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Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) is broadly utilized for aligning Large Language Models (LLMs) with human values because of its flexibility. Despite its effectiveness, it has been observed that the capability of DPO to generate…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-20 Wenqiao Zhu , Ji Liu , Lulu Wang , Jun Wu , Yulun Zhang

As its availability and generality in online services, implicit feedback is more commonly used in recommender systems. However, implicit feedback usually presents noisy samples in real-world recommendation scenarios (such as misclicks or…

Information Retrieval · Computer Science 2024-05-29 Zhuangzhuang He , Yifan Wang , Yonghui Yang , Peijie Sun , Le Wu , Haoyue Bai , Jinqi Gong , Richang Hong , Min Zhang

Zeroth-order optimization methods are developed to overcome the practical hurdle of having knowledge of explicit derivatives. Instead, these schemes work with merely access to noisy functions evaluations. One of the predominant approaches…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-08-22 Wouter Jongeneel

We propose a simple proof of the worst-case iteration complexity for the Difference of Convex functions Algorithm (DCA) for unconstrained minimization, showing that the global rate of convergence of the norm of the objective function's…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-01-23 Serge Gratton , Philippe L. Toint

We consider quantile optimization of black-box functions that are estimated with noise. We propose two new iterative three-timescale local search algorithms. The first algorithm uses an appropriately modified finite-difference-based…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-16 Jiaqiao Hu , Meichen Song , Michael C. Fu

In this paper we consider stochastic weakly convex composite problems, however without the existence of a stochastic subgradient oracle. We present a derivative free algorithm that uses a two point approximation for computing a gradient…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-02-20 V. Kungurtsev , F. Rinaldi

Decision-focused learning (DFL) offers an end-to-end approach to the predict-then-optimize (PO) framework by training predictive models directly on decision loss (DL), enhancing decision-making performance within PO contexts. However, the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-04-15 Jiaqi Yang , Enming Liang , Zicheng Su , Zhichao Zou , Peng Zhen , Jiecheng Guo , Wanjing Ma , Kun An

The graduated optimization approach is a method for finding global optimal solutions for nonconvex functions by using a function smoothing operation with stochastic noise. This paper makes three contributions regarding graduated…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Naoki Sato , Hideaki Iiduka

A fully stochastic second-order adaptive-regularization method for unconstrained nonconvex optimization is presented which never computes the objective-function value, but yet achieves the optimal $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-3/2})$ complexity…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-01-22 Serge Gratton , Sadok Jerad , Philippe L. Toint

Bayesian Optimisation (BO) refers to a suite of techniques for global optimisation of expensive black box functions, which use introspective Bayesian models of the function to efficiently search for the optimum. While BO has been applied…

We consider the differentiation of the value function for parametric optimization problems. Such problems are ubiquitous in Machine Learning applications such as structured support vector machines, matrix factorization and min-min or…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-12-29 Sheheryar Mehmood , Peter Ochs

In the context of unconstraint numerical optimization, this paper investigates the global linear convergence of a simple probabilistic derivative-free optimization algorithm (DFO). The algorithm samples a candidate solution from a standard…

Numerical Analysis · Computer Science 2013-11-01 Anne Auger , Nikolaus Hansen

As recommender systems are indispensable in various domains such as job searching and e-commerce, providing equitable recommendations to users with different sensitive attributes becomes an imperative requirement. Prior approaches for…

Information Retrieval · Computer Science 2024-05-28 Tianhao Shi , Yang Zhang , Jizhi Zhang , Fuli Feng , Xiangnan He

In this paper, we study the lower complexity bounds for finite-sum optimization problems, where the objective is the average of $n$ individual component functions. We consider Proximal Incremental First-order (PIFO) algorithms which have…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-01-09 Yuze Han , Guangzeng Xie , Zhihua Zhang

Aligning large language models (LLMs) with human preferences is a critical challenge in AI research. While methods like Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) are widely used, they often…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-05-19 Xuan Qi , Rongwu Xu , Zhijing Jin

Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) has become a popular method for fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) due to its stability and simplicity. However, it is also known to be sensitive to noise in the data and prone to overfitting.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-28 Cheol Woo Kim , Shresth Verma , Mauricio Tec , Milind Tambe

We consider decentralized gradient-free optimization of minimizing Lipschitz continuous functions that satisfy neither smoothness nor convexity assumption. We propose two novel gradient-free algorithms, the Decentralized Gradient-Free…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-01-29 Zhenwei Lin , Jingfan Xia , Qi Deng , Luo Luo

Direct preference optimization (DPO) has shown success in aligning diffusion models with human preference. Previous approaches typically assume a consistent preference label between final generations and noisy samples at intermediate steps,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-05 Jie Ren , Yuhang Zhang , Dongrui Liu , Xiaopeng Zhang , Qi Tian

Variational regularization techniques are dominant in the field of mathematical imaging. A drawback of these techniques is that they are dependent on a number of parameters which have to be set by the user. A by now common strategy to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-12-10 Matthias J. Ehrhardt , Lindon Roberts

Human visual preferences are inherently multi-dimensional, encompassing aesthetics, detail fidelity, and semantic alignment. However, existing datasets provide only single, holistic annotations, resulting in severe label noise: images that…

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · Computer Science 2026-04-29 Xinxin Liu , Ming Li , Zonglin Lyu , Yuzhang Shang , Chen Chen