Labeled TrustSet Guided: Batch Active Learning with Reinforcement Learning

ICLR 2026 Conference Submission13799 Authors

Keywords: active learning, computer vision, reinforcement learning, machine learning

Abstract: Batch active learning (BAL) is a crucial technique for reducing labeling costs and improving data efficiency in training large-scale deep learning models. Traditional BAL methods often rely on metrics like Mahalanobis Distance to balance uncertainty and diversity when selecting data for annotation. However, these methods predominantly focus on the distribution of unlabeled data and fail to leverage feedback from labeled data or the model’s performance. To address these limitations, we introduce TrustSet, a novel approach that selects the most informative data from the labeled dataset, ensuring a balanced class distribution to mitigate the long-tail problem. Unlike CoreSet, which focuses on maintaining the overall data distribution, TrustSet optimizes the model’s performance by pruning redundant data and using label information to refine the selection process. To extend the benefits of TrustSet to the unlabeled pool, we propose a reinforcement learning (RL)-based sampling policy that approximates the selection of high-quality TrustSet candidates from the unlabeled data. Combining TrustSet and RL, we introduce the \textbf{B}atch \textbf{R}einforcement \textbf{A}ctive \textbf{L}earning with \textbf{T}rustSet (\textbf{BRAL-T}) framework. BRAL-T achieves state-of-the-art results across 10 image classification benchmarks and 2 active fine-tuning tasks, demonstrating its effectiveness and efficiency in various domains.

Primary Area: other topics in machine learning (i.e., none of the above)

Submission Number: 13799