Generalization Analysis for Controllable Learning

Yi-Fan Zhang, Xiao Zhang, Min-Ling Zhang

Abstract: Controllability has become a critical issue in trustworthy machine learning, as a controllable learner allows for dynamic model adaptation to task requirements during testing. However, existing research lacks a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively measure and analyze the generalization performance of controllable learning methods. In an attempt to move towards this goal from a generalization perspective, we first establish a unified framework for controllable learning. Then, we develop a novel vector-contraction inequality and derive a tight generalization bound for general controllable learning classes, which is independent of the number of task targets except for logarithmic factors and represents the current best-in-class theoretical result. Furthermore, we derive generalization bounds for two typical controllable learning methods: embedding-based and hypernetwork-based methods. We also upper bound the Rademacher complexities of commonly used control and prediction functions, which serve as modular theoretical components for deriving generalization bounds for specific controllable learning methods in practical applications such as recommender systems. Our theoretical results without strong assumptions provide general theoretical guarantees for controllable learning methods and offer new insights into understanding controllability in machine learning.

Lay Summary: Controllability has emerged as a crucial aspect of AI, which ensures that learners can dynamically adapt to evolving task requirements at test time, a concept known as controllable learning. To comprehensive understand the generalization performance of controllable learning methods, we establish an effective unified theoretical framework and derive tight generalization bounds for controllable learning. These state-of-the-art bounds with no dependency on the number of task targets except for logarithmic factors explain the empirical success of existing controllable learning methods. In addition, we also derive bounds for two typical controllable learning methods, i.e., embedding-based and hypernetwork-based methods, and reveal that different manipulation methods based on the input and control function will lead to significant differences in the generalization bounds. The theoretical results we developed can promote a better understanding of the good generalization performance of controllable learning methods.

Primary Area: Theory->Learning Theory

Keywords: Controllability, Generalization Analysis

Submission Number: 12865