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This paper addresses an online convex optimization problem where the cost function at each step depends on a history of past decisions (i.e., memory), and the decision maker has access to limited predictions of future cost values within a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-12-29 Zhengmiao Wang , Zhi-Wei Liu , Ming Chi , Xiaoling Wang , Housheng Su , Lintao Ye

We address the online linear optimization problem when the actions of the forecaster are represented by binary vectors. Our goal is to understand the magnitude of the minimax regret for the worst possible set of actions. We study the…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2011-05-25 Jean-Yves Audibert , Sebastien Bubeck , Gabor Lugosi

Many techniques for online optimization problems involve making decisions based solely on presently available information: fewer works take advantage of potential predictions. In this paper, we discuss the problem of online convex…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-02-04 Robert Ravier , Vahid Tarokh

We consider distributed online convex optimization problems, where the distributed system consists of various computing units connected through a time-varying communication graph. In each time step, each computing unit selects a constrained…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-12-23 Deming Yuan , Alexandre Proutiere , Guodong Shi

We consider the problem of online combinatorial optimization under semi-bandit feedback. The goal of the learner is to sequentially select its actions from a combinatorial decision set so as to minimize its cumulative loss. We propose a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2013-05-14 Gergely Neu , Gábor Bartók

We develop a reduction-based framework for online learning with delayed feedback that recovers and improves upon existing results for both first-order and bandit convex optimization. Our approach introduces a continuous-time model under…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-04 Alexander Ryabchenko , Idan Attias , Daniel M. Roy

Bandit convex optimization (BCO) is a general framework for online decision making under uncertainty. While tight regret bounds for general convex losses have been established, existing algorithms achieving these bounds have prohibitive…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-04 Arun Suggala , Y. Jennifer Sun , Praneeth Netrapalli , Elad Hazan

In this work, we study algorithms for learning in infinite-horizon undiscounted Markov decision processes (MDPs) with function approximation. We first show that the regret analysis of the Politex algorithm (a version of regularized policy…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-02-26 Nevena Lazic , Dong Yin , Yasin Abbasi-Yadkori , Csaba Szepesvari

A fundamental challenge in model-based offline reinforcement learning (RL) lies in the trade-off between generalization and robustness against exploitation errors in out-of-distribution (OOD) regions. While OOD samples may capture valid…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Hongqiang Lin , Dongxu Zhang , Yiding Sun , Mingzhe Li , Ning Yang , Haijun Zhang

Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is among the most widely used algorithms in reinforcement learning, which achieves state-of-the-art performance in many challenging problems. The keys to its success are the reliable policy updates through…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-07-02 Mónika Farsang , Luca Szegletes

Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is a highly popular model-free reinforcement learning (RL) approach. However, we observe that in a continuous action space, PPO can prematurely shrink the exploration variance, which leads to slow progress…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-04 Perttu Hämäläinen , Amin Babadi , Xiaoxiao Ma , Jaakko Lehtinen

This letter studies the problem of online multi-step-ahead prediction for unknown linear stochastic systems. Using conditional distribution theory, we derive an optimal parameterization of the prediction policy as a linear function of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-18 Jiachen Qian , Yang Zheng

We study computationally and statistically efficient reinforcement learning under the linear $Q^{\pi}$ realizability assumption, where any policy's $Q$-function is linear in a given state-action feature representation. Prior methods in this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-03 Yijing Ke , Zihan Zhang , Ruosong Wang

In many settings, a decision-maker wishes to learn a rule, or policy, that maps from observable characteristics of an individual to an action. Examples include selecting offers, prices, advertisements, or emails to send to consumers, as…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-11-20 Zhengyuan Zhou , Susan Athey , Stefan Wager

This paper studies online shortest path routing over multi-hop networks. Link costs or delays are time-varying and modeled by independent and identically distributed random processes, whose parameters are initially unknown. The parameters,…

Networking and Internet Architecture · Computer Science 2017-01-19 M. Sadegh Talebi , Zhenhua Zou , Richard Combes , Alexandre Proutiere , Mikael Johansson

This paper discusses a scenario approach to robust optimization of a blackbox function in a bandit setting. We assume that the blackbox function can be modeled as a Gaussian Process (GP) for every realization of the uncertain parameter. We…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-05-01 Shaunak D. Bopardikar , Vaibhav Srivastava

Training large language model (LLM) agents for adversarial games is often driven by episodic objectives such as win rate. In long-horizon settings, however, payoffs are shaped by latent strategic externalities that evolve over time, so…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Boyang Xia , Weiyou Tian , Qingnan Ren , Jiaqi Huang , Jie Xiao , Shuo Lu , Kai Wang , Lynn Ai , Eric Yang , Bill Shi

This paper presents competitive algorithms for a novel class of online optimization problems with memory. We consider a setting where the learner seeks to minimize the sum of a hitting cost and a switching cost that depends on the previous…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-01-11 Guanya Shi , Yiheng Lin , Soon-Jo Chung , Yisong Yue , Adam Wierman

Reinforcement learning (RL) in large environments often suffers from severe computational bottlenecks, as conventional regret minimization algorithms require repeated, costly calls to planning and statistical estimation oracles. While…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-04 Haichen Hu , Jian Qian , David Simchi-Levi

Policy optimization methods with function approximation are widely used in multi-agent reinforcement learning. However, it remains elusive how to design such algorithms with statistical guarantees. Leveraging a multi-agent performance…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-05-09 Yulai Zhao , Zhuoran Yang , Zhaoran Wang , Jason D. Lee