Randomized trials, also known as A/B tests, are used to select between two policies: a control and a treatment. Given a corresponding set of features, we can ideally learn an optimized policy P that maps the A/B test data features to action space and optimizes reward. However, although A/B testing provides an unbiased …
Paper proposes unbiased learning for recommendation causal effects.
problem Estimating the causal effect of recommendation when the ground truth is unobservable.
method Inverse propensity scoring technique to construct unbiased estimators, followed by empirical risk minimization with propensity capping.
result The proposed method outperforms other biased learning methods in various settings.
New method reduces deep learning training costs by approximating vector-jacobian products.
problem Efficiently training deep neural networks with reduced computational and memory costs.
method Randomized, unbiased approximations of vector-jacobian products during backpropagation.
result Validated potential for reducing deep learning training costs through unbiased estimates.
New algorithm finds unbiased subnetworks in biased datasets.
problem Finding unbiased subnetworks in biased neural networks.
method Debiased Contrastive Weight Pruning (DCWP) algorithm.
result DCWP significantly outperforms state-of-the-art debiasing methods.
Improves survey sampling with unbiased machine learning methods.
problem Design-consistent model-assisted estimation lacks a general theory for machine learning.
method Proposes a subsampling Rao-Blackwell method for design-unbiased estimation.
result Yields efficiency gains over standard methods while ensuring valid estimation.
A new method improves communication efficiency in distributed learning.
problem Reducing communication overhead in distributed machine learning.
method Transforming contractive compressors into induced unbiased compressors.
result Significant improvements in memory requirements and communication complexity.
New method makes machine learning approximations unbiased and efficient.
problem Efficient sampling of complex probability distributions.
method Uses autoregressive neural networks with cluster updates and physical symmetries.
result Shows unbiased and low-variance approximations for phase transitions.
Synthetic construction of 3D complex bases.
problem Creating a complete set of unbiased bases in 3D complex space.
method Synthetic construction using complex projective trigonometry.
result Synthetic construction of mutually unbiased bases in C^3.
A number of optimization approaches have been proposed for optimizing nonconvex objectives (e.g. deep learning models), such as batch gradient descent, stochastic gradient descent and stochastic variance reduced gradient descent. Theory shows these optimization methods can converge by using an unbiased gradient estimat…
The recently proposed Unbiased Online Recurrent Optimization algorithm (UORO, arXiv:1702.05043) uses an unbiased approximation of RTRL to achieve fully online gradient-based learning in RNNs. In this work we analyze the variance of the gradient estimate computed by UORO, and propose several possible changes to the meth…
Unbiased wealth exchanges always lead to inequality.
problem Understanding wealth distribution in unbiased binary exchange systems.
method Analytical demonstration of unbiased binary exchanges leading to perfect inequality.
result Any system driven by unbiased binary exchanges will reach perfect inequality and zero mobility.
Proposes an adversarial algorithm to learn unbiased representations via HGR coefficient.
problem Learning fair representations without sensitive attribute information.
method Adversarial algorithm using Hirschfeld-Gebelein-Renyi (HGR) maximal correlation coefficient.
result Significant improvements in bias mitigation compared to existing methods.
MUSE provides unbiased stopping estimates for optimal problems.
problem Estimating the utility of optimal stopping problems.
method Backward recursive construction of the Multilevel Unbiased Stopping Estimator (MUSE).
result MUSE achieves ε-accuracy with O(1/ε^2) computational cost.
A key element in transfer learning is representation learning; if representations can be developed that expose the relevant factors underlying the data, then new tasks and domains can be learned readily based on mappings of these salient factors. We propose that an important aim for these representations are to be unbi…
In this analytical study we derive the optimal unbiased value estimator (MVU) and compare its statistical risk to three well known value estimators: Temporal Difference learning (TD), Monte Carlo estimation (MC) and Least-Squares Temporal Difference Learning (LSTD). We demonstrate that LSTD is equivalent to the MVU if …
Datasets often contain biases which unfairly disadvantage certain groups, and classifiers trained on such datasets can inherit these biases. In this paper, we provide a mathematical formulation of how this bias can arise. We do so by assuming the existence of underlying, unknown, and unbiased labels which are overwritt…
Proposes a new framework for learning from labeled and unlabeled data.
problem Learning from unlabeled and multi-label samples with arbitrary loss functions.
method Multi-complementary and unlabeled learning framework.
result Effective estimation of classification risk with optimal convergence rate.
UREs lead to overfitting in complex models, especially in complementary label learning.
problem Overfitting in weakly supervised learning with complementary labels.
method Proposed a surrogate complementary loss (SCL) framework to reduce gradient variance.
result SCL mitigates overfitting and improves URE-based methods.
New method learns from noisy data without knowing noise level.
problem Learning from noisy data without knowing noise level.
method Uses Stein's Unbiased Risk Estimate (SURE) without noise level knowledge.
result Outperforms other self-supervised methods on imaging problems.
New framework for learning with class-conditional multi-label noise.
problem Class labels corrupted with conditional probabilities for multiple labels.
method Formalized as CCMN framework, established unbiased estimators, proved consistency with multi-label loss functions, implemented partial multi-label learning method.
result Effectiveness validated on multiple datasets and metrics.
Develops unbiased estimation method using underdamped Langevin dynamics.
problem Estimating expectations of non-negative Lebesgue density probability measures.
method Underdamped Langevin dynamics, time-discretized versions, doubly randomized estimation.
result Proves finite variance and expected/finite cost of the proposed estimator.
Paper proposes an unbiased risk estimator for PLLAC, handling unseen classes.
problem Handling unseen classes in PLLAC where some classes are not present in the training set.
method Proposes an unbiased risk estimator that estimates the distribution of augmented classes by differentiating known classes from unlabeled data.
result The estimator provides theoretical guarantees and converges to true risk minimizer as data increases.
Proposes unbiased estimators for training mixture of experts models.
problem Efficiently training large-scale mixture of experts models on modern hardware.
method Two unbiased estimators based on principled stochastic assignment procedures.
result Both estimators are more effective and robust than biased alternatives.
SUMO provides unbiased log marginal likelihood estimation for latent variable models.
problem Biased estimates of log marginal likelihood in latent variable models.
method Randomized truncation of infinite series for unbiased estimation.
result Models trained with SUMO give better test-set likelihoods than standard methods.
Improved learning theory for kernel distribution regression with two-stage sampling.
problem Distribution regression problem and two-stage sampling setting.
method Kernel methods, near-unbiased condition, new error bounds, convergence rates.
result Strictly improved convergence rates for three important classes of kernels.
Unbiased methods for alpha-divergence minimization struggle in high dimensions.
problem The difficulty of unbiased alpha-divergence minimization in high dimensions.
method Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) analysis of gradient estimators.
result The SNR of the gradient estimator worsens exponentially with dimensionality.
Proposes MR estimator for unbiased recommendation models.
problem Data biases in recommender systems lead to inaccurate predictions.
method Introduces multiple robust (MR) learning approach combining multiple imputation and propensity models.
result MR estimator achieves unbiasedness when any of the models is accurate.
Unbiased gradient estimation for Markov chains
problem Estimating gradients of stationary means in Markov chains
method Propose new unbiased estimators
result Improves efficiency for slow mixing Markov chains
New unbiased gradient estimators for complex optimization problems.
problem Unbiased and variance-limited gradient estimation for conditional stochastic optimization.
method Developed multilevel Monte Carlo gradient estimators for conditional stochastic optimization problems.
result Unbiased and finite variance gradient estimators for conditional stochastic optimization problems.
Improved UIVI method shows better performance than state-of-the-art SIVI methods.
problem Estimating the likelihood of samples from complex distributions in high dimensions.
method Replaced the inner MCMC loop of UIVI with importance sampling and learned the optimal proposal distribution.
result The refined UIVI approach demonstrates superior performance or parity with state-of-the-art methods.
In this paper, we introduce a new approach to constructing unbiased estimators when computing expectations of path functionals associated with stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Our randomization idea is closely related to multi-level Monte Carlo and provides a simple mechanism for constructing a finite variance…
In this paper we address the problem of pool based active learning, and provide an algorithm, called UPAL, that works by minimizing the unbiased estimator of the risk of a hypothesis in a given hypothesis space. For the space of linear classifiers and the squared loss we show that UPAL is equivalent to an exponentially…
Extends unbiased simulation method to Asian options.
problem Simulating path-dependent dynamics for Asian options.
method Extension of unbiased simulation method for SDEs to path-dependent dynamics.
result Extension applies to numerical resolution of path-dependent PDEs.
Developed unbiased estimators for Heston model with stochastic interest rates.
problem Estimating the Heston model with stochastic interest rates.
method Combined unbiased estimators with the Heston model and developed a semi-exact log-Euler scheme.
result Convergence rate of O(h) in the L2 norm for a wide range of models. New method for unbiased regression reduces excess risk.
problem Least squares regression with optimal solution and Hessian matrix.
method Averaged stochastic gradient descent with time-average estimator.
result Unbiased estimator with O(1/k) expected excess risk.
Computing partition functions, the normalizing constants of probability distributions, is often hard. Variants of importance sampling give unbiased estimates of a normalizer Z, however, unbiased estimates of the reciprocal 1/Z are harder to obtain. Unbiased estimates of 1/Z allow Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling of "d…
Among the plethora of techniques devised to curb the prevalence of noise in medical images, deep learning based approaches have shown the most promise. However, one critical limitation of these deep learning based denoisers is the requirement of high-quality noiseless ground truth images that are difficult to obtain in…
Optimal Gaussian noise mechanisms achieve nearly optimal error in unbiased mean estimation.
problem Efficiently estimating the mean of high-dimensional data while preserving privacy.
method Differential privacy mechanisms with Gaussian noise, focusing on optimal covariance.
result Gaussian noise mechanisms achieve nearly optimal error among all private unbiased mean estimation mechanisms.
Estimating the individual treatment effect (ITE) from observational data is essential in medicine. A central challenge in estimating the ITE is handling confounders, which are factors that affect both an intervention and its outcome. Most previous work relies on the unconfoundedness assumption, which posits that all th…
We consider the approximation of expectations with respect to the distribution of a latent Markov process given noisy measurements. This is known as the smoothing problem and is often approached with particle and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. These methods provide consistent but biased estimators when run fo…
We revisit resampling procedures for error estimation in binary classification in terms of U-statistics. In particular, we exploit the fact that the error rate estimator involving all learning-testing splits is a U-statistic. Thus, it has minimal variance among all unbiased estimators and is asymptotically normally dis…
This paper tackles unbiased loss functions for multilabel classification with missing labels.
problem Missing labels in multilabel classification tasks, especially in extreme multi-label classification (XMC).
method Derives unbiased estimators for multilabel reductions, including non-decomposable ones, and addresses increased variance with convex upper-bounds.
result Switching to unbiased estimators can alter the bias-variance trade-off and may require stronger regularization.
Stochastic bridges are commonly used to impute missing data with a lower sampling rate to generate data with a higher sampling rate, while preserving key properties of the dynamics involved in an unbiased way. While the generation of Brownian bridges and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck bridges is well understood, unbiased generatio…
Paper introduces a new gradient statistic to improve deep learning convergence.
problem Fluctuation effect of gradient updates between iterations.
method Introduces an unbiased stratified statistic \(\bar{G}_{mst}\) and a new algorithm MSSG.
result MSSG algorithm outperforms other sgd-like algorithms in training deep models.
From only positive (P) and unlabeled (U) data, a binary classifier could be trained with PU learning, in which the state of the art is unbiased PU learning. However, if its model is very flexible, empirical risks on training data will go negative, and we will suffer from serious overfitting. In this paper, we propose a…
New theory of sensitivity for unbiased estimators using Wasserstein geometry.
problem Estimating the instability of estimators under small perturbations.
method Developed a new theory based on Wasserstein geometry, analogous to classical Cramér-Rao theory.
result Wasserstein-Cramér-Rao lower bound for sensitivity of unbiased estimators.
Estimates conversion probabilities from click sequences with privacy constraints.
problem Training models in advertising with limited direct click-conversion links.
method Formalizes learning from attribution sets, constructs unbiased estimator, applies Empirical Risk Minimization.
result Empirical Risk Minimization achieves generalization guarantees and robustness against prior errors.
Recent neural network and language models rely on softmax distributions with an extremely large number of categories. Since calculating the softmax normalizing constant in this context is prohibitively expensive, there is a growing literature of efficiently computable but biased estimates of the softmax. In this paper …