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We introduce a flexible empirical Bayes approach for fitting Bayesian generalized linear models. Specifically, we adopt a novel mean-field variational inference (VI) method and the prior is estimated within the VI algorithm, making the…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-01-30 Dongyue Xie , Wanrong Zhu , Matthew Stephens

Variational inference in Bayesian deep learning often involves computing the gradient of an expectation that lacks a closed-form solution. In these cases, pathwise and score-function gradient estimators are the most common approaches. The…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-10-10 Kenyon Ng , Susan Wei

Variational Bayes (VB) has become a widely-used tool for Bayesian inference in statistics and machine learning. Nonetheless, the development of the existing VB algorithms is so far generally restricted to the case where the variational…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-08-04 Minh-Ngoc Tran , Dang H. Nguyen , Duy Nguyen

Effective techniques for eliciting user preferences have taken on added importance as recommender systems (RSs) become increasingly interactive and conversational. A common and conceptually appealing Bayesian criterion for selecting queries…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-11-22 Ivan Vendrov , Tyler Lu , Qingqing Huang , Craig Boutilier

We develop EigenVI, an eigenvalue-based approach for black-box variational inference (BBVI). EigenVI constructs its variational approximations from orthogonal function expansions. For distributions over $\mathbb{R}^D$, the lowest order term…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-11-01 Diana Cai , Chirag Modi , Charles C. Margossian , Robert M. Gower , David M. Blei , Lawrence K. Saul

We propose in this paper a new minimization algorithm based on a slightly modified version of the scalar auxiliary variable (SAV) approach coupled with a relaxation step and an adaptive strategy. It enjoys several distinct advantages over…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2023-05-11 Xinyu Liu , Jie Shen , Xiaongxiong Zhang

We introduce a new variational inference (VI) framework, called energetic variational inference (EVI). It minimizes the VI objective function based on a prescribed energy-dissipation law. Using the EVI framework, we can derive many existing…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-05-12 Yiwei Wang , Jiuhai Chen , Chun Liu , Lulu Kang

Estimating a distribution given access to its unnormalized density is pivotal in Bayesian inference, where the posterior is generally known only up to an unknown normalizing constant. Variational inference and Markov chain Monte Carlo…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-05-06 Daniel Ward , Mark Beaumont , Matteo Fasiolo

In practical regression applications, multiple covariates are often measured, but not all may be associated with the response variable. Identifying and including only the relevant covariates in the model is crucial for improving prediction…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-03-10 Ana Carolina da Cruz , Camila P. E. de Souza , Pedro H. T. O. Sousa

With the advancements of computer architectures, the use of computational models proliferates to solve complex problems in many scientific applications such as nuclear physics and climate research. However, the potential of such models is…

Computation · Statistics 2021-07-05 Vojtech Kejzlar , Tapabrata Maiti

Online optimization has gained increasing interest due to its capability of tracking real-world streaming data. Although online optimization methods have been widely studied in the setting of frequentist statistics, few works have…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-01 Yifan Yang , Chang Liu , Zheng Zhang

Mean field variational inference (VI) is the problem of finding the closest product (factorized) measure, in the sense of relative entropy, to a given high-dimensional probability measure $\rho$. The well known Coordinate Ascent Variational…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-04-16 Manuel Arnese , Daniel Lacker

Stochastic natural gradient variational inference (NGVI) is a popular and efficient algorithm for Bayesian inference. Despite empirical success, the convergence of this method is still not fully understood. In this work, we define and study…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-04-02 Thomas Guilmeau , Hadrien Hendrikx , Florence Forbes

Variational regression methods are an increasingly popular tool for their efficient estimation of complex. Given the mixed model representation of penalized effects, additive regression models with smoothed effects and scalar-on-function…

Methodology · Statistics 2024-06-13 Mark J. Meyer , Junyi Wei

Bayesian meta-learning enables robust and fast adaptation to new tasks with uncertainty assessment. The key idea behind Bayesian meta-learning is empirical Bayes inference of hierarchical model. In this work, we extend this framework to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-19 Yayi Zou , Xiaoqi Lu

Particle-based variational inference methods (ParVIs) have gained attention in the Bayesian inference literature, for their capacity to yield flexible and accurate approximations. We explore ParVIs from the perspective of Wasserstein…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-07-17 Chang Liu , Jingwei Zhuo , Pengyu Cheng , Ruiyi Zhang , Jun Zhu , Lawrence Carin

For approximating a target distribution given only its unnormalized log-density, stochastic gradient-based variational inference (VI) algorithms are a popular approach. For example, Wasserstein VI (WVI) and black-box VI (BBVI) perform…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-05-20 Kyurae Kim , Qiang Fu , Yi-An Ma , Jacob R. Gardner , Trevor Campbell

Adaptive gradient methods for stochastic optimization adjust the learning rate for each parameter locally. However, there is also a global learning rate which must be tuned in order to get the best performance. In this paper, we present a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2018-06-12 Hiroaki Hayashi , Jayanth Koushik , Graham Neubig

We consider a stochastic Inverse Variational Inequality (IVI) problem defined by a continuous and co-coercive map over a closed and convex set. Motivated by the absence of performance guarantees for stochastic IVI, we present a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-12-08 Zeinab Alizadeh , Felipe Parra Polanco , Afrooz Jalilzadeh

A conventional Bayesian approach to prediction uses the posterior distribution to integrate out parameters in a density for unobserved data conditional on the observed data and parameters. When the true posterior is intractable, it is…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-02-27 Lucas Kock , Scott A. Sisson , G. S. Rodrigues , David J. Nott