English

Learning with risks based on M-location

Machine Learning 2023-12-01 v2 Machine Learning

Abstract

In this work, we study a new class of risks defined in terms of the location and deviation of the loss distribution, generalizing far beyond classical mean-variance risk functions. The class is easily implemented as a wrapper around any smooth loss, it admits finite-sample stationarity guarantees for stochastic gradient methods, it is straightforward to interpret and adjust, with close links to M-estimators of the loss location, and has a salient effect on the test loss distribution.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.02424,
  title  = {Learning with risks based on M-location},
  author = {Matthew J. Holland},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.02424},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Substantial update to initial version; refined theory, improved exposition, added experimental analysis

R2 v1 2026-06-23T20:43:34.991Z