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Collaborating Authors

 Yoshua Bengio






Bayesian Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning

Neural Information Processing Systems

Due to the inherent model uncertainty, learning to infer Bayesian posterior from a few-shot dataset is an important step towards robust meta-learning. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian model-agnostic meta-learning method. The proposed method combines efficient gradient-based meta-learning with nonparametric variational inference in a principled probabilistic framework. Unlike previous methods, during fast adaptation, the method is capable of learning complex uncertainty structure beyond a simple Gaussian approximation, and during meta-update, a novel Bayesian mechanism prevents meta-level overfitting. Remaining a gradientbased method, it is also the first Bayesian model-agnostic meta-learning method applicable to various tasks including reinforcement learning. Experiment results show the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method in sinusoidal regression, image classification, active learning, and reinforcement learning.



Datasheet for SatBird: A Dataset for Bird Distribution Modeling using Remote Sensing and Citizen Science data

Neural Information Processing Systems

You can visit our project website https://satbird.github.io. Was there a specific task in mind? Was there a specific gap that needed to be filled? The dataset was created for the task of predicting bird species encounter rates at scale, from remote sensing imagery and environmental data. Traditional methods in species distribution modelling (SDM) generally focus either on narrow sets of species or narrow geographical areas, while multi-species modelling is needed for understanding ecosystems. SatBird was designed to bridge knowledge gaps in species distributions, by leveraging abundant presence-absence data in the citizen science database eBird and globally available Sentinel-2 satellite data. Who created the dataset (e.g., which team, research group) and on behalf of which entity (e.g., company, institution, organization)?


Dendritic cortical microcircuits approximate the backpropagation algorithm

Neural Information Processing Systems

Deep learning has seen remarkable developments over the last years, many of them inspired by neuroscience. However, the main learning mechanism behind these advances - error backpropagation - appears to be at odds with neurobiology. Here, we introduce a multilayer neuronal network model with simplified dendritic compartments in which error-driven synaptic plasticity adapts the network towards a global desired output. In contrast to previous work our model does not require separate phases and synaptic learning is driven by local dendritic prediction errors continuously in time. Such errors originate at apical dendrites and occur due to a mismatch between predictive input from lateral interneurons and activity from actual top-down feedback. Through the use of simple dendritic compartments and different cell-types our model can represent both error and normal activity within a pyramidal neuron. We demonstrate the learning capabilities of the model in regression and classification tasks, and show analytically that it approximates the error backpropagation algorithm. Moreover, our framework is consistent with recent observations of learning between brain areas and the architecture of cortical microcircuits. Overall, we introduce a novel view of learning on dendritic cortical circuits and on how the brain may solve the long-standing synaptic credit assignment problem.



On Adversarial Mixup Resynthesis

Neural Information Processing Systems

In this paper, we explore new approaches to combining information encoded within the learned representations of auto-encoders. We explore models that are capable of combining the attributes of multiple inputs such that a resynthesised output is trained to fool an adversarial discriminator for real versus synthesised data. Furthermore, we explore the use of such an architecture in the context of semisupervised learning, where we learn a mixing function whose objective is to produce interpolations of hidden states, or masked combinations of latent representations that are consistent with a conditioned class label. We show quantitative and qualitative evidence that such a formulation is an interesting avenue of research.