AI & ML
Flow-Transformed Implicit Processes for Function-Space Variational Inference
arXiv stat.ML0 views
arXiv:2606.01954v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Implicit-process priors define distributions over functions through flexible generative mechanisms, making them attractive for Bayesian function-space modelling. However, performing posterior inference with such priors is challenging because their induced function-space distributions are typically not available in closed form. One practical strategy is to approximate the prior using a finite collection of sampled functions, and then represent posterior functions as learned combinations of these samples. Existing approaches commonly place a Gaussian variational distribution over the combination weights. While tractable, this choice limits the shapes of posterior uncertainty that can be represented, especially when the true posterior is asymmetric, heavy-tailed, or multimodal. We propose Flow-Transformed Implicit Processes (FTIP), a variational inference method that makes this finite-dimensional function-space approximation more expressive. Instead of using a Gaussian distribution over the combination weights, FTIP uses a normalizing flow to define a richer variational distribution. This induces a flexible posterior distribution over functions while preserving tractable optimization. We train the model using a Black-Box {\alpha} objective, allowing us to compare mass-covering and mode-seeking variational behaviour. Experiments show that FTIP captures asymmetric and multimodal posterior structure in function space that Gaussian coefficient approximations tend to smooth or collapse.
Source:https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01954PreviousFast and Efficient Asynchronous Gossip Algorithm for Robust and Non-Smooth Convex Decentralized LearningNextLearning Probabilistic Filters with Strictly Proper Scoring Rules
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