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Stochastic gradient algorithms have been the main focus of large-scale learning problems and they led to important successes in machine learning. The convergence of SGD depends on the careful choice of learning rate and the amount of the…
The simplicity of gradient descent (GD) made it the default method for training ever-deeper and complex neural networks. Both loss functions and architectures are often explicitly tuned to be amenable to this basic local optimization. In…
In a variety of problems originating in supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, the loss function is defined by an expectation over a collection of random variables, which might be part of a probabilistic model or the external…
We consider non-differentiable dynamic optimization problems such as those arising in robotics and subspace tracking. Given the computational constraints and the time-varying nature of the problem, a low-complexity algorithm is desirable,…
Neural network optimization remains one of the most consequential yet poorly understood challenges in modern AI research, where improvements in training algorithms can lead to enhanced feature learning in foundation models,…
We consider minimizing functions for which it is expensive to compute the (possibly stochastic) gradient. Such functions are prevalent in reinforcement learning, imitation learning and adversarial training. Our target optimization framework…
We consider linear prediction with a convex Lipschitz loss, or more generally, stochastic convex optimization problems of generalized linear form, i.e.~where each instantaneous loss is a scalar convex function of a linear function. We show…
This paper presents a novel methodology that uses surrogate models in the form of neural networks to reduce the computation time of simulation-based optimization of a reference trajectory. Simulation-based optimization is necessary when…
Many important computer vision tasks are naturally formulated to have a non-differentiable objective. Therefore, the standard, dominant training procedure of a neural network is not applicable since back-propagation requires the gradients…
We present a new machine learning approach to estimate personalized treatment effects in the classical potential outcomes framework with binary outcomes. To overcome the problem that both treatment and control outcomes for the same unit are…
We study realizable continual linear regression under random task orderings, a common setting for developing continual learning theory. In this setup, the worst-case expected loss after $k$ learning iterations admits a lower bound of…
Diffusion models have demonstrated empirical successes in various applications and can be adapted to task-specific needs via guidance. This paper studies a form of gradient guidance for adapting a pre-trained diffusion model towards…
Commonly used classification algorithms in machine learning, such as support vector machines, minimize a convex surrogate loss on training examples. In practice, these algorithms are surprisingly robust to errors in the training data. In…
In this paper, we consider a general stochastic optimization problem which is often at the core of supervised learning, such as deep learning and linear classification. We consider a standard stochastic gradient descent (SGD) method with a…
We analyze the properties of gradient descent on convex surrogates for the zero-one loss for the agnostic learning of linear halfspaces. If $\mathsf{OPT}$ is the best classification error achieved by a halfspace, by appealing to the notion…
We present a detailed study of cardinality-aware top-$k$ classification, a novel approach that aims to learn an accurate top-$k$ set predictor while maintaining a low cardinality. We introduce a new target loss function tailored to this…
Creating impact in real-world settings requires artificial intelligence techniques to span the full pipeline from data, to predictive models, to decisions. These components are typically approached separately: a machine learning model is…
Modern machine learning approaches to classification, including AdaBoost, support vector machines, and deep neural networks, utilize surrogate loss techniques to circumvent the computational complexity of minimizing empirical classification…
This paper studies a risk minimization problem with decision dependent data distribution. The problem pertains to the performative prediction setting in which a trained model can affect the outcome estimated by the model. Such dependency…
The success of deep learning over the past decade mainly relies on gradient-based optimisation and backpropagation. This paper focuses on analysing the performance of first-order gradient-based optimisation algorithms, gradient descent and…