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Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are widely used statistical models for modeling sequential data. The parameter estimation for HMMs from time series data is an important learning problem. The predominant methods for parameter estimation are…
Top-$k$ decoding is a widely used method for sampling from LLMs: at each token, only the largest $k$ next-token-probabilities are kept, and the next token is sampled after re-normalizing them to sum to unity. Top-$k$ and other sampling…
We have developed a new regression technique, the maximum likelihood (ML)-based method and its variant, the KS-test based method, designed to obtain unbiased regression results from typical astronomical data. A normalizing flow model is…
For a broad class of models widely used in practice for choice and ranking data based on Luce's choice axiom, including the Bradley--Terry--Luce and Plackett--Luce models, we show that the associated maximum likelihood estimation problems…
This paper presents an advanced mathematical problem-solving framework, LLaMA-Berry, for enhancing the mathematical reasoning ability of Large Language Models (LLMs). The framework combines Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with iterative…
List-wise based learning to rank methods are generally supposed to have better performance than point- and pair-wise based. However, in real-world applications, state-of-the-art systems are not from list-wise based camp. In this paper, we…
A recommender system generates personalized recommendations for a user by computing the preference score of items, sorting the items according to the score, and filtering top-K items with high scores. While sorting and ranking items are…
We consider the problem of ranking $n$ experts according to their abilities, based on the correctness of their answers to $d$ questions. This is modeled by the so-called crowd-sourcing model, where the answer of expert $i$ on question $k$…
The Bradley-Terry-Luce (BTL) model is a classic and very popular statistical approach for eliciting a global ranking among a collection of items using pairwise comparison data. In applications in which the comparison outcomes are observed…
Aligning Large Language Models (LLMs) with human preferences is crucial in ensuring desirable and controllable model behaviors. Current methods, such as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and Direct Preference Optimization…
Large language models (LLMs) are currently applied to scientific paper evaluation by assigning an absolute score to each paper independently. However, since score scales vary across conferences, time periods, and evaluation criteria, models…
We consider the estimation accuracy of individual strength parameters of a Thurstone choice model when each input observation consists of a choice of one item from a set of two or more items (so called top-1 lists). This model accommodates…
Targeted maximum likelihood estimators (TMLEs) are asymptotically optimal among regular, asymptotically linear estimators. In small samples, however, we may be far from "asymptopia" and not reap the benefits of optimality. Here we propose a…
Learning-to-rank (LTR) is a class of supervised learning techniques that apply to ranking problems dealing with a large number of features. The popularity and widespread application of LTR models in prioritizing information in a variety of…
We introduce a novel framework for analyzing sorting algorithms in pairwise ranking prompting (PRP), re-centering the cost model around LLM inferences rather than traditional pairwise comparisons. While classical metrics based on comparison…
In this paper, we aim to learn a low-dimensional Euclidean representation from a set of constraints of the form "item j is closer to item i than item k". Existing approaches for this "ordinal embedding" problem require expensive…
We consider the problem of optimal recovery of true ranking of $n$ items from a randomly chosen subset of their pairwise preferences. It is well known that without any further assumption, one requires a sample size of $\Omega(n^2)$ for the…
We consider a distributed learning approach in supervised learning for a large class of spectral regularization methods in an RKHS framework. The data set of size n is partitioned into $m=O(n^\alpha)$ disjoint subsets. On each subset, some…
Rankings, especially those in search and recommendation systems, often determine how people access information and how information is exposed to people. Therefore, how to balance the relevance and fairness of information exposure is…
In search settings, calibrating the scores during the ranking process to quantities such as click-through rates or relevance levels enhances a system's usefulness and trustworthiness for downstream users. While previous research has…