English
Related papers

Related papers: Regulating Greed Over Time in Multi-Armed Bandits

200 papers

We consider a continuous-time multi-arm bandit problem (CTMAB), where the learner can sample arms any number of times in a given interval and obtain a random reward from each sample, however, increasing the frequency of sampling incurs an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-04-20 Rahul Vaze , Manjesh K. Hanawal

We consider the combinatorial bandits problem, where at each time step, the online learner selects a size-$k$ subset $s$ from the arms set $\mathcal{A}$, where $\left|\mathcal{A}\right| = n$, and observes a stochastic reward of each arm in…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-03-05 Shuo Yang , Tongzheng Ren , Inderjit S. Dhillon , Sujay Sanghavi

We study an important variant of the stochastic multi-armed bandit (MAB) problem, which takes penalization into consideration. Instead of directly maximizing cumulative expected reward, we need to balance between the total reward and…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-11-16 Guanhua Fang , Ping Li , Gennady Samorodnitsky

Online platforms routinely compare multi-armed bandit algorithms, such as UCB and Thompson Sampling, to select the best-performing policy. Unlike standard A/B tests for static treatments, each run of a bandit algorithm over $T$ users…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-14 Huiling Meng , Ningyuan Chen , Xuefeng Gao

We define and analyze a multi-agent multi-armed bandit problem in which decision-making agents can observe the choices and rewards of their neighbors under a linear observation cost. Neighbors are defined by a network graph that encodes the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-04-09 Udari Madhushani , Naomi Ehrich Leonard

The stochastic multi-armed bandit (MAB) problem is one of the most fundamental models in sequential decision-making, with the core challenge being the trade-off between exploration and exploitation. Although algorithms such as Upper…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-13 Di Zhang

We study the effect of impairment on stochastic multi-armed bandits and develop new ways to mitigate it. Impairment effect is the phenomena where an agent only accrues reward for an action if they have played it at least a few times in the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-06-23 Priyank Agrawal , Theja Tulabandhula

We study a variant of the classical multi-armed bandit problem (MABP) which we call as Multi-Armed Bandits with dependent arms. More specifically, multiple arms are grouped together to form a cluster, and the reward distributions of arms…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-10-27 Rahul Singh , Fang Liu , Yin Sun , Ness Shroff

This paper is in the field of stochastic Multi-Armed Bandits (MABs), i.e. those sequential selection techniques able to learn online using only the feedback given by the chosen option (a.k.a. $arm$). We study a particular case of the rested…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-11-28 Marco Fiandri , Alberto Maria Metelli , Francesco Trov`o

We consider the classical multi-armed bandit problem, but with strategic arms. In this context, each arm is characterized by a bounded support reward distribution and strategically aims to maximize its own utility by potentially retaining a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-01-28 Ahmed Ben Yahmed , Clément Calauzènes , Vianney Perchet

We present a formal model of human decision-making in explore-exploit tasks using the context of multi-armed bandit problems, where the decision-maker must choose among multiple options with uncertain rewards. We address the standard…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-12-23 Paul Reverdy , Vaibhav Srivastava , Naomi E. Leonard

We investigate the regret-minimisation problem in a multi-armed bandit setting with arbitrary corruptions. Similar to the classical setup, the agent receives rewards generated independently from the distribution of the arm chosen at each…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-09-29 Shubhada Agrawal , Timothée Mathieu , Debabrota Basu , Odalric-Ambrym Maillard

We investigate the problem of maximizing social welfare while ensuring fairness in a multi-agent multi-armed bandit (MA-MAB) setting. In this problem, a centralized decision-maker takes actions over time, generating random rewards for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-06-23 Piyushi Manupriya , Himanshu , SakethaNath Jagarlapudi , Ganesh Ghalme

Developing efficient sequential bidding strategies for repeated auctions is an important practical challenge in various marketing tasks. In this setting, the bidding agent obtains information, on both the value of the item at sale and the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-03-01 Juliette Achddou , Olivier Cappé , Aurélien Garivier

In the multiarmed bandit problem a gambler chooses an arm of a slot machine to pull considering a tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. We study the stochastic bandit problem where each arm has a reward distribution supported in a…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2013-03-29 Junya Honda , Akimichi Takemura

The multi-armed bandit (MAB) problems are widely studied in fields of operations research, stochastic optimization, and reinforcement learning. In this paper, we consider the classical MAB model with heavy-tailed reward distributions and…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-16 Keqin Liu , Tianshuo Zheng , Zhi-Hua Zhou

Contextual bandit algorithms have become widely used for recommendation in online systems (e.g. marketplaces, music streaming, news), where they now wield substantial influence on which items get exposed to the users. This raises questions…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-09-14 Lequn Wang , Yiwei Bai , Wen Sun , Thorsten Joachims

This paper studies regret minimization in a multi-armed bandit. It is well known that side information, such as the prior distribution of arm means in Thompson sampling, can improve the statistical efficiency of the bandit algorithm. While…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-03-08 Rong Zhu , Branislav Kveton

In many platforms, user arrivals exhibit a self-reinforcing behavior: future user arrivals are likely to have preferences similar to users who were satisfied in the past. In other words, arrivals exhibit positive externalities. We study…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-03-08 Virag Shah , Jose Blanchet , Ramesh Johari

In several applications of the stochastic multi-armed bandit problem, the traditional objective of maximizing the expected total reward can be inappropriate. In this paper, motivated by certain operational concerns in online platforms, we…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-16 Eren Ozbay , Vijay Kamble