Test-time data augmentation−averaging the predictions of a machine learning model across multiple augmented samples of data−is a widely used technique that improves the predictive performance. While many advanced learnable data augmentation techniques have emerged in recent years, they are focused on the training p…
A probabilistic framework for online test-time adaptation
problem Adapting models to new data under distributional shift
method State-space modelling architecture
result Characterizing parameter learning, time evolution, prior tuning, and prediction
The abstract explores connections between reinforcement learning, scaling, and diffusion.
problem Aligning reinforcement learning with human feedback and scaling techniques.
method Clarifying connections between reinforcement learning, scaling, and diffusion.
result Introducing a resampling approach for alignment and reward-directed diffusion models.
This paper improves test-time adaptation for distribution shifts using confidence maximization and input transformation.
problem Improving deep networks' performance on data shifted from the training distribution.
method Proposes a novel loss function combining confidence maximization and batch-wise entropy maximization with an input transformation module.
result Significantly improves robustness of pretrained networks to corruptions on benchmarks like ImageNet-C.
Machine learning models are often used at test-time subject to constraints and trade-offs not present at training-time. For example, a computer vision model operating on an embedded device may need to perform real-time inference, or a translation model operating on a cell phone may wish to bound its average compute tim…
Implicit models can match or exceed explicit models with more test-time compute.
problem Understanding the expressive power and scaling of implicit models.
method Nonparametric analysis of expressive power, mathematical characterization of implicit operators, and test-time scaling experiments.
result Implicit models can progressively express more complex mappings through iteration, matching a richer function class with test-time compute.
We show that several popular few-shot learning benchmarks can be solved with varying degrees of success without using support set Labels at Test-time (LT). To this end, we introduce a new baseline called Centroid Networks, a modification of Prototypical Networks in which the support set labels are hidden from the metho…
This work explores test-time scaling strategies for LLMs, improving sample efficiency and expressiveness.
problem Understanding the sample efficiency and expressiveness of test-time scaling strategies for LLMs.
method Established separation and expressiveness results for self-consistency, best-of-n, and self-correction strategies. result Self-correction enables Transformers to simulate online learning over multiple tasks without prior knowledge.
This paper addresses detection of a reverse engineering (RE) attack targeting a deep neural network (DNN) image classifier; by querying, RE's aim is to discover the classifier's decision rule. RE can enable test-time evasion attacks, which require knowledge of the classifier. Recently, we proposed a quite effective app…
Adaptive compute allocation improves model performance by prioritizing harder queries.
problem Inefficiency in allocating test-time compute uniformly across all queries.
method Formulated as a bandit learning problem, proposed adaptive algorithms that estimate query difficulty and allocate compute accordingly.
result Achieved up to 15.29% relative performance improvement on various benchmarks.
A new approach for test-time adaptation detects and reacts to distribution shifts.
problem Improving test-time accuracy under distribution shifts.
method Online self-training with a detection tool based on entropy values and betting martingales.
result The classifier's entropy values match those of the source domain, building invariance to distribution shifts.
Mamba efficiently learns low-dimensional targets in-context via feature extraction.
problem Learning low-dimensional targets in context for computational efficiency.
method Test-time feature learning of a single-index model using Mamba's pretrained linear-time sequence model.
result Mamba achieves efficient in-context learning of low-dimensional targets via feature extraction.
We consider the problem of function estimation in the case where the data distribution may shift between training and test time, and additional information about it may be available at test time. This relates to popular scenarios such as covariate shift, concept drift, transfer learning and semi-supervised learning. Th…
Paper proposes an efficient method for calibrating spatio-temporal forecasts.
problem Real-world spatio-temporal forecasting challenges like signal anomalies and distributional shifts.
method Learning with Calibration (ST-TTC) for real-time bias correction.
result ST-TTC improves spatio-temporal forecasting accuracy with reduced computational cost.
New DP training ensures models behave similarly at training and test time.
problem Standard SGD training leads to inconsistent model behavior at training and test time.
method Differentially-Private (DP) training ensures WYSIWYG property through distributional generalization.
result DP training guarantees high-level WYSIWYG property, improving model robustness and privacy.
Paper tackles test-time adaptation for tabular data.
problem Performance degradation due to distribution shifts in testing.
method Proposes FTAT for robustly adapting tabular models during testing.
result FTAT outperforms state-of-the-art methods on benchmark datasets.
M-L2O adapts fast to new tasks by self-adapting during test-time.
problem L2O optimizers struggle with out-of-distribution tasks.
method Meta-training an L2O optimizer to adapt quickly to new tasks.
result M-L2O converges significantly faster than vanilla L2O with only 5 steps of adaptation.
Enhances image quality to improve test-time adaptation accuracy.
problem Reducing accuracy loss due to distribution shift in deep networks.
method Integrates image enhancement with TTA methods to reduce prediction uncertainty.
result TECA method increases accuracy of TTA methods without hyperparameters.
QAlign improves language model alignment with less compute, outperforming existing methods.
problem Improving language model performance with limited test-time computation.
method QAlign: sampling from optimal aligned distribution using Markov chain Monte Carlo.
result Consistent improvements over existing methods on various benchmarks.
Risk monitoring detects when TTA models degrade at test time.
problem Detecting when TTA models degrade at test time.
method Extended risk monitoring tools based on sequential testing with confidence sequences.
result Demonstrated effectiveness of TTA monitoring framework across various datasets and methods.
Method adapts frozen models for few-shot tasks without training.
problem Deployment constraints limit model updates, necessitating new adaptation methods.
method Exponential tilting of latent distribution for inference.
result Method outperforms parameter-update methods across benchmarks.
Unified framework for sequence models using test-time regression.
problem Designing efficient sequence models with associative memory.
method Formalizing associative recall as regression over input tokens, deriving various sequence models.
result Clarifies the effectiveness of query-key normalization in softmax attention and offers new generalizations.
The study examines how extra compute during testing affects the performance of large language models.
problem Understanding the conditions under which test-time scaling improves model performance.
method An in-context weight prediction task for linear regression was used to train transformers. The performance was analyzed under varying levels of test-time compute.
result Training transformers on diverse, relevant, and hard tasks leads to the best performance for test-time scaling.
In-Place TTT enhances LLMs with dynamic parameter updates at inference time.
problem Static training limits LLMs from adapting to new information.
method In-Place TTT updates a subset of model parameters (fast weights) at inference time.
result In-Place TTT enables 4B-parameter models to outperform on tasks with up to 128k contexts.
Adapts CNN for robust medical image segmentation across different scanners and protocols.
problem Performance degradation of CNNs in medical image segmentation due to mismatch between training and test images.
method Designs a segmentation CNN as a concatenation of a shallow normalization CNN and a deep CNN. At test time, adapts the normalization sub-network for each test image using a denoising autoencoder.
result Consistently improves performance on multi-center MRI datasets of brain, heart, and prostate.
Unified framework for certifying LLM reliability without extra supervision.
problem Improving reliability of large language models without additional supervision.
method Unified framework using majority voting and Martingale Majority Certificate (MMC).
result Certifiable inference in LLMs with statistical guarantees and adaptive stopping rules.
PG-EVIKAL refines molecular property predictions using neighbor fusion and evidential neural networks.
problem Improving molecular property predictions using test-time neighbor fusion.
method Adapting evidential neural networks to refine predictions by re-ranking structurally similar neighbors.
result PG-EVIKAL reduces RMSE on 14 out of 16 molecular datasets, improving calibration and sequential refinement.
In this paper, we propose Test-Time Training, a general approach for improving the performance of predictive models when training and test data come from different distributions. We turn a single unlabeled test sample into a self-supervised learning problem, on which we update the model parameters before making a predi…
Study uses neural fields to improve geophysical inversions by reducing artifacts.
problem Improving geophysical inversions by reducing artifacts and improving model recovery.
method Employing neural fields for test-time learning in geophysical inversions.
result Test-time learning with neural fields eliminates unwanted artifacts in recovered models.
Study compares data-driven vs model-based MRS quantification strategies, focusing on resilience to out-of-distribution effects.
problem Resilience to out-of-distribution effects in data-driven MRS quantification.
method Compared three data-driven strategies (supervised regression, self-supervised learning, test-time adaptation) against model-based fitting tools.
result Test-time adaptation proved most resilient to out-of-distribution effects, while self-supervised learning achieved intermediate performance.
New method optimizes language model performance for test-time strategies.
problem Mismatch between training objectives and test-time deployment of large language models.
method Tail-Extrapolated estimators to approximate best-of-N performance from limited training rollouts.
result Improved performance of best-of-N deployment across various models and datasets.
Improves reinforcement learning extrapolation in Gridworlds.
problem Generalizing to unseen states in reinforcement learning.
method Avoiding deterministic action choice, using ego-centric representation, incorporating symmetry, and adding an entropy term.
result Significant improvement in extrapolation performance in Gridworld environments.
Variational Prediction simplifies Bayesian inference without test time costs.
problem Bayesian inference's computational costs and posterior predictive distribution marginalization.
method Variational Prediction learns a variational approximation to the posterior predictive distribution using a variational bound.
result Directly learns a variational approximation to the posterior predictive distribution without test time marginalization costs.
The study examines how verifier imperfections impact test-time scaling techniques.
problem Understanding how verifier imperfections affect test-time scaling methods.
method Proves the instance-level accuracy of Best-of-N and Rejection Sampling methods using the geometry of the verifier's ROC curve.
result RS outperforms BoN for fixed compute, but both converge to the same accuracy in the infinite-compute limit.
New method learns models to adapt to domain shifts at test time.
problem Learning models robust to distribution shifts in practical applications.
method Adaptive Risk Minimization (ARM) framework.
result Performance gains of 1-4% on image classification problems.
LLMs optimize quantum circuits by iteratively improving proposals with feedback and memory traces.
problem Optimizing quantum circuits using large language models (LLMs) under black-box evaluation.
method Closed-loop, test-time optimization with LLMs, score-difference feedback, and restart-from-the-best sampling.
result The approach improves circuit synthesis performance and success rate, especially for larger qubit settings.
Recently, machine learning algorithms have successfully entered large-scale real-world industrial applications (e.g. search engines and email spam filters). Here, the CPU cost during test time must be budgeted and accounted for. In this paper, we address the challenge of balancing the test-time cost and the classifier …
As machine learning transitions increasingly towards real world applications controlling the test-time cost of algorithms becomes more and more crucial. Recent work, such as the Greedy Miser and Speedboost, incorporate test-time budget constraints into the training procedure and learn classifiers that provably stay wit…
TTT improves transformer models for in-context learning.
problem Improving transformer models for efficient in-context learning.
method Gradient-based TTT method for linear transformers, with theoretical and empirical analysis.
result TTT significantly reduces the sample size required for in-context learning.
We propose a generic and interpretable learning framework for building robust text classification model that achieves accuracy comparable to full models under test-time budget constraints. Our approach learns a selector to identify words that are relevant to the prediction tasks and passes them to the classifier for pr…
VCoTTA uses variational Bayesian methods to adapt models under continuous domain shifts.
problem Error accumulation in continual test-time adaptation.
method VCoTTA employs variational Bayesian techniques to update a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) during testing, combining priors from source and teacher models.
result VCoTTA effectively mitigates error accumulation in CTTA, as shown by experimental results on three datasets.
PETAL adapts models to changing target domains over time.
problem Lifelong test-time adaptation in changing target domains.
method Probabilistic framework with student-teacher model and data-driven parameter restoration.
result PETAL achieves better results than state-of-the-art for online lifelong test-time adaptation.
CPATTA uses conformal prediction for efficient test-time adaptation.
problem Low data selection efficiency in existing ATTA methods.
method Conformal Prediction, online weight-update algorithm, domain-shift detector, staged update scheme.
result CPATTA consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods by 5% in accuracy.
New method uses MCTS only at test time for faster game learning.
problem High computational demands in game learning.
method Combines MCTS with TD learning agents for faster, reproducible agents.
result First learning-from-scratch agent to beat Edax up to level 7.
The safety and robustness of learning-based decision-making systems are under threats from adversarial examples, as imperceptible perturbations can mislead neural networks to completely different outputs. In this paper, we present an adaptive view of the issue via evaluating various test-time smoothing defense against …
Motivated by settings in which predictive models may be required to be non-discriminatory with respect to certain attributes (such as race), but even collecting the sensitive attribute may be forbidden or restricted, we initiate the study of fair learning under the constraint of differential privacy. We design two lear…
DAD++ improves test-time adversarial defense without access to training data.
problem Improving adversarial robustness of pre-trained models without access to training data.
method Test-time Data-free Adversarial Defense (DAD++) with detection and correction schemes.
result DAD++ significantly improves adversarial robustness with minimal clean accuracy drop.
STAD adapts models to evolving time-based data shifts.
problem Gradual distribution shifts over time challenge existing test-time adaptation methods.
method Bayesian filtering method that learns time-varying dynamics in hidden features.
result STAD excels in handling small batch sizes and label shift on real-world data.