Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithms have achieved great success on many challenging benchmarks (e.g., Computer Go). However, they generally require a large number of rollouts, making their applications costly. Furthermore, it is also extremely challenging to parallelize MCTS due to its inherent sequential nature:…
Privacy improves robustness in statistical estimation.
problem Sparse mean estimation under privacy constraints.
method Sum-of-Squares method and exponential-time mechanisms.
result Private algorithms matching optimal tradeoffs are not known, but achieved via Sum-of-Squares.
New insights into bias-variance tradeoff for data-driven optimization under local misspecification.
problem Understanding the relative performance of SAA, IEO, and ETO under local misspecification.
method Developed a local misspecification perspective using contiguity theory in statistics.
result Explicit expressions for decision bias and geometric understanding of variance.
A statistical framework for removing unwanted data domains in machine learning.
problem Removing unwanted data domains in machine learning while preserving desired performance.
method Modeling domains as probability distributions and using hypothesis testing to select samples to remove.
result Characterization of allowable edited data distributions and removal-preservation Pareto frontiers for various distribution families.
Neural networks can achieve optimal sample complexity for learning single-index models.
problem Achieving optimal computational-statistical tradeoff in learning Gaussian single-index models.
method Unified gradient-based algorithm for training a two-layer neural network, adaptable to various loss and activation functions.
result Sample complexity of ds⋆/2∨d matches the SQ lower bound up to a polylogarithmic factor. The bias-variance tradeoff doesn't always apply in neural networks, contradicting textbook claims.
problem The bias-variance tradeoff is not universally applicable in neural networks, contradicting textbook teachings.
method Extensive experiments and analysis on neural networks, revisiting Geman et al. (1992) experiments.
result Neural networks do not exhibit a bias-variance tradeoff when increasing network width, contradicting textbook claims.
The stochastic block model (SBM) is a random graph model with different group of vertices connecting differently. It is widely employed as a canonical model to study clustering and community detection, and provides a fertile ground to study the information-theoretic and computational tradeoffs that arise in combinatori…
New method estimates shape distance in neural representations with limited data.
problem Measuring geometric similarity between high-dimensional network representations.
method Method-of-moments estimator with tunable bias-variance tradeoff.
result New estimator achieves lower bias than standard methods in high-dimensional settings.
New L1 regularization controls neural network generalization error and sparsifies input dimensions.
problem Selecting the optimal number of hidden neurons in neural networks.
method Theoretical analysis of L1 regularization in two-layer neural networks. result Appropriate L1 regularization leads to near minimax optimal generalization risk bounds. Develops a power-calibrated framework for LLM watermarking, optimizing tradeoffs between detectability and distortion.
problem The trade-off between detectability and semantic distortion in logit-based watermarking.
method Power-calibrated statistical framework for watermark hyperparameters, establishing explicit relationships.
result Derives practical parameter selection procedures achieving optimal tradeoffs under constraints.
Nonparametric two sample testing is a decision theoretic problem that involves identifying differences between two random variables without making parametric assumptions about their underlying distributions. We refer to the most common settings as mean difference alternatives (MDA), for testing differences only in firs…
Paper proposes SRA algorithm for online learning robustness and adaptivity.
problem Quantifying and evaluating tradeoff between robustness and adaptivity in online learning.
method SRA algorithm using biased stochastic approximation scheme with adaptive threshold.
result SRA algorithm provides superior performance in synthetic and real datasets.
The paper improves methods for generating prediction intervals in regression.
problem Uncertainty quantification in regression models.
method Formalizes prediction interval generation as an optimization problem, studying generalization and calibration.
result Empirical demonstration of improved testing performances compared to existing methods.
First DP algorithm for Wasserstein barycenters on private data.
problem Computing Wasserstein barycenters on private datasets.
method Differentially private algorithms for Wasserstein barycenters.
result High-quality private barycenters with strong accuracy-privacy tradeoffs.
The optimal approach is to theorize after examining data, not before.
problem Optimal sequencing of theory and empirical analysis for economic questions.
method Formalized a Bayesian model to trade off Darwinian and Statistical Learning.
result Post hoc theorizing is typically optimal in modern economics.
Objectives: Discussions of fairness in criminal justice risk assessments typically lack conceptual precision. Rhetoric too often substitutes for careful analysis. In this paper, we seek to clarify the tradeoffs between different kinds of fairness and between fairness and accuracy. Methods: We draw on the existing liter…
Efficient algorithm for CMDPs reduces to offline density estimation.
problem Offline learning for CMDPs with horizon H.
method Reduction to offline density estimation, layerwise exploration-exploitation tradeoff.
result First efficient and near-optimal reduction from CMDPs to offline density estimation.
ParK efficiently solves kernel ridge regression for large datasets.
problem Large-scale kernel ridge regression efficiency and accuracy.
method Partitioning feature space with random projections and iterative optimization.
result Provably maintains statistical accuracy with reduced space and time complexity.
BC-LLM uses LLMs to find concepts without predefined sets, improving interpretability and performance.
problem Finding a balance between interpretability and accuracy in concept extraction models.
method Bayesian approach with LLMs as both concept extractor and prior.
result BC-LLM outperforms interpretable and black-box models across various datasets.
We propose a novel and flexible rank-breaking-then-composite-marginal-likelihood (RBCML) framework for learning random utility models (RUMs), which include the Plackett-Luce model. We characterize conditions for the objective function of RBCML to be strictly log-concave by proving that strict log-concavity is preserved…
Real-world applications of machine learning tools in high-stakes domains are often regulated to be fair, in the sense that the predicted target should satisfy some quantitative notion of parity with respect to a protected attribute. However, the exact tradeoff between fairness and accuracy is not entirely clear, even f…
Efficiently transforms Gaussian data to simulate various target distributions.
problem Generating observations from different target distributions given a single Gaussian observation.
method Designs computationally efficient procedures to approximate target distributions.
result Establishes reduction-based computational lower bounds for high-dimensional statistical models.
A new tradeoff between regularization and sharpness improves model performance in overparameterized settings.
problem Improving model performance in overparameterized settings with minimum-norm interpolators.
method Proposes a regularization-sharpness tradeoff for overparameterized linear regression with an ℓ^p penalty.
result Empirical validation shows the tradeoff terms can distinguish performant linear interpolators.
Study the tradeoff between signal distortion and human perception over finite channels.
problem Characterize the distortion-perception tradeoff for finite channels with arbitrary metrics.
method Solve linear programming problems to compute the distortion-perception function and optimal reconstructions.
result DP function is piecewise linear in the perception index.
In this paper we study the problem of recovering a structured but unknown parameter θ∗ from n nonlinear observations of the form yi=f(⟨xi,θ∗⟩) for i=1,2,…,n. We develop a framework for characterizing time-data tradeoffs for a variety of parameter estimation algorithms when…
The paper studies adversarial training for linear regression models.
problem Understanding the tradeoffs between robust and standard accuracy in adversarial training.
method Characterizes the fundamental tradeoff and specific adversarial training approach for linear regression with Gaussian features.
result Precise characterization of the standard and robust accuracy tradeoff in high-dimensional settings.
Private statistics estimation faces a bias, accuracy, and privacy trilemma.
problem Balancing privacy, accuracy, and bias in statistical estimation.
method Use differential privacy (DP) for private statistics, but clip samples to control sensitivity and add noise for privacy, introducing bias.
result No algorithm can simultaneously have low bias, low error, and low privacy loss for arbitrary distributions.
We study online active learning for classifying streaming instances within the framework of statistical learning theory. At each time, the learner either queries the label of the current instance or predicts the label based on past seen examples. The objective is to minimize the number of queries while constraining the…
Paper explores tradeoff between standard and robust accuracy for latent models.
problem Tradeoff between standard accuracy and robust accuracy in adversarial training.
method Revisits adversarial training for latent models, considering Gaussian mixture and generalized linear models.
result Low-dimensional manifold structure mitigates the tradeoff between standard and robust accuracy.
Reinforcement learning studies how to balance exploration and exploitation in real-world systems, optimizing interactions with the world while simultaneously learning how the world operates. One general class of algorithms for such learning is the multi-armed bandit setting. Randomized probability matching, based upon …