A new method for machine learning updates reduces complexity and improves robustness.
problem Stochastic gradient updates are inefficient and sensitive to feature scaling.
method Incremental Gauss-Newton Descent (IGND) reduces the need for matrix operations and improves robustness.
result IGND improves robustness to sensitivity scaling and can be competitive with common stochastic optimizers.
SGD reduces test error by decorrelating updates.
problem Improving generalization error in machine learning models.
method Derive a formula for generalization gap change due to SGD updates, compare to GD, and show decorrelation effect.
result SGD implicitly regularizes generalization error by decorrelating updates.
EigenGame improves eigendecomposition by offering unbiased updates for larger datasets.
problem Minibatch bias in EigenGame limits convergence and parallelism.
method Proposed unbiased stochastic update for EigenGame.
result Asymptotic equivalence to EigenGame, greater parallelism, and improved performance.
Study on optimizing model updates in performative prediction.
problem Optimizing model updates influenced by model predictions.
method Stochastic optimization with greedy and lazy deploy approaches.
result Rates of convergence for both greedy and lazy deploy methods.
This paper analyzes how periodic and soft target updates stabilize linear Q-learning.
problem Theoretical explanation of stabilization mechanisms for linear Q-learning.
method Exact analysis using switched linear system dynamics and the joint spectral radius.
result Periodic and soft target updates can guarantee convergence to the exact projected Q-Bellman solution under specific conditions.
Accelerates optimization in asynchronous systems with sparse updates.
problem Optimizing finite-sum objectives in asynchronous lock-free environments.
method New accelerated SVRG variant with sparse updates.
result Achieves optimal incremental gradient complexity.
Develops DP-SCD for stochastic coordinate descent, making it differentially private.
problem Privacy leak in auxiliary information during stochastic coordinate descent training.
method Develops DP-SCD, leveraging independent noise addition and decoupling/parallelizing coordinate updates.
result Demonstrates competitive performance against DP-SGD with less tuning.
Study on network-valued processes with asynchronous updates, proving consistency in community and changepoint estimation.
problem Understanding the behavior of network-valued stochastic processes with asynchronous updates.
method Analysis of concentration properties of aggregated adjacency and Laplacian matrices for lazy network-valued stochastic processes.
result Demonstrates consistency of estimators in community and changepoint estimation problems.
Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), a dimensionality reduction and factor analysis method, is a special case in which factor matrices have low-rank nonnegative constraints. Considering the stochastic learning in NMF, we specifically address the multiplicative update (MU) rule, which is the most popular, but which h…
We establish decoupled functional CLTs for two-time-scale stochastic approximation.
problem Understanding the asymptotic behavior of two-time-scale stochastic approximation.
method Martingale problem approach and auxiliary sequence.
result The limiting dynamics of two-time-scale SA are independent of each other.
We develop methods for parameter estimation in settings with large-scale data sets, where traditional methods are no longer tenable. Our methods rely on stochastic approximations, which are computationally efficient as they maintain one iterate as a parameter estimate, and successively update that iterate based on a si…
Stochastic gradient descent procedures have gained popularity for parameter estimation from large data sets. However, their statistical properties are not well understood, in theory. And in practice, avoiding numerical instability requires careful tuning of key parameters. Here, we introduce implicit stochastic gradien…
We investigate finite-time decoupled convergence in nonlinear two-time-scale stochastic approximation.
problem Achieving decoupled convergence in nonlinear two-time-scale stochastic approximation.
method Nested local linearity assumption, suitable step size selection, convergence analysis of matrix cross term, fourth-order moment convergence rates.
result Finite-time decoupled convergence rates can be achieved in nonlinear two-time-scale stochastic approximation with proper step size selection.
Paper proves SHB convergence with biased gradients and approximate step sizes.
problem Establishing convergence of SHB with biased gradients and approximate step sizes.
method Generalizes SHB convergence conditions for biased gradients, approximate step sizes, and block updating.
result Proves convergence of SHB with new conditions for biased gradients and approximate step sizes.
It is challenging for stochastic optimizations to handle large-scale sensitive data safely. Recently, Duchi et al. proposed private sampling strategy to solve privacy leakage in stochastic optimizations. However, this strategy leads to robustness degeneration, since this strategy is equal to the noise injection on each…
A new graph neural network (NBA-GNN) avoids revisiting nodes to improve accuracy.
problem Redundancy in graph neural network updates causes over-squashing and inaccurate recognition.
method Proposes non-backtracking graph neural networks (NBA-GNN) that update messages without revisiting nodes.
result The NBA-GNN alleviates over-squashing and improves performance on graph benchmarks.
This work analyzes how often to update the target network in Q-learning.
problem Understanding the optimal frequency of target network updates in Q-learning.
method Formulated target updates as a nested optimization scheme, derived finite-time convergence analysis.
result Optimal target update frequency increases geometrically over time.
Previous studies on stochastic primal-dual algorithms for solving min-max problems with faster convergence heavily rely on the bilinear structure of the problem, which restricts their applicability to a narrowed range of problems. The main contribution of this paper is the design and analysis of new stochastic primal-d…
ProxSkip achieves linear speedup in distributed non-convex optimization.
problem Achieving linear speedup in distributed non-convex optimization.
method Unified convergence analysis for stochastic non-convex, convex, and strongly convex problems.
result ProxSkip achieves linear speedup in the number of nodes under stochastic gradients.
Two-Timescale EM Methods improve EM for nonconvex models.
problem Nonconvex latent variable models are challenging for EM.
method Two-stage stochastic updates to handle nonconvex optimization.
result Global convergence for nonconvex objective functions.
New algorithms reduce matching regret by limiting frequent updates.
problem Minimizing regret in stochastic matching with rare optimization updates.
method Batched algorithms that limit matching updates to Θ(log log T) rounds.
result Achieve a regret bound of \(\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{T})\) with reduced computational cost.
Drop-Muon updates only some layers, speeding up training.
problem Conventional deep learning optimizers update all layers at once, which can be inefficient.
method Drop-Muon updates only a subset of layers per step, with randomized schedules.
result Drop-Muon achieves up to 1.4x faster training time with similar accuracy.
A new algorithm balances fairness in clustering to avoid discrimination.
problem Clustering data can unfairly discriminate against different demographic groups.
method Designing a stochastic alternating balance fair k-means algorithm (SAfairKM) that alternates between k-means updates and group swap updates.
result The algorithm efficiently constructs well-spread and high-quality Pareto fronts on synthetic and real datasets.
An online decision-making algorithm using stochastic gradient descent for big data.
problem Efficiently updating decision rules in online decision making with big data.
method Stochastic gradient descent for online updates, asymptotic normality of estimators.
result Asymptotic normality of parameter and value estimators, enabling statistical inference.
We introduce the implicit processes (IPs), a stochastic process that places implicitly defined multivariate distributions over any finite collections of random variables. IPs are therefore highly flexible implicit priors over functions, with examples including data simulators, Bayesian neural networks and non-linear tr…
We propose a new stochastic dual coordinate ascent technique that can be applied to a wide range of regularized learning problems. Our method is based on Alternating Direction Multiplier Method (ADMM) to deal with complex regularization functions such as structured regularizations. Although the original ADMM is a batch…
Omega method mitigates noise in stochastic game optimization.
problem Noise sensitivity and convergence issues in stochastic game optimization.
method Omega method incorporates EMA of historic gradients in its update rule.
result Omega method outperforms optimistic gradient method in stochastic games.
A new Bayesian filtering method speeds up stochastic Newton optimization.
problem Minimizing log-convex functions using stochastic methods.
method Contextualizes the problem as Bayesian inference, applying Bayesian filtering to update estimates.
result Establishes conditions for diminishing effect of older observations, akin to momentum.
The stochastic gradient (SG) method can minimize an objective function composed of a large number of differentiable functions, or solve a stochastic optimization problem, to a moderate accuracy. The block coordinate descent/update (BCD) method, on the other hand, handles problems with multiple blocks of variables by up…
Unified framework for analyzing batch updating methods with noisy gradients.
problem Analyzing convergence of batch updating methods with noisy gradients and approximations.
method Unified framework using convergence of stochastic processes.
result Establishes a general theorem for most known convergence results.
Proposes VSGD optimizer combining probabilistic and gradient-based methods.
problem Uncertainty modeling in deep neural networks.
method Combines probabilistic and gradient-based approaches using SVI.
result VSGD outperforms Adam and SGD on image classification tasks.
This is an overview of the area of Stochastic Portfolio Theory, and can be seen as an updated and extended version of the survey paper by Fernholz and Karatzas (Handbook of Numerical Analysis Vol.15:89-167, 2009).
A new algorithm SRG-DQN reduces variance in deep Q-learning.
problem Inaccurate estimation of anchor points in SVRG for deep Q-learning.
method Introduces recursive gradient variance reduction for stochastic gradient updates.
result Demonstrates improved efficiency and effectiveness of SRG-DQN on reinforcement learning tasks.
New algorithm closes empirical gap in PFSGD performance.
problem Empirical performance gap between tuned SGD and PFSGD.
method Parameter-free algorithm based on Coin-Betting ODE updates.
result New algorithm outperforms tuned baselines and matches optimal performance.
New algorithm optimizes MCMC sampling for structural dynamic models.
problem Time-consuming retraining of neural networks in MCMC methods.
method Adaptive meta-learning SGHMC algorithm that optimizes sampling strategy.
result Trained sampler can be applied to various problems without retraining.
New algorithm reduces FL sample and communication costs.
problem Optimizing FL for minimal samples and rounds.
method Stochastic two-sided momentum algorithm.
result Achieves near-optimal sample and communication complexities.
We analyze SA with Markovian data and nonlinear updates, overcoming prior limitations.
problem Analyzing stochastic approximation with Markovian data and nonlinear updates.
method Fine-grained analysis of SA iterates and Markovian data, leveraging smoothness and recurrence properties.
result Established weak convergence and precise asymptotic bias of SA iterates.
Stochastic gradient descent is the method of choice for large-scale machine learning problems, by virtue of its light complexity per iteration. However, it lags behind its non-stochastic counterparts with respect to the convergence rate, due to high variance introduced by the stochastic updates. The popular Stochastic …
New algorithms minimize regret in SSP with optimal sparse updates.
problem Minimizing regret in Stochastic Shortest Path models.
method Implicit finite-horizon approximation for analysis, model-free and model-based algorithms developed.
result Minimax optimal regret for both model-free and model-based algorithms.
New method for asynchronous stochastic approximation converges in reinforcement learning.
problem Finding solutions to equations with noisy measurements in reinforcement learning.
method Batch Asynchronous Stochastic Approximation (BASA) with conditions for convergence and rate of convergence.
result Sufficient conditions for convergence and rate of convergence of BASA.
Develops a new method for efficient stochastic bilevel optimization.
problem Stochastic bilevel optimization problems in machine learning applications.
method Single-Timescale stochAstic BiLevEl optimization (STABLE) method.
result Achieves the same order of sample complexity as stochastic gradient descent for single-level optimization.
Algorithm learns Nash equilibria in stochastic games using entropy-regularized policies.
problem Learning Nash equilibria in zero-sum stochastic games is computationally expensive.
method Entropy-regularized soft policies for Q-function updates.
result Algorithm converges to Nash equilibrium under certain conditions.
We study distributed stochastic convex optimization under the delayed gradient model where the server nodes perform parameter updates, while the worker nodes compute stochastic gradients. We discuss, analyze, and experiment with a setup motivated by the behavior of real-world distributed computation networks, where the…
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.
Optimization algorithms with momentum, e.g., (ADAM), have been widely used for building deep learning models due to the faster convergence rates compared with stochastic gradient descent (SGD). Momentum helps accelerate SGD in the relevant directions in parameter updating, which can minify the oscillations of parameter…
Distributed data-parallel algorithms aim to accelerate the training of deep neural networks by parallelizing the computation of large mini-batch gradient updates across multiple nodes. Approaches that synchronize nodes using exact distributed averaging (e.g., via AllReduce) are sensitive to stragglers and communication…
Study Whittle index learning algorithms for restless bandits with constant stepsizes.
problem Optimizing decisions in restless multi-armed bandits with constant stepsizes.
method Developed Q-learning algorithms with constant stepsizes for index learning in restless bandits, extending to DQN and function approximations.
result The algorithms learn the Whittle index effectively.
The (stochastic) gradient descent and the multiplicative update method are probably the most popular algorithms in machine learning. We introduce and study a new regularization which provides a unification of the additive and multiplicative updates. This regularization is derived from an hyperbolic analogue of the entr…