Chiu, Johnathan
Scalable Bayesian Learning with posteriors
Duffield, Samuel, Donatella, Kaelan, Chiu, Johnathan, Klett, Phoebe, Simpson, Daniel
Although theoretically compelling, Bayesian learning with modern machine learning models is computationally challenging since it requires approximating a high dimensional posterior distribution. In this work, we (i) introduce posteriors, an easily extensible PyTorch library hosting general-purpose implementations making Bayesian learning accessible and scalable to large data and parameter regimes; (ii) present a tempered framing of stochastic gradient Markov chain Monte Carlo, as implemented in posteriors, that transitions seamlessly into optimization and unveils a minor modification to deep ensembles to ensure they are asymptotically unbiased for the Bayesian posterior, and (iii) demonstrate and compare the utility of Bayesian approximations through experiments including an investigation into the cold posterior effect and applications with large language models.
Variable Length Embeddings
Chiu, Johnathan, Gu, Andi, Zhou, Matt
We introduce a novel deep learning architecture, called Variable Length Embeddings (VLE). A VLE is an autoencoder that differs from traditional ones in one key aspect: whereas conventional autoencoders have a fixed embedding dimension, VLEs (as their name suggests) use a variablelength embedding dimension. Allowing the embedding dimension to vary is a natural idea: not all images are created equal. Images that contain more complex semantics should naturally require more resources to represent efficiently. Viewed through the lens of information theory, this is a well-known idea: we ought to use less resources to represent'easy' samples.
Formal Analysis and Redesign of a Neural Network-Based Aircraft Taxiing System with VerifAI
Fremont, Daniel J., Chiu, Johnathan, Margineantu, Dragos D., Osipychev, Denis, Seshia, Sanjit A.
We demonstrate a unified approach to rigorous design of safety-critical autonomous systems using the VerifAI toolkit for formal analysis of AI-based systems. VerifAI provides an integrated toolchain for tasks spanning the design process, including modeling, falsification, debugging, and ML component retraining. We evaluate all of these applications in an industrial case study on an experimental autonomous aircraft taxiing system developed by Boeing, which uses a neural network to track the centerline of a runway. We define runway scenarios using the Scenic probabilistic programming language, and use them to drive tests in the X-Plane flight simulator. We first perform falsification, automatically finding environment conditions causing the system to violate its specification by deviating significantly from the centerline (or even leaving the runway entirely). Next, we use counterexample analysis to identify distinct failure cases, and confirm their root causes with specialized testing. Finally, we use the results of falsification and debugging to retrain the network, eliminating several failure cases and improving the overall performance of the closed-loop system.