U-Statistics for Importance-Weighted Variational Inference

Published: 27 Feb 2023, Last Modified: 17 Sept 2024Accepted by TMLREveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY 4.0
Abstract: We propose the use of U-statistics to reduce variance for gradient estimation in importance-weighted variational inference. The key observation is that, given a base gradient estimator that requires $m > 1$ samples and a total of $n > m$ samples to be used for estimation, lower variance is achieved by averaging the base estimator on overlapping batches of size $m$ than disjoint batches, as currently done. We use classical U-statistic theory to analyze the variance reduction, and propose novel approximations with theoretical guarantees to ensure computational efficiency. We find empirically that U-statistic variance reduction can lead to modest to significant improvements in inference performance on a range of models, with little computational cost.
Submission Length: Long submission (more than 12 pages of main content)
Changes Since Last Submission: Camera ready
Assigned Action Editor: ~Tom_Rainforth1
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Submission Number: 544
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