Stochastic variational inference for Bayesian deep neural network (DNN) requires specifying priors and approximate posterior distributions over neural network weights. Specifying meaningful weight priors is a challenging problem, particularly for scaling variational inference to deeper architectures involving high dime…
Method measures weight similarity in neural networks using normalization and statistical inference.
problem Quantifying weight similarity in non-convex neural networks.
method Chain normalization rule and hypothesis-training-testing statistical inference.
result Weights of identical neural networks converge to similar local solutions.
Study on Bayesian transformers finds issues with weight-space inference and prior specification.
problem Challenges in obtaining meaningful uncertainty estimates for transformer models.
method Proposed a novel method based on implicit reparameterization of the Dirichlet distribution for variational inference on attention weights.
result Proposed method performs competitively with baselines in estimating predictive uncertainty.
The Importance Weighted Auto Encoder (IWAE) objective has been shown to improve the training of generative models over the standard Variational Auto Encoder (VAE) objective. Here, we derive importance weighted extensions to AVB and AAE. These latent variable models use implicitly defined inference networks whose approx…
New criterion improves predictive evaluation in weighted inference scenarios.
problem Improving predictive evaluation in scenarios with different likelihoods for estimation and evaluation.
method Developed the posterior covariance information criterion (PCIC) to handle weighted likelihood inference.
result PCIC is asymptotically unbiased for quasi-Bayesian generalization error in weighted inference.
Proposes stabilized weights for causal inference using isotonic calibration.
problem Stability and bias issues in inverse propensity weighting.
method Post-hoc isotonic calibration of inverse propensity weights.
result Improves performance of doubly robust estimators of average treatment effect.
Recent work used importance sampling ideas for better variational bounds on likelihoods. We clarify the applicability of these ideas to pure probabilistic inference, by showing the resulting Importance Weighted Variational Inference (IWVI) technique is an instance of augmented variational inference, thus identifying th…
U-statistics improve gradient estimation in importance-weighted variational inference.
problem High variance in gradient estimation for importance-weighted variational inference.
method Use U-statistics to average base gradient estimators on overlapping batches of size m, achieving lower variance.
result U-statistic variance reduction leads to modest to significant improvements in inference performance.
New algorithm improves causal effect estimation for continuous treatments.
problem Observational causal inference with continuous treatments.
method End-to-end entropy balancing for maximizing causal inference accuracy.
result Our algorithm estimates causal effect more accurately than baseline.
This paper explores how representation learning can improve design-based causal inference.
problem Estimating causal effects in design-based studies is challenging due to the need for optimal weights.
method The authors propose an end-to-end estimation procedure that learns a flexible representation to minimize the error in choosing a representation.
result The proposed method is competitive in various causal inference tasks and shows promise for improving design-based weights.
We tackle causal inference under conditional moment restrictions using importance weighting.
problem Challenges in causal inference under conditional moment restrictions, especially in high-dimensional settings.
method Transform conditional moment restrictions to unconditional moment restrictions through importance weighting.
result Successfully estimate nonparametric functions defined under conditional moment restrictions.
Efficiently updates beliefs with virtual observations.
problem Incremental belief updates in Bayesian models.
method Constructs weighted virtual observations to match posterior.
result Reconstructed posterior matches original posterior closely.
Bayesian deep learning method using subnetwork inference.
problem Improving deep neural networks' calibration and efficiency.
method Perform inference over a subset of model weights, keeping others as point estimates.
result Subnetwork inference enables accurate predictive posteriors without full network approximations.
The paper proposes a new method for covariate balancing using IPM to improve causal inference.
problem Covariate imbalance in causal inference weighting methods, especially when models are not correctly specified.
method The integral probability metric (IPM) is used to determine optimal weights for treated and control groups.
result The proposed method can be consistent without specifying either the propensity score or outcome regression model.
Probabilistic models analyze data by relying on a set of assumptions. Data that exhibit deviations from these assumptions can undermine inference and prediction quality. Robust models offer protection against mismatch between a model's assumptions and reality. We propose a way to systematically detect and mitigate mism…
NetFuse merges different DNN models with varying weights for faster inference.
problem Inference speed of DNN models with different weights cannot be improved using existing techniques.
method NetFuse merges models with the same architecture but different weights and inputs, replacing operations with more general ones.
result NetFuse can speed up DNN inference time up to 3.6x on a NVIDIA V100 GPU.
PPI uses predictions and weighting to infer from partially labeled data.
problem Valid inference with partially labeled data.
method Combines model-based predictions with bias correction from labeled data, using Horvitz-Thompson and Hájek corrections.
result IPW-adjusted PPI with estimated propensities performs similarly to known-probability case.
New method for Bayesian neural networks with unbounded weights.
problem Posterior inference for Bayesian neural networks with unbounded weights.
method Conditionally Gaussian representation for efficient posterior inference.
result Interpretable and computationally efficient procedure for posterior inference.
Network quantization is one of the most hardware friendly techniques to enable the deployment of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on low-power mobile devices. Recent network quantization techniques quantize each weight kernel in a convolutional layer independently for higher inference accuracy, since the weight ker…
Structured sparsity has recently emerged in statistics, machine learning and signal processing as a promising paradigm for learning in high-dimensional settings. All existing methods for learning under the assumption of structured sparsity rely on prior knowledge on how to weight (or how to penalize) individual subsets…
Bayesian neural networks learn weights with closed-form updates.
problem Efficiently learning Bayesian neural networks with closed-form updates.
method Closed-form Bayesian inference for online learning of Gaussian-weighted BNNs.
result Closed-form expressions for sequential/online training of BNNs.
Paper proposes efficient weight updates for edge nodes with minimal communication.
problem Inefficient and resource-intensive full weight updates for edge nodes.
method Deep partial updating, selecting a subset of weights to update.
result Achieves similar performance with fewer weight updates.
VISA improves inference efficiency for complex models.
problem Efficient approximate inference in computationally intensive models.
method Sequential sample-average approximations within a trust region.
result VISA achieves comparable accuracy with computational savings.
New Stein operator improves robustness in model inference.
problem Improving robustness in inference for unnormalized models.
method Density-power weighted Stein operator (γ-Stein operator). result Robust methods for goodness-of-fit testing and posterior approximation.
We present a Bayesian formulation of weighted stochastic block models that can be used to infer the large-scale modular structure of weighted networks, including their hierarchical organization. Our method is nonparametric, and thus does not require the prior knowledge of the number of groups or other dimensions of the…
Improves inference-time alignment for diffusion models without updating weights.
problem Aligning diffusion models without updating weights for high-reward outputs.
method Trust-Region Iterative Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo (TRI-TSMC) for variance reduction and efficiency.
result Improves primary alignment objectives on text generation tasks.
Improves causal inference with observational data by balancing features and weights.
problem Achieving balance in predictive features for causal inference with observational data.
method Integrates balancing weights into representation learning for causal learning.
result Developed an algorithm for accurate estimation of causal effects.
New method for online statistical inference in contextual bandits using SGD.
problem Online decision-making in contextual bandits with statistical inference.
method Weighted stochastic gradient descent for adaptive data collection.
result Asymptotic normality of the parameter estimator with improved efficiency.
Automates debiasing for large language model evaluations through Fisher random walk.
problem Rigorous and scalable evaluation of large language models.
method Semiparametric efficient estimator using Fisher random walk for weighted residual balancing.
result Efficient estimation of contextual preference scores for large language models.
We provide theoretical and empirical evidence that using tighter evidence lower bounds (ELBOs) can be detrimental to the process of learning an inference network by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the gradient estimator. Our results call into question common implicit assumptions that tighter ELBOs are better vari…
URGE improves diffusion model quality without gradients or Hessian.
problem Improving sample quality in diffusion models without gradient evaluations.
method Path-wise importance reweighting via Girsanov change of measure.
result URGE achieves better generation quality than existing methods.
Hybrid Bayesian neural networks use function uncertainty for probabilistic inference.
problem Uncertainty in neural network weights is hard to specify and interpret.
method Integrates probabilistic layers with standard deterministic layers for function uncertainty.
result Improves probabilistic inference by encoding function uncertainty.
New method improves causal effect estimation by addressing imbalance in training data.
problem Imbalance between treatment and control groups in training data.
method Combines distributionally robust optimization and weight regularization.
result Consistent improvements over existing methods in experiments.
Bayesian stacking improves model performance with varying model weights.
problem Improving model predictions with heterogeneous input performance.
method Bayesian hierarchical stacking with varying model weights inferred via Bayesian inference.
result Hierarchical stacking yields better predictions than linear averaging.
Enhances mixture models with classifier-defined weights.
problem Density evaluation and sampling in mixture models.
method Introduces Classifier Weighted Mixtures (CWM) with functional weights.
result Improves expressivity in variational estimation without increasing complexity.
Variational dropout (VD) is a generalization of Gaussian dropout, which aims at inferring the posterior of network weights based on a log-uniform prior on them to learn these weights as well as dropout rate simultaneously. The log-uniform prior not only interprets the regularization capacity of Gaussian dropout in netw…
Develops a new random forest method for clustered data with improved prediction and inference.
problem Improving prediction and inference accuracy for clustered data with within-cluster dependence.
method Clustered Random Forests, using weighted least squares estimators for leaf predictions.
result Optimal prediction and inference weights vary under covariate shift, necessitating user-chosen weights.
New method estimates Nishimori temperature for node classification in weighted graphs.
problem Estimating Nishimori temperature for Bayesian inference.
method Spectral method using eigenvalues of Bethe Hessian matrix.
result Spectral method outperforms existing approaches in node classification.
Bayesian inference is known to provide a general framework for incorporating prior knowledge or specific properties into machine learning models via carefully choosing a prior distribution. In this work, we propose a new type of prior distributions for convolutional neural networks, deep weight prior (DWP), that exploi…
MSD removes dequantization bottleneck in LLM inference by approximating high-precision activations.
problem Dequantization bottleneck in LLM inference on modern AI accelerators.
method MSD decomposes high-precision activations into multiple low-precision components for direct multiplication with quantized weights.
result MSD avoids INT8-to-BF16 weight conversion, reducing dequantization cycles and HBM traffic.
Bayesian approach for multivariate density regression of complex data.
problem Regression of multivariate density-valued responses on predictors.
method Bayesian inference using sliced Wasserstein barycenter and SW distance.
result Accurate fits and reliable predictions for complex data.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) is the bread and butter of system inference for stochastic systems. In some generality, MLE will converge to the correct model in the infinite data limit. In the context of physical approaches to system inference, such as Boltzmann machines, MLE requires the arduous computation of pa…
This paper compares gradient estimators in importance-weighted VI and justifies the superiority of DREP over REP.
problem Understanding the impact of gradient estimators on importance-weighted VI algorithms.
method Unified theoretical comparison of reparameterized and doubly-reparameterized gradient estimators tied to IWAE, VR, and VR-IWAE bounds.
result Formally justifies the superiority of doubly-reparameterized gradient estimators over reparameterized ones in importance-weighted VI.
Deep Gaussian processes (DGPs) can model complex marginal densities as well as complex mappings. Non-Gaussian marginals are essential for modelling real-world data, and can be generated from the DGP by incorporating uncorrelated variables to the model. Previous work on DGP models has introduced noise additively and use…
WrapNet optimizes inference for low-resolution neural networks by using 8-bit additions.
problem Reducing multiplication complexity in low-resolution neural networks.
method Adapting neural networks to use low-resolution (8-bit) additions in accumulators, with a cyclic activation layer and overflow penalty regularizer.
result Achieves comparable classification accuracy to 32-bit counterparts using low-resolution additions.
BLAST optimizes deep model inference by learning efficient matrix structures.
problem Efficient inference of large-scale deep neural networks.
method Introduces BLAST matrix for adaptive structured weights.
result Significant compression and performance improvements for various model sizes.
The mean field algorithm is a widely used approximate inference algorithm for graphical models whose exact inference is intractable. In each iteration of mean field, the approximate marginals for each variable are updated by getting information from the neighbors. This process can be equivalently converted into a feedf…
Develops a method for learning proposals in nested importance samplers.
problem Improving sampling quality in complex distributions.
method Nested Variational Inference (NVI) using forward or reverse KL divergence.
result Optimizing nested objectives leads to improved sample quality.