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Unsupervised Text Segmentation via Kernel Change-Point Detection on Sentence Embeddings

Jia, Mumin, Diaz-Rodriguez, Jairo

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Unsupervised text segmentation is crucial because boundary labels are expensive, subjective, and often fail to transfer across domains and granularity choices. We propose Embed-KCPD, a training-free method that represents sentences as embedding vectors and estimates boundaries by minimizing a penalized KCPD objective. Beyond the algorithmic instantiation, we develop, to our knowledge, the first dependence-aware theory for KCPD under $m$-dependent sequences, a finite-memory abstraction of short-range dependence common in language. We prove an oracle inequality for the population penalized risk and a localization guarantee showing that each true change point is recovered within a window that is small relative to segment length. To connect theory to practice, we introduce an LLM-based simulation framework that generates synthetic documents with controlled finite-memory dependence and known boundaries, validating the predicted scaling behavior. Across standard segmentation benchmarks, Embed-KCPD often outperforms strong unsupervised baselines. A case study on Taylor Swift's tweets illustrates that Embed-KCPD combines strong theoretical guarantees, simulated reliability, and practical effectiveness for text segmentation.


Bayesian Model Selection Approach to Boundary Detection with Non-Local Priors

Neural Information Processing Systems

Based on non-local prior distributions, we propose a Bayesian model selection (BMS) procedure for boundary detection in a sequence of data with multiple systematic mean changes. The BMS method can effectively suppress the non-boundary spike points with large instantaneous changes.


Detecting Abrupt Changes in Sequential Pairwise Comparison Data

Neural Information Processing Systems

The Bradley-Terry-Luce (BTL) model is a classic and very popular statistical approach for eliciting a global ranking among a collection of items using pairwise comparison data. In applications in which the comparison outcomes are observed as a time series, it is often the case that data are non-stationary, in the sense that the true underlying ranking changes over time. In this paper we are concerned with localizing the change points in a high-dimensional BTL model with piece-wise constant parameters. We propose novel and practicable algorithms based on dynamic programming that can consistently estimate the unknown locations of the change points. We provide consistency rates for our methodology that depend explicitly on the model parameters, the temporal spacing between two consecutive change points and the magnitude of the change. We corroborate our findings with extensive numerical experiments and a real-life example.


Change point detection and inference in multivariate non-parametric models under mixing conditions

Neural Information Processing Systems

This paper addresses the problem of localizing and inferring multiple change points, in non-parametric multivariate time series settings. Specifically, we consider a multivariate time series with potentially short-range dependence, whose underlying distributions have Hölder smooth densities and can change over time in a piecewise-constant manner. The change points, which correspond to the times when the distribution changes, are unknown. We present the limiting distributions of the change point estimators under the scenarios where the minimal jump size vanishes or remains constant. Such results have not been revealed in the literature in non-parametric change point settings. As byproducts, we develop a sharp estimator that can accurately localize the change points in multivariate non-parametric time series, and a consistent block-type long-run variance estimator. Numerical studies are provided to complement our theoretical findings.


Change Point Detection via Multivariate Singular Spectrum Analysis

Neural Information Processing Systems

The objective of change point detection (CPD) is to detect significant and abrupt changes in the dynamics of the underlying system of interest through multivariate time series observations. In this work, we develop and analyze an algorithm for CPD that is inspired by a variant of the classical singular spectrum analysis (SSA) approach for time series by combining it with the classical cumulative sum (CUSUM) statistic from sequential hypothesis testing. In particular, we model the underlying dynamics of multivariate time series observations through the spatio-temporal model introduced recently in the multivariate SSA (mSSA) literature.


High-Dimensional Change Point Detection using Graph Spanning Ratio

Sun, Youngwen, Papagiannouli, Katerina, Spokoiny, Vladimir

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Inspired by graph-based methodologies, we introduce a novel graph-spanning algorithm designed to identify changes in both offline and online data across low to high dimensions. This versatile approach is applicable to Euclidean and graph-structured data with unknown distributions, while maintaining control over error probabilities. Theoretically, we demonstrate that the algorithm achieves high detection power when the magnitude of the change surpasses the lower bound of the minimax separation rate, which scales on the order of $\sqrt{nd}$. Our method outperforms other techniques in terms of accuracy for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian data. Notably, it maintains strong detection power even with small observation windows, making it particularly effective for online environments where timely and precise change detection is critical.


Bayesian Model Selection Approach to Boundary Detection with Non-Local Priors

Neural Information Processing Systems

Based on non-local prior distributions, we propose a Bayesian model selection (BMS) procedure for boundary detection in a sequence of data with multiple systematic mean changes. The BMS method can effectively suppress the non-boundary spike points with large instantaneous changes.


Bayesian Model Selection Approach to Boundary Detection with Non-Local Priors

Fei Jiang, Guosheng Yin, Francesca Dominici

Neural Information Processing Systems

Based on non-local prior distributions, we propose a Bayesian model selection (BMS) procedure for boundary detection in a sequence of data with multiple systematic mean changes. The BMS method can effectively suppress the non-boundary spike points with large instantaneous changes.