Related papers: Dueling Optimization with a Monotone Adversary

Research on the multi-armed bandit problem has studied the trade-off of exploration and exploitation in depth. However, there are numerous applications where the cardinal absolute-valued feedback model (e.g. ratings from one to five) is not…

We present a general technique for the analysis of first-order methods. The technique relies on the construction of a duality gap for an appropriate approximation of the objective function, where the function approximation improves as the…

We study the problem of maximizing a monotone submodular function subject to a matroid constraint, and present for it a deterministic non-oblivious local search algorithm that has an approximation guarantee of $1 - 1/e - \varepsilon$ (for…

This paper is devoted to the study of the solution of a stochastic convex black box optimization problem. Where the black box problem means that the gradient-free oracle only returns the value of objective function, not its gradient. We…

We study adversarial robustness of neural networks from a margin maximization perspective, where margins are defined as the distances from inputs to a classifier's decision boundary. Our study shows that maximizing margins can be achieved…

Using an optimization algorithm to solve a machine learning problem is one of mainstreams in the field of science. In this work, we demonstrate a comprehensive comparison of some state-of-the-art first-order optimization algorithms for…

Learning from human feedback plays an important role in aligning generative models, such as large language models (LLM). However, the effectiveness of this approach can be influenced by adversaries, who may intentionally provide misleading…

We present a new algorithm to train a robust neural network against adversarial attacks. Our algorithm is motivated by the following two ideas. First, although recent work has demonstrated that fusing randomness can improve the robustness…

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Distributed optimization is the standard way of speeding up machine learning training, and most of the research in the area focuses on distributed first-order, gradient-based methods. Yet, there are settings where some…

We study bandit best-arm identification with arbitrary and potentially adversarial rewards. A simple random uniform learner obtains the optimal rate of error in the adversarial scenario. However, this type of strategy is suboptimal when the…

We study the classical problem of prediction with expert advice in the adversarial setting with a geometric stopping time. In 1965, Cover gave the optimal algorithm for the case of 2 experts. In this paper, we design the optimal algorithm,…

In this paper, we study contention resolution schemes for matchings. Given a fractional matching $x$ and a random set $R(x)$ where each edge $e$ appears independently with probability $x_e$, we want to select a matching $M \subseteq R(x)$…

Nonsmooth nonconvex optimization problems involving the $\ell^p$ quasi-norm, $p \in (0, 1]$, of a linear map are considered. A monotonically convergent scheme for a regularized version of the original problem is developed and necessary…

Submodular maximization is a general optimization problem with a wide range of applications in machine learning (e.g., active learning, clustering, and feature selection). In large-scale optimization, the parallel running time of an…

The use of min-max optimization in adversarial training of deep neural network classifiers and training of generative adversarial networks has motivated the study of nonconvex-nonconcave optimization objectives, which frequently arise in…

Developing large-scale distributed methods that are robust to the presence of adversarial or corrupted workers is an important part of making such methods practical for real-world problems. In this paper, we propose an iterative approach…

The problem of distributed optimization requires a group of agents to reach agreement on a parameter that minimizes the average of their local cost functions using information received from their neighbors. While there are a variety of…

Motivated by fairness concerns, we study the `portfolio problem': given an optimization problem with set $D$ of feasible solutions, a class $\mathbf{C}$ of fairness objective functions on $D$, and an approximation factor $\alpha \ge 1$, a…

We study optimization algorithms for the finite sum problems frequently arising in machine learning applications. First, we propose novel variants of stochastic gradient descent with a variance reduction property that enables linear…