OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
A Review and Evaluation of Elastic Distance Functions for Time Series Clustering
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Time series clustering is the act of grouping time series data without recourse to a label. Algorithms that cluster time series can be classified into two groups: those that employ a time series specific distance measure; and those that derive features from time series. Both approaches usually rely on traditional clustering algorithms such as $k$-means. Our focus is on distance based time series that employ elastic distance measures, i.e. distances that perform some kind of realignment whilst measuring distance. We describe nine commonly used elastic distance measures and compare their performance with k-means and k-medoids clustering. Our findings are surprising. The most popular technique, dynamic time warping (DTW), performs worse than Euclidean distance with k-means, and even when tuned, is no better. Using k-medoids rather than k-means improved the clusterings for all nine distance measures. DTW is not significantly better than Euclidean distance with k-medoids. Generally, distance measures that employ editing in conjunction with warping perform better, and one distance measure, the move-split-merge (MSM) method, is the best performing measure of this study. We also compare to clustering with DTW using barycentre averaging (DBA). We find that DBA does improve DTW k-means, but that the standard DBA is still worse than using MSM. Our conclusion is to recommend MSM with k-medoids as the benchmark algorithm for clustering time series with elastic distance measures. We provide implementations in the aeon toolkit, results and guidance on reproducing results on the associated GitHub repository.
Flowification: Everything is a Normalizing Flow
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

The two key characteristics of a normalizing flow is that it is invertible (in particular, dimension preserving) and that it monitors the amount by which it changes the likelihood of data points as samples are propagated along the network. Recently, multiple generalizations of normalizing flows have been introduced that relax these two conditions. On the other hand, neural networks only perform a forward pass on the input, there is neither a notion of an inverse of a neural network nor is there one of its likelihood contribution. In this paper we argue that certain neural network architectures can be enriched with a stochastic inverse pass and that their likelihood contribution can be monitored in a way that they fall under the generalized notion of a normalizing flow mentioned above. We term this enrichment flowification. We prove that neural networks only containing linear layers, convolutional layers and invertible activations such as LeakyReLU can be flowified and evaluate them in the generative setting on image datasets.
Searching for the Essence of Adversarial Perturbations
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Neural networks have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in various machine learning fields. However, the introduction of malicious perturbations in input data, known as adversarial examples, has been shown to deceive neural network predictions. This poses potential risks for real-world applications such as autonomous driving and text identification. In order to mitigate these risks, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying adversarial examples is essential. In this study, we demonstrate that adversarial perturbations contain human-recognizable information, which is the key conspirator responsible for a neural network's incorrect prediction, in contrast to the widely held belief that human-unidentifiable characteristics play a critical role in fooling a network. This concept of human-recognizable characteristics enables us to explain key features of adversarial perturbations, including their existence, transferability among different neural networks, and increased interpretability for adversarial training. We also uncover two unique properties of adversarial perturbations that deceive neural networks: masking and generation. Additionally, a special class, the complementary class, is identified when neural networks classify input images. The presence of human-recognizable information in adversarial perturbations allows researchers to gain insight into the working principles of neural networks and may lead to the development of techniques for detecting and defending against adversarial attacks.
Few-Shot Unlearning by Model Inversion
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

We consider a practical scenario of machine unlearning to erase a target dataset, which causes unexpected behavior from the trained model. The target dataset is often assumed to be fully identifiable in a standard unlearning scenario. Such a flawless identification, however, is almost impossible if the training dataset is inaccessible at the time of unlearning. Unlike previous approaches requiring a complete set of targets, we consider few-shot unlearning scenario when only a few samples of target data are available. To this end, we formulate the few-shot unlearning problem specifying intentions behind the unlearning request (e.g., purely unlearning, mislabel correction, privacy protection), and we devise a straightforward framework that (i) retrieves a proxy of the training data via model inversion fully exploiting information available in the context of unlearning; (ii) adjusts the proxy according to the unlearning intention; and (iii) updates the model with the adjusted proxy. We demonstrate that our method using only a subset of target data can outperform the state-of-the-art unlearning methods even with a complete indication of target data.
GSR: A Generalized Symbolic Regression Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Identifying the mathematical relationships that best describe a dataset remains a very challenging problem in machine learning, and is known as Symbolic Regression (SR). In contrast to neural networks which are often treated as black boxes, SR attempts to gain insight into the underlying relationships between the independent variables and the target variable of a given dataset by assembling analytical functions. In this paper, we present GSR, a Generalized Symbolic Regression approach, by modifying the conventional SR optimization problem formulation, while keeping the main SR objective intact. In GSR, we infer mathematical relationships between the independent variables and some transformation of the target variable. We constrain our search space to a weighted sum of basis functions, and propose a genetic programming approach with a matrix-based encoding scheme. We show that our GSR method is competitive with strong SR benchmark methods, achieving promising experimental performance on the well-known SR benchmark problem sets. Finally, we highlight the strengths of GSR by introducing SymSet, a new SR benchmark set which is more challenging relative to the existing benchmarks.
Meta-ticket: Finding optimal subnetworks for few-shot learning within randomly initialized neural networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Few-shot learning for neural networks (NNs) is an important problem that aims to train NNs with a few data. The main challenge is how to avoid overfitting since over-parameterized NNs can easily overfit to such small dataset. Previous work (e.g. MAML by Finn et al. 2017) tackles this challenge by meta-learning, which learns how to learn from a few data by using various tasks. On the other hand, one conventional approach to avoid overfitting is restricting hypothesis spaces by endowing sparse NN structures like convolution layers in computer vision. However, although such manually-designed sparse structures are sample-efficient for sufficiently large datasets, they are still insufficient for few-shot learning. Then the following questions naturally arise: (1) Can we find sparse structures effective for few-shot learning by meta-learning? (2) What benefits will it bring in terms of meta-generalization? In this work, we propose a novel meta-learning approach, called Meta-ticket, to find optimal sparse subnetworks for few-shot learning within randomly initialized NNs. We empirically validated that Meta-ticket successfully discover sparse subnetworks that can learn specialized features for each given task. Due to this task-wise adaptation ability, Meta-ticket achieves superior meta-generalization compared to MAML-based methods especially with large NNs. The code is available at: https://github.com/dchiji-ntt/meta-ticket
A Coxeter type classification of Dynkin type $\mathbb{A}_n$ non-negative posets
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2023
Year: 2023

We continue the Coxeter spectral analysis of finite connected posets $I$ that are non-negative in the sense that their symmetric Gram matrix $G_I:=\frac{1}{2}(C_I + C_I^{tr})\in\mathbb{M}_{m}(\mathbb{Q})$ is positive semi-definite of rank $n\geq 0$, where $C_I\in\mathbb{M}_m(\mathbb{Z})$ is the incidence matrix of $I$ encoding the relation $\preceq_I$. We extend the results of [Fundam. Inform., 139.4(2015), 347--367] and give a complete Coxeter spectral classification of finite connected posets $I$ of Dynkin type $\mathbb{A}_n$. We show that such posets $I$, with $|I|>1$, yield exactly $\lfloor\frac{m}{2}\rfloor$ Coxeter types, one of which describes the positive (i.e., with $n=m$) ones. We give an exact description and calculate the number of posets of every type. Moreover, we prove that, given a pair of such posets $I$ and $J$, the incidence matrices $C_I$ and $C_J$ are $\mathbb{Z}$-congruent if and only if $\mathbf{specc}_I = \mathbf{specc}_J$, and present deterministic algorithms that calculate a $\mathbb{Z}$-invertible matrix defining such a $\mathbb{Z}$-congruence in a polynomial time.
Robust Anytime Learning of Markov Decision Processes
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2023
Year: 2023

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are formal models commonly used in sequential decision-making. MDPs capture the stochasticity that may arise, for instance, from imprecise actuators via probabilities in the transition function. However, in data-driven applications, deriving precise probabilities from (limited) data introduces statistical errors that may lead to unexpected or undesirable outcomes. Uncertain MDPs (uMDPs) do not require precise probabilities but instead use so-called uncertainty sets in the transitions, accounting for such limited data. Tools from the formal verification community efficiently compute robust policies that provably adhere to formal specifications, like safety constraints, under the worst-case instance in the uncertainty set. We continuously learn the transition probabilities of an MDP in a robust anytime-learning approach that combines a dedicated Bayesian inference scheme with the computation of robust policies. In particular, our method (1) approximates probabilities as intervals, (2) adapts to new data that may be inconsistent with an intermediate model, and (3) may be stopped at any time to compute a robust policy on the uMDP that faithfully captures the data so far. Furthermore, our method is capable of adapting to changes in the environment. We show the effectiveness of our approach and compare it to robust policies computed on uMDPs learned by the UCRL2 reinforcement learning algorithm in an experimental evaluation on several benchmarks.
One Policy is Enough: Parallel Exploration with a Single Policy is Near-Optimal for Reward-Free Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Although parallelism has been extensively used in reinforcement learning (RL), the quantitative effects of parallel exploration are not well understood theoretically. We study the benefits of simple parallel exploration for reward-free RL in linear Markov decision processes (MDPs) and two-player zero-sum Markov games (MGs). In contrast to the existing literature, which focuses on approaches that encourage agents to explore a diverse set of policies, we show that using a single policy to guide exploration across all agents is sufficient to obtain an almost-linear speedup in all cases compared to their fully sequential counterpart. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this simple procedure is near-minimax optimal in the reward-free setting for linear MDPs. From a practical perspective, our paper shows that a single policy is sufficient and provably near-optimal for incorporating parallelism during the exploration phase.
The drivers of online polarization: fitting models to data
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2023
Year: 2023

Users online tend to join polarized groups of like-minded peers around shared narratives, forming echo chambers. The echo chamber effect and opinion polarization may be driven by several factors including human biases in information consumption and personalized recommendations produced by feed algorithms. Until now, studies have mainly used opinion dynamic models to explore the mechanisms behind the emergence of polarization and echo chambers. The objective was to determine the key factors contributing to these phenomena and identify their interplay. However, the validation of model predictions with empirical data still displays two main drawbacks: lack of systematicity and qualitative analysis. In our work, we bridge this gap by providing a method to numerically compare the opinion distributions obtained from simulations with those measured on social media. To validate this procedure, we develop an opinion dynamic model that takes into account the interplay between human and algorithmic factors. We subject our model to empirical testing with data from diverse social media platforms and benchmark it against two state-of-the-art models. To further enhance our understanding of social media platforms, we provide a synthetic description of their characteristics in terms of the model's parameter space. This representation has the potential to facilitate the refinement of feed algorithms, thus mitigating the detrimental effects of extreme polarization on online discourse.
TUM autonomous motorsport: An autonomous racing software for the Indy Autonomous Challenge
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

For decades, motorsport has been an incubator for innovations in the automotive sector and brought forth systems like disk brakes or rearview mirrors. Autonomous racing series such as Roborace, F1Tenth, or the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) are envisioned as playing a similar role within the autonomous vehicle sector, serving as a proving ground for new technology at the limits of the autonomous systems capabilities. This paper outlines the software stack and approach of the TUM Autonomous Motorsport team for their participation in the Indy Autonomous Challenge, which holds two competitions: A single-vehicle competition on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a passing competition at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Nine university teams used an identical vehicle platform: A modified Indy Lights chassis equipped with sensors, a computing platform, and actuators. All the teams developed different algorithms for object detection, localization, planning, prediction, and control of the race cars. The team from TUM placed first in Indianapolis and secured second place in Las Vegas. During the final of the passing competition, the TUM team reached speeds and accelerations close to the limit of the vehicle, peaking at around 270 km/h and 28 ms2. This paper will present details of the vehicle hardware platform, the developed algorithms, and the workflow to test and enhance the software applied during the two-year project. We derive deep insights into the autonomous vehicle's behavior at high speed and high acceleration by providing a detailed competition analysis. Based on this, we deduce a list of lessons learned and provide insights on promising areas of future work based on the real-world evaluation of the displayed concepts.
Efficient Scheduling of Data Augmentation for Deep Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

In deep reinforcement learning (RL), data augmentation is widely considered as a tool to induce a set of useful priors about semantic consistency and improve sample efficiency and generalization performance. However, even when the prior is useful for generalization, distilling it to RL agent often interferes with RL training and degenerates sample efficiency. Meanwhile, the agent is forgetful of the prior due to the non-stationary nature of RL. These observations suggest two extreme schedules of distillation: (i) over the entire training; or (ii) only at the end. Hence, we devise a stand-alone network distillation method to inject the consistency prior at any time (even after RL), and a simple yet efficient framework to automatically schedule the distillation. Specifically, the proposed framework first focuses on mastering train environments regardless of generalization by adaptively deciding which {\it or no} augmentation to be used for the training. After this, we add the distillation to extract the remaining benefits for generalization from all the augmentations, which requires no additional new samples. In our experiments, we demonstrate the utility of the proposed framework, in particular, that considers postponing the augmentation to the end of RL training.
RoCourseNet: Distributionally Robust Training of a Prediction Aware Recourse Model
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Counterfactual (CF) explanations for machine learning (ML) models are preferred by end-users, as they explain the predictions of ML models by providing a recourse (or contrastive) case to individuals who are adversely impacted by predicted outcomes. Existing CF explanation methods generate recourses under the assumption that the underlying target ML model remains stationary over time. However, due to commonly occurring distributional shifts in training data, ML models constantly get updated in practice, which might render previously generated recourses invalid and diminish end-users trust in our algorithmic framework. To address this problem, we propose RoCourseNet, a training framework that jointly optimizes predictions and recourses that are robust to future data shifts. This work contains four key contributions: (1) We formulate the robust recourse generation problem as a tri-level optimization problem which consists of two sub-problems: (i) a bi-level problem that finds the worst-case adversarial shift in the training data, and (ii) an outer minimization problem to generate robust recourses against this worst-case shift. (2) We leverage adversarial training to solve this tri-level optimization problem by: (i) proposing a novel virtual data shift (VDS) algorithm to find worst-case shifted ML models via explicitly considering the worst-case data shift in the training dataset, and (ii) a block-wise coordinate descent procedure to optimize for prediction and corresponding robust recourses. (3) We evaluate RoCourseNet's performance on three real-world datasets, and show that RoCourseNet consistently achieves more than 96% robust validity and outperforms state-of-the-art baselines by at least 10% in generating robust CF explanations. (4) Finally, we generalize the RoCourseNet framework to accommodate any parametric post-hoc methods for improving robust validity.
Near-Optimal Search Time in $δ$-Optimal Space, and Vice Versa
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2023
Year: 2023

Two recent lower bounds on the compressibility of repetitive sequences, $δ\le γ$, have received much attention. It has been shown that a length-$n$ string $S$ over an alphabet of size $σ$ can be represented within the optimal $O(δ\log\tfrac{n\log σ}{δ\log n})$ space, and further, that within that space one can find all the $occ$ occurrences in $S$ of any length-$m$ pattern in time $O(m\log n + occ \log^εn)$ for any constant $ε>0$. Instead, the near-optimal search time $O(m+({occ+1})\log^εn)$ has been achieved only within $O(γ\log\frac{n}γ)$ space. Both results are based on considerably different locally consistent parsing techniques. The question of whether the better search time could be supported within the $δ$-optimal space remained open. In this paper, we prove that both techniques can indeed be combined to obtain the best of both worlds: $O(m+({occ+1})\log^εn)$ search time within $O(δ\log\tfrac{n\log σ}{δ\log n})$ space. Moreover, the number of occurrences can be computed in $O(m+\log^{2+ε}n)$ time within $O(δ\log\tfrac{n\log σ}{δ\log n})$ space. We also show that an extra sublogarithmic factor on top of this space enables optimal $O(m+occ)$ search time, whereas an extra logarithmic factor enables optimal $O(m)$ counting time.
Unikernel Linux (UKL)
Venue: arXiv cs.OS 2023
Year: 2023

This paper presents Unikernel Linux (UKL), a path toward integrating unikernel optimization techniques in Linux, a general purpose operating system. UKL adds a configuration option to Linux allowing for a single, optimized process to link with the kernel directly, and run at supervisor privilege. This UKL process does not require application source code modification, only a re-link with our, slightly modified, Linux kernel and glibc. Unmodified applications show modest performance gains out of the box, and developers can further optimize applications for more significant gains (e.g. 26% throughput improvement for Redis). UKL retains support for co-running multiple user level processes capable of communicating with the UKL process using standard IPC. UKL preserves Linux's battle-tested codebase, community, and ecosystem of tools, applications, and hardware support. UKL runs both on bare-metal and virtual servers and supports multi-core execution. The changes to the Linux kernel are modest (1250 LOC).
The Loop of the Rings: A Fully Decentralized Cooperative System (The Concept)
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

We introduce $LoR$, a secure, fully decentralized, and distributed cooperative system, where $LoR$ stands for "the Loop of the Rings". Distinct from conventional transaction-oriented systems, $LoR$ prioritizes {\it cooperation} using its ring-based structure, making it possible to be used both as a cooperative workspace as well as a versatile platform for service provisioning, accommodating various roles such as freelancers, IoT management systems, and even managing 5G-related services. Within this system, users have access to a secure and reliable environment, enabling them to offer a specific set of services to a potentially vast number of users. Our main contribution is to introduce the new structure along with its operating rules and principles, applying a combination of randomized procedures, in such a way that the whole system can be modeled fairly accurately in mathematically rigorous terms. This, in particular, is used to provide rigorous proof for the facts that $LoR$ is both reliable and secure and that it may be efficiently implemented based on its typical communication complexity.