In this paper, the problem of maximizing a black-box function f:→ℝ is studied in the Bayesian framework with a Gaussian Process prior. In particular, a new algorithm for this problem is proposed, and high probability bounds on its simple and cumulative regret are established. The query point selection rule in most existing methods involves an exhaustive search over an increasingly fine sequence of uniform discretizations of . The proposed algorithm, in contrast, adaptively refines which leads to a lower computational complexity, particularly when is a subset of a high dimensional Euclidean space. In addition to the computational gains, sufficient conditions are identified under which the regret bounds of the new algorithm improve upon the known results. Finally, an extension of the algorithm to the case of contextual bandits is proposed, and high probability bounds on the contextual regret are presented.
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Multiscale Gaussian Process Level Set Estimation
In this paper, the problem of estimating the level set of a black-box function from noisy and expensive evaluation queries is considered. A new algorithm for this problem in the Bayesian framework with a Gaussian Process (GP) prior is proposed. The proposed algorithm employs a hierarchical sequence of partitions to explore different regions of the search space at varying levels of detail depending upon their proximity to the level set boundary. It is shown that this approach results in the algorithm having a low complexity implementation whose computational cost is significantly smaller than the existing algorithms for higher dimensional search space \X. Furthermore, high probability bounds on a measure of discrepancy between the estimated level set and the true level set for the the proposed algorithm are obtained, which are shown to be strictly better than the existing guarantees for a large class of GPs.In the process, a tighter characterization of the information gain of the proposed algorithm is obtained which takes into account the structured nature of the evaluation points. This approach improves upon the existing technique of bounding the information gain with maximum information gain.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1719133
- PAR ID:
- 10100921
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of Machine Learning Research
- Volume:
- 89
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2640-3498
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 3283-3291
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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