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Binary classification in the classic PAC model exhibits a curious phenomenon: Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM) learners are suboptimal in the realizable case yet optimal in the agnostic case. Roughly speaking, this owes itself to the fact…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-22 Julian Asilis , Mikael Møller Høgsgaard , Grigoris Velegkas

We explore questions dealing with the learnability of models of choice over time. We present a large class of preference models defined by a structural criterion for which we are able to obtain an exponential improvement over previously…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2018-09-11 Zachary Chase , Siddharth Prasad

The theory of reinforcement learning has focused on two fundamental problems: achieving low regret, and identifying $\epsilon$-optimal policies. While a simple reduction allows one to apply a low-regret algorithm to obtain an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-23 Andrew Wagenmaker , Max Simchowitz , Kevin Jamieson

Learning models that are robust to distribution shifts is a key concern in the context of their real-life applicability. Invariant Risk Minimization (IRM) is a popular framework that aims to learn robust models from multiple environments.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-04-04 Moulik Choraria , Ibtihal Ferwana , Ankur Mani , Lav R. Varshney

In probably approximately correct (PAC) reinforcement learning (RL), an agent is required to identify an $\epsilon$-optimal policy with probability $1-\delta$. While minimax optimal algorithms exist for this problem, its instance-dependent…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-25 Andrea Tirinzoni , Aymen Al-Marjani , Emilie Kaufmann

A common problem in machine learning is to rank a set of n items based on pairwise comparisons. Here ranking refers to partitioning the items into sets of pre-specified sizes according to their scores, which includes identification of the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-01-08 Reinhard Heckel , Max Simchowitz , Kannan Ramchandran , Martin J. Wainwright

Consider $n$ items, each of which is characterised by one of $d+1$ possible features in $\{0, \ldots, d\}$. We study the inference task of learning these types by queries on subsets, or pools, of the items that only reveal a form of…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2022-02-10 Max Hahn-Klimroth , Noela Müller

Recent advances in the binary classification setting by Hanneke [2016b] and Larsen [2023] have resulted in optimal PAC learners. These learners leverage, respectively, a clever deterministic subsampling scheme and the classic heuristic of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-10 Mikael Møller Høgsgaard

Attribute-efficient PAC learning of sparse halfspaces has been a fundamental problem in machine learning theory. In recent years, machine learning algorithms are faced with prevalent data corruptions or even malicious attacks. It is of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-06 Shiwei Zeng , Jie Shen

This paper explores the challenges of PAC learning in semi-enclosed environments that face persistent disruptive noise and demonstrates the weaknesses of traditional learning models based on noise-free data. We present a novel algorithm…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-11-05 Shirmohammad Tavangari , Zahra Shakarami , Aref Yelghi , Asef Yelghi

In this work, we show, for the well-studied problem of learning parity under noise, where a learner tries to learn $x=(x_1,\ldots,x_n) \in \{0,1\}^n$ from a stream of random linear equations over $\mathrm{F}_2$ that are correct with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-07-07 Sumegha Garg , Pravesh K. Kothari , Pengda Liu , Ran Raz

In most real-world applications of artificial intelligence, the distributions of the data and the goals of the learners tend to change over time. The Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) learning framework, which underpins most machine…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-13 Yuxin Bai , Cecelia Shuai , Ashwin De Silva , Siyu Yu , Pratik Chaudhari , Joshua T. Vogelstein

We describe a slightly sub-exponential time algorithm for learning parity functions in the presence of random classification noise. This results in a polynomial-time algorithm for the case of parity functions that depend on only the first…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Avrim Blum , Adam Kalai , Hal Wasserman

PAC learning, dating back to Valiant'84 and Vapnik and Chervonenkis'64,'74, is a classic model for studying supervised learning. In the agnostic setting, we have access to a hypothesis set $\mathcal{H}$ and a training set of labeled samples…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-07-30 Steve Hanneke , Kasper Green Larsen , Nikita Zhivotovskiy

In real-world applications, the distribution of the data, and our goals, evolve over time. The prevailing theoretical framework for studying machine learning, namely probably approximately correct (PAC) learning, largely ignores time. As a…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-01-31 Ashwin De Silva , Rahul Ramesh , Rubing Yang , Siyu Yu , Joshua T Vogelstein , Pratik Chaudhari

We study efficient PAC learning of homogeneous halfspaces in $\mathbb{R}^d$ in the presence of malicious noise of Valiant (1985). This is a challenging noise model and only until recently has near-optimal noise tolerance bound been…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-06 Jie Shen

Many decision-making processes involve evaluating and then selecting items; examples include scientific peer review, job hiring, school admissions, and investment decisions. The eventual selection is performed by applying rules or…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-10-23 Alexander Goldberg , Giulia Fanti , Nihar B. Shah

The random utility model (RUM, McFadden and Richter, 1990) has been the standard tool to describe the behavior of a population of decision makers. RUM assumes that decision makers behave as if they maximize a rational preference over a…

General Economics · Economics 2022-07-05 Victor H. Aguiar , Maria Jose Boccardi , Nail Kashaev , Jeongbin Kim

We study the sample complexity of learning revenue-optimal multi-item auctions. We obtain the first set of positive results that go beyond the standard but unrealistic setting of item-independence. In particular, we consider settings where…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-06-02 Johaness Brustle , Yang Cai , Constantinos Daskalakis

The Fundamental Theorem of PAC Learning asserts that learnability of a concept class $H$ is equivalent to the $\textit{uniform convergence}$ of empirical error in $H$ to its mean, or equivalently, to the problem of $\textit{density…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-04 Max Hopkins , Daniel M. Kane , Shachar Lovett , Gaurav Mahajan