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Convolutional Monge Mapping Normalization for learning on sleep data

Neural Information Processing Systems

In many machine learning applications on signals and biomedical data, especially electroencephalogram (EEG), one major challenge is the variability of the data across subjects, sessions, and hardware devices. In this work, we propose a new method called Convolutional Monge Mapping Normalization (CMMN), which consists in filtering the signals in order to adapt their power spectrum density (PSD) to a Wasserstein barycenter estimated on training data. CMMN relies on novel closed-form solutions for optimal transport mappings and barycenters and provides individual test time adaptation to new data without needing to retrain a prediction model. Numerical experiments on sleep EEG data show that CMMN leads to significant and consistent performance gains independent from the neural network architecture when adapting between subjects, sessions, and even datasets collected with different hardware. Notably our performance gain is on par with much more numerically intensive Domain Adaptation (DA) methods and can be used in conjunction with those for even better performances.


Evaluating State-of-the-Art Classification Models Against Bayes Optimality

Neural Information Processing Systems

Evaluating the inherent difficulty of a given data-driven classification problem is important for establishing absolute benchmarks and evaluating progress in the field. To this end, a natural quantity to consider is the Bayes error, which measures the optimal classification error theoretically achievable for a given data distribution. While generally an intractable quantity, we show that we can compute the exact Bayes error of generative models learned using normalizing flows. Our technique relies on a fundamental result, which states that the Bayes error is invariant under invertible transformation. Therefore, we can compute the exact Bayes error of the learned flow models by computing it for Gaussian base distributions, which can be done efficiently using Holmes-Diaconis-Ross integration. Moreover, we show that by varying the temperature of the learned flow models, we can generate synthetic datasets that closely resemble standard benchmark datasets, but with almost any desired Bayes error. We use our approach to conduct a thorough investigation of state-of-the-art classification models, and find that in some -- but not all -- cases, these models are capable of obtaining accuracy very near optimal. Finally, we use our method to evaluate the intrinsic "hardness" of standard benchmark datasets.


Optimistic Posterior Sampling for Reinforcement Learning with Few Samples and Tight Guarantees

Neural Information Processing Systems

We consider reinforcement learning in an environment modeled by an episodic, finite, stage-dependent Markov decision process of horizon H with S states, and A actions. The performance of an agent is measured by the regret after interacting with the environment for T episodes. We propose an optimistic posterior sampling algorithm for reinforcement learning (OPSRL), a simple variant of posterior sampling that only needs a number of posterior samples logarithmic in H, S, A, and T per state-action pair.


Gradient Flossing: Improving Gradient Descent through Dynamic Control of Jacobians

Neural Information Processing Systems

Training recurrent neural networks (RNNs) remains a challenge due to the instability of gradients across long time horizons, which can lead to exploding and vanishing gradients. Recent research has linked these problems to the values of Lyapunov exponents for the forward-dynamics, which describe the growth or shrinkage of infinitesimal perturbations. Here, we propose gradient flossing, a novel approach to tackling gradient instability by pushing Lyapunov exponents of the forward dynamics toward zero during learning. We achieve this by regularizing Lyapunov exponents through backpropagation using differentiable linear algebra. This enables us to "floss" the gradients, stabilizing them and thus improving network training.


Gradient Flossing: Improving Gradient Descent through Dynamic Control of Jacobians

Neural Information Processing Systems

Training recurrent neural networks (RNNs) remains a challenge due to the instability of gradients across long time horizons, which can lead to exploding and vanishing gradients. Recent research has linked these problems to the values of Lyapunov exponents for the forward-dynamics, which describe the growth or shrinkage of infinitesimal perturbations. Here, we propose gradient flossing, a novel approach to tackling gradient instability by pushing Lyapunov exponents of the forward dynamics toward zero during learning. We achieve this by regularizing Lyapunov exponents through backpropagation using differentiable linear algebra. This enables us to "floss" the gradients, stabilizing them and thus improving network training.


TacticZero: Learning to Prove Theorems from Scratch with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Neural Information Processing Systems

We propose a novel approach to interactive theorem proving (ITP) using deep reinforcement learning. The proposed framework is able to learn proof search strategies as well as tactic and arguments prediction in an end-to-end manner. We formulate the process of ITP as a Markov decision process (MDP) in which each state represents a set of potential derivation paths. This structure allows us to introduce a search mechanism which enables the agent to efficiently discard (predicted) dead-end derivations and restart from promising alternatives. We implement the framework in the HOL4 theorem prover. Experimental results show that the framework using learned search strategies outperforms existing automated theorem provers (i.e.


Bandit Social Learning under Myopic Behavior

Neural Information Processing Systems

We study social learning dynamics motivated by reviews on online platforms. The agents collectively follow a simple multi-armed bandit protocol, but each agent acts myopically, without regards to exploration. We allow a wide range of myopic behaviors that are consistent with (parameterized) confidence intervals for the arms' expected rewards. We derive stark exploration failures for any such behavior, and provide matching positive results. As a special case, we obtain the first general results on failure of the greedy algorithm in bandits, thus providing a theoretical foundation for why bandit algorithms should explore.1