Obtaining Adjustable Regularization for Free via Iterate Averaging
Regularization for optimization is a crucial technique to avoid overfitting in machine learning. In order to obtain the best performance, we usually train a model by tuning the regularization parameters. It becomes costly, however, when a single round of training takes significant amount of time. Very recently, Neu and Rosasco show that if we run stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on linear regression problems, then by averaging the SGD iterates properly, we obtain a regularized solution. It left open whether the same phenomenon can be achieved for other optimization problems and algorithms. In this paper, we establish an averaging scheme that provably converts the iterates of SGD on an arbitrary strongly convex and smooth objective function to its regularized counterpart with an adjustable regularization parameter. Our approaches can be used for accelerated and preconditioned optimization methods as well. We further show that the same methods work empirically on more general optimization objectives including neural networks. In sum, we obtain adjustable regularization for free for a large class of optimization problems and resolve an open question raised by Neu and Rosasco.
Code (1)
Tasks
Open-Ended Question AnsweringMethods 이 논문이 사용한 방법론
Similar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
A General-Purpose Theorem for High-Probability Bounds of Stochastic Approximation with Polyak Averaging
Polyak-Ruppert averaging is a widely used technique to achieve the optimal asymptotic variance of stochastic approximation (SA) algorithms, yet its high-probability performance guarantees remain underexplored in general …
Q-LearningIterate averaging as regularization for stochastic gradient descent
We propose and analyze a variant of the classic Polyak-Ruppert averaging scheme, broadly used in stochastic gradient methods. Rather than a uniform average of the iterates, we consider a weighted average, with weights de…
regressionBenign Overfitting of Constant-Stepsize SGD for Linear Regression
There is an increasing realization that algorithmic inductive biases are central in preventing overfitting; empirically, we often see a benign overfitting phenomenon in overparameterized settings for natural learning alg…
regressionExponential Moving Average of Weights in Deep Learning: Dynamics and Benefits
Weight averaging of Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) iterates is a popular method for training deep learning models. While it is often used as part of complex training pipelines to improve generalization or serve as a `…
Transfer LearningIterative Averaging in the Quest for Best Test Error
We analyse and explain the increased generalisation performance of iterate averaging using a Gaussian process perturbation model between the true and batch risk surface on the high dimensional quadratic. We derive three …
DiversityImage Classification