A new EVI framework improves ParVI methods by maintaining variational structure and reducing KL-divergence.
problem Improving variational inference methods for better approximation of target distributions.
method EVI framework that minimizes the VI objective function based on an energy-dissipation law, including a new 'Approximation-then-Variation' scheme.
result The new scheme significantly decreases KL-divergence and outperforms existing ParVI methods in fidelity.
Survey of methods for solving smooth stochastic variational inequalities.
problem Solving smooth (strongly) monotone stochastic variational inequalities.
method Deterministic foundation, general stochastic formulation, finite sum setup, recent advances.
result Review of various methods for solving smooth stochastic variational inequalities.
A new method combines Laplace and Variational Bayes for scalable inference.
problem Complex models and large datasets make exact inference infeasible.
method Low-Rank Variational Bayes Correction (VBC) using Laplace method and Variational Bayes correction in a lower dimension.
result The method ensures scalability in both model complexity and data size.
Newton's method solves variational problems on manifolds.
problem Solving variational equations on manifolds.
method Newton's method with affine covariant damping strategy.
result Numerical results for variational problems demonstrated.
New method accelerates energetic variational inference using particle dynamics.
problem Efficiently solving variational inference problems with reduced computational cost.
method Particle-based variational inference with implicit scheme, inspired by energy quadratization and operator splitting.
result Significantly reduces computational cost compared to existing methods.
New method reduces inference variance for faster optimization.
problem High variance in black-box variational inference.
method Joint control variate addressing both data subsampling and Monte Carlo noise.
result Significantly reduced gradient variance, leading to faster optimization.
Derives new optimization methods using variational integrators.
problem Optimization methods in machine learning.
method Variational integrators and principles of Hamilton and Lagrange-d'Alembert.
result Derives two families of optimization methods, including Nesterov's accelerated gradient method.
Variational inference methods for latent variable statistical models have gained popularity because they are relatively fast, can handle large data sets, and have deterministic convergence guarantees. However, in practice it is unclear whether the fixed point identified by the variational inference algorithm is a local…
Improved sampling method using regularized Stein Variational Gradient Flow.
problem Improving the accuracy of sampling methods in machine learning.
method Proposed Regularized Stein Variational Gradient Flow to interpolate between SVGD and Wasserstein Gradient Flow.
result Established theoretical properties and provided preliminary numerical evidence of improved performance.
Variational methods are widely used for approximate posterior inference. However, their use is typically limited to families of distributions that enjoy particular conjugacy properties. To circumvent this limitation, we propose a family of variational approximations inspired by nonparametric kernel density estimation. …
Variational inference has become a widely used method to approximate posteriors in complex latent variables models. However, deriving a variational inference algorithm generally requires significant model-specific analysis, and these efforts can hinder and deter us from quickly developing and exploring a variety of mod…
A practical guide to Variational Bayes methods.
problem Bayesian inference for data analysis practitioners.
method Explains and demonstrates commonly used Variational Bayes methods.
result Quick derivation and implementation of VB algorithms.
FlowVAT improves variational inference for multi-modal distributions.
problem Mode-seeking behavior and collapse in variational inference for complex posteriors.
method Conditional tempering approach for normalizing flow variational inference.
result FlowVAT outperforms traditional and adaptive annealing methods in multi-modal distributions, finding more modes and achieving better ELBO values.
Despite the advances in the representational capacity of approximate distributions for variational inference, the optimization process can still limit the density that is ultimately learned. We demonstrate the drawbacks of biasing the true posterior to be unimodal, and introduce Annealed Variational Objectives (AVO) in…
We introduce a new algorithm for approximate inference that combines reparametrization, Markov chain Monte Carlo and variational methods. We construct a very flexible implicit variational distribution synthesized by an arbitrary Markov chain Monte Carlo operation and a deterministic transformation that can be optimized…
This paper introduces the variational Rényi bound (VR) that extends traditional variational inference to Rényi's alpha-divergences. This new family of variational methods unifies a number of existing approaches, and enables a smooth interpolation from the evidence lower-bound to the log (marginal) likelihood that is co…
This work improves VAEs using MCMC methods for better variational bounds.
problem Improving the expressiveness of variational distributions in VAEs.
method Entropy-based adaptation for MALA/HMC chains to optimize tighter variational bounds.
result Higher held-out log-likelihoods and improved generative metrics.
Improved Bayesian uncertainty quantification using variational bagging.
problem Inefficient and underestimating uncertainty in mean-field variational Bayes.
method Integrates bagging with variational Bayes for improved inference.
result Bagged variational posterior provides proper uncertainty quantification.
We propose a black-box variational inference method to approximate intractable distributions with an increasingly rich approximating class. Our method, termed variational boosting, iteratively refines an existing variational approximation by solving a sequence of optimization problems, allowing the practitioner to trad…
Fast variational Bayes methods improve geospatial data analysis speed and accuracy.
problem Inaccurate and slow variational Bayes methods for large geospatial data.
method Combination of calculus of variations, closed-form gradient updates, and linear response corrections.
result Comparable accuracy to spNNGP with reduced computational costs and faster speed.
Semi-Implicit Variational Inference (SIVI) is improved with SIVI-SM using score matching.
problem Intractable densities in variational distributions hinder SIVI training.
method SIVI-SM uses score matching to handle intractable densities in a minimax formulation.
result SIVI-SM outperforms ELBO-based SIVI methods in Bayesian inference tasks.
This paper develops scalable control variates for Monte Carlo methods using stochastic optimization.
problem Reducing variance in Monte Carlo estimators for large-scale problems.
method Control variates based on Stein operators, optimized through stochastic optimization.
result Novel theoretical results and empirical validations show effective variance reduction.
ASVI automates variational inference for complex models.
problem Efficient variational inference for complex probabilistic models.
method Automatic structured variational inference (ASVI) using convex updates.
result ASVI outperforms other methods on a wide range of problems.
Mean-field variational methods are widely used for approximate posterior inference in many probabilistic models. In a typical application, mean-field methods approximately compute the posterior with a coordinate-ascent optimization algorithm. When the model is conditionally conjugate, the coordinate updates are easily …
We introduce the variational filtering EM algorithm, a simple, general-purpose method for performing variational inference in dynamical latent variable models using information from only past and present variables, i.e. filtering. The algorithm is derived from the variational objective in the filtering setting and cons…
New method improves variational inference for better posterior approximation.
problem Challenges in minimizing inclusive KL divergence for amortized variational inference.
method Likelihood-tempered sequential Monte Carlo samplers to estimate inclusive KL gradient.
result SMC-Wake method fits variational distributions more accurately than existing methods.
A new variational method speeds up Bayesian phylogenetic inference.
problem Slow and inefficient MCMC methods in Bayesian phylogenetic inference.
method Combining subsplit Bayesian networks with variational inference for efficient tree topology and branch length estimation.
result Variational approach provides competitive performance with significantly fewer iterations.
Robustness to outliers is a central issue in real-world machine learning applications. While replacing a model to a heavy-tailed one (e.g., from Gaussian to Student-t) is a standard approach for robustification, it can only be applied to simple models. In this paper, based on Zellner's optimization and variational form…
Constructs surfaces with conical singularities using variational methods.
problem Creating Hamiltonian Stationary Surfaces with specific singularities.
method Variational methods and convergence process similar to Ginzburg-Landau analysis.
result Obtained surfaces with prescribed conical singularities related to optimal Wente constants.
New method estimates volatility for processes with jumps of unbounded variation.
problem Estimating volatility of processes with jumps of unbounded variation.
method Developed a new volatility estimator using debiasing of truncated realized quadratic variation.
result Method outperforms existing alternatives in simulations.
This work proposes using zero-variance control variates to reduce variance in pathwise gradient estimators for variational inference.
problem Pathwise gradient estimators in variational inference have high variance, leading to inefficient optimization.
method Apply zero-variance control variates to pathwise gradient estimators.
result Zero-variance control variates can significantly reduce the variance of pathwise gradient estimators without requiring complex assumptions.
This work proposes a new method for variational inference using Wasserstein gradient descent.
problem Optimizing variational parameters to match a true posterior distribution.
method Reinterpreting VI as an optimization problem over a variational parameter space, using Wasserstein gradient descent.
result The proposed Wasserstein gradient descent can be seen as a generalization of existing optimization techniques in VI.
Many computationally-efficient methods for Bayesian deep learning rely on continuous optimization algorithms, but the implementation of these methods requires significant changes to existing code-bases. In this paper, we propose Vprop, a method for Gaussian variational inference that can be implemented with two minor c…
Bayesian method improves SOM training for dynamic data.
problem Training Self Organizing Maps (SOM) for non-stationary data.
method Variational Bayesian approach with adaptive neighborhood radius.
result Method outperforms other adaptive methods in high dimensions.
Develops a variational method for ultrametric phylogenetic trees.
problem Accurate and efficient approximation of posterior distributions over trees in Bayesian phylogenetics.
method Variational Bayesian approach based on coalescent times of a single-linkage clustering.
result Achieves competitive accuracy with significantly fewer gradient evaluations.
The paper studies stability of discrete planar curves using variational methods.
problem Stability of discrete planar curves under area constraints.
method Unified interpretation of discrete curvatures, determination of equilibrium curves, stability analysis.
result Equilibrium curves for the length functional under area-constraint conditions are determined and their stability is studied.
New clustering algorithm for time series data using RNN and variational Bayes.
problem Lack of generative model-based clustering methods for time series data.
method Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) with variational Bayes method.
result Robustness against phase shift, amplitude, and signal length variations.
New framework improves stochastic optimization for variational inference.
problem Improving variational posterior approximations in high-dimensional models.
method Developed a robust stochastic optimization framework using Markov chains.
result Demonstrated improved accuracy and robustness across diverse models.
Variational Inference is a powerful tool in the Bayesian modeling toolkit, however, its effectiveness is determined by the expressivity of the utilized variational distributions in terms of their ability to match the true posterior distribution. In turn, the expressivity of the variational family is largely limited by …
New definition of disentanglement for non-independent factors of variation.
problem Current disentanglement definitions assume independent factors of variation, limiting their applicability.
method Definition based on information theory, related to Information Bottleneck Method, proposed measurement method.
result Proposed method correctly measures disentanglement with non-independent factors of variation.
Paper proposes a method to improve variational inference for sparse networks.
problem Variational inference struggles with sparse networks, leading to inaccurate community detection.
method The method involves hard thresholding the posterior of community assignment after each iteration.
result The proposed method accurately recovers true community labels in sparse networks.
A key challenge for modern Bayesian statistics is how to perform scalable inference of posterior distributions. To address this challenge, variational Bayes (VB) methods have emerged as a popular alternative to the classical Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. VB methods tend to be faster while achieving comparabl…
Two popular classes of methods for approximate inference are Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and variational inference. MCMC tends to be accurate if run for a long enough time, while variational inference tends to give better approximations at shorter time horizons. However, the amount of time needed for MCMC to exceed…
New method improves inference for hierarchical models.
problem Challenges in inference for large hierarchical models.
method Locally enhanced variational bounds with subsampling.
result Better posterior approximations than baselines.
Variational inference provides a powerful tool for approximate probabilistic in- ference on complex, structured models. Typical variational inference methods, however, require to use inference networks with computationally tractable proba- bility density functions. This largely limits the design and implementation of v…
A new method solves variational inequality problems with multiple constraints without needing optimal Lagrange multipliers.
problem Solving variational inequality problems with multiple functional constraints efficiently.
method Constrained Gradient Method (CGM) for Minty variational inequality problems.
result The Constrained Gradient Method achieves complexity similar to projection-based methods but with cheaper oracles.
Recent advances in stochastic gradient variational inference have made it possible to perform variational Bayesian inference with posterior approximations containing auxiliary random variables. This enables us to explore a new synthesis of variational inference and Monte Carlo methods where we incorporate one or more s…
New method for variational inference without conjugacy constraints.
problem Efficient variational inference with flexible prior and approximation families.
method Wasserstein gradient flow for mean-field approximation.
result Improved convergence and efficiency of variational inference.