Using causal abstractions to accelerate decision-making in complex bandit problems
Although real-world decision-making problems can often be encoded as causal multi-armed bandits (CMABs) at different levels of abstraction, a general methodology exploiting the information and computational advantages of each abstraction level is missing. In this paper, we propose AT-UCB, an algorithm which efficiently exploits shared information between CMAB problem instances defined at different levels of abstraction. More specifically, AT-UCB leverages causal abstraction (CA) theory to explore within a cheap-to-simulate and coarse-grained CMAB instance, before employing the traditional upper confidence bound (UCB) algorithm on a restricted set of potentially optimal actions in the CMAB of interest, leading to significant reductions in cumulative regret when compared to the classical UCB algorithm. We illustrate the advantages of AT-UCB theoretically, through a novel upper bound on the cumulative regret, and empirically, by applying AT-UCB to epidemiological simulators with varying resolution and computational cost.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Tasks
Multi-Armed BanditsSimilar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
Property-driven Causal Abstractions for Markov Decision Processes
Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are widely used as decision-making models, commonly specified over factored state spaces through state variables and their valuations. The exponential blowup in the number of states rende…
The Causal Information Bottleneck and Optimal Causal Variable Abstractions
To effectively study complex causal systems, it is often useful to construct abstractions of parts of the system by discarding irrelevant details while preserving key features. The Information Bottleneck (IB) method is a…
Representation LearningAbstraction in decision-makers with limited information processing capabilities
A distinctive property of human and animal intelligence is the ability to form abstractions by neglecting irrelevant information which allows to separate structure from noise. From an information theoretic point of view …
Decision MakingThe Minimal Search Space for Conditional Causal Bandits
Causal knowledge can be used to support decision-making problems. This has been recognized in the causal bandits literature, where a causal (multi-armed) bandit is characterized by a causal graphical model and a target v…
Scaling Artificial Intelligence for Digital Wargaming in Support of Decision-Making
In this unprecedented era of technology-driven transformation, it becomes more critical than ever that we aggressively invest in developing robust artificial intelligence (AI) for wargaming in support of decision-making.…
Decision MakingDeep Reinforcement LearningHierarchical Reinforcement Learningreinforcement-learning+1