Related papers: A One-bit, Comparison-Based Gradient Estimator

Stochastic neurons can be useful for a number of reasons in deep learning models, but in many cases they pose a challenging problem: how to estimate the gradient of a loss function with respect to the input of such stochastic neurons, i.e.,…

We propose a unified framework for estimating low-rank matrices through nonconvex optimization based on gradient descent algorithm. Our framework is quite general and can be applied to both noisy and noiseless observations. In the general…

We prove novel convergence results for a stochastic proximal gradient algorithm suitable for solving a large class of convex optimization problems, where a convex objective function is given by the sum of a smooth and a possibly non-smooth…

Standard approaches to stochastic gradient estimation, with only noisy black-box function evaluations, use the finite-difference method or its variants. While natural, it is open to our knowledge whether their statistical accuracy is the…

We study nonconvex zeroth-order optimization (ZOO) in a high-dimensional space $\mathbb R^d$ for functions with approximately $s$-sparse gradients. To reduce the dependence on the dimensionality $d$ in the query complexity, high-dimensional…

In this manuscript, we analyze the sparse signal recovery (compressive sensing) problem from the perspective of convex optimization by stochastic proximal gradient descent. This view allows us to significantly simplify the recovery analysis…

We present an algorithm for minimizing an objective with hard-to-compute gradients by using a related, easier-to-access function as a proxy. Our algorithm is based on approximate proximal point iterations on the proxy combined with…

We consider the problem of minimizing a high-dimensional objective function, which may include a regularization term, using (possibly noisy) evaluations of the function. Such optimization is also called derivative-free, zeroth-order, or…

We study the problem of distributed zero-order optimization for a class of strongly convex functions. They are formed by the average of local objectives, associated to different nodes in a prescribed network of connections. We propose a…

Let $x\in\mathbb{C}^n$ be a spectrally sparse signal consisting of $r$ complex sinusoids with or without damping. We consider the spectral compressed sensing problem, which is about reconstructing $x$ from its partial revealed entries. By…

We study a class of zeroth-order distributed optimization problems, where each agent can control a partial vector and observe a local cost that depends on the joint vector of all agents, and the agents can communicate with each other with…

In this paper, we study the standard formulation of an optimization problem when the computation of gradient is not available. Such a problem can be classified as a "black box" optimization problem, since the oracle returns only the value…

We consider the problem of minimizing a non-convex objective while preserving the privacy of the examples in the training data. Building upon the previous variance-reduced algorithm SpiderBoost, we introduce a new framework that utilizes…

This paper deals with the black-box optimization problem. In this setup, we do not have access to the gradient of the objective function, therefore, we need to estimate it somehow. We propose a new type of approximation JAGUAR, that…

In this report, we study decentralized stochastic optimization to minimize a sum of smooth and strongly convex cost functions when the functions are distributed over a directed network of nodes. In contrast to the existing work, we use…

We address the problem of zero-order optimization from noisy observations for an objective function satisfying the Polyak-{\L}ojasiewicz or the strong convexity condition. Additionally, we assume that the objective function has an additive…

$k$-subset sampling is ubiquitous in machine learning, enabling regularization and interpretability through sparsity. The challenge lies in rendering $k$-subset sampling amenable to end-to-end learning. This has typically involved relaxing…

Zeroth-order methods are extensively used in machine learning applications where gradients are infeasible or expensive to compute, such as black-box attacks, reinforcement learning, and language model fine-tuning. Existing optimization…

We consider a generic framework of optimization algorithms based on gradient descent. We develop a quantum algorithm that computes the gradient of a multi-variate real-valued function $f:\mathbb{R}^d\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ by evaluating it…

In this paper, we prove new complexity bounds for zeroth-order methods in non-convex optimization with inexact observations of the objective function values. We use the Gaussian smoothing approach of Nesterov and Spokoiny [2015] and extend…