Adversarially Robust Submodular Maximization under Knapsack Constraints

We propose the first adversarially robust algorithm for monotone submodular maximization under single and multiple knapsack constraints with scalable implementations in distributed and streaming settings. For a single knapsack constraint, our algorithm outputs a robust summary of almost optimal (up to polylogarithmic factors) size, from which a constant-factor approximation to the optimal solution can be constructed. For multiple knapsack constraints, our approximation is within a constant-factor of the best known non-robust solution. We evaluate the performance of our algorithms by comparison to natural robustifications of existing non-robust algorithms under two objectives: 1) dominating set for large social network graphs from Facebook and Twitter collected by the Stanford Network Analysis Project (SNAP), 2) movie recommendations on a dataset from MovieLens. Experimental results show that our algorithms give the best objective for a majority of the inputs and show strong performance even compared to offline algorithms that are given the set of removals in advance.Comment: To appear in KDD 201

Online Contention Resolution Schemes

We introduce a new rounding technique designed for online optimization problems, which is related to contention resolution schemes, a technique initially introduced in the context of submodular function maximization. Our rounding technique, which we call online contention resolution schemes (OCRSs), is applicable to many online selection problems, including Bayesian online selection, oblivious posted pricing mechanisms, and stochastic probing models. It allows for handling a wide set of constraints, and shares many strong properties of offline contention resolution schemes. In particular, OCRSs for different constraint families can be combined to obtain an OCRS for their intersection. Moreover, we can approximately maximize submodular functions in the online settings we consider. We, thus, get a broadly applicable framework for several online selection problems, which improves on previous approaches in terms of the types of constraints that can be handled, the objective functions that can be dealt with, and the assumptions on the strength of the adversary. Furthermore, we resolve two open problems from the literature; namely, we present the first constant-factor constrained oblivious posted price mechanism for matroid constraints, and the first constant-factor algorithm for weighted stochastic probing with deadlines.Comment: 33 pages. To appear in SODA 201

Interactive Submodular Set Cover

We introduce a natural generalization of submodular set cover and exact active learning with a finite hypothesis class (query learning). We call this new problem interactive submodular set cover. Applications include advertising in social networks with hidden information. We give an approximation guarantee for a novel greedy algorithm and give a hardness of approximation result which matches up to constant factors. We also discuss negative results for simpler approaches and present encouraging early experimental results.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Balancing Utility and Fairness in Submodular Maximization (Technical Report)

Submodular function maximization is central in numerous data science applications, including data summarization, influence maximization, and recommendation. In many of these problems, our goal is to find a solution that maximizes the \emph{average} of the utilities for all users, each measured by a monotone submodular function. When the population of users is composed of several demographic groups, another critical problem is whether the utility is fairly distributed across groups. In the context of submodular optimization, we seek to improve the welfare of the \emph{least well-off} group, i.e., to maximize the minimum utility for any group, to ensure fairness. Although the \emph{utility} and \emph{fairness} objectives are both desirable, they might contradict each other, and, to our knowledge, little attention has been paid to optimizing them jointly. In this paper, we propose a novel problem called \emph{Bicriteria Submodular Maximization} (BSM) to strike a balance between utility and fairness. Specifically, it requires finding a fixed-size solution to maximize the utility function, subject to the value of the fairness function not being below a threshold. Since BSM is inapproximable within any constant factor in general, we propose efficient data-dependent approximation algorithms for BSM by converting it into other submodular optimization problems and utilizing existing algorithms for the converted problems to obtain solutions to BSM. Using real-world and synthetic datasets, we showcase applications of our framework in three submodular maximization problems, namely maximum coverage, influence maximization, and facility location.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, under revie

Tight Bounds for Adversarially Robust Streams and Sliding Windows via Difference Estimators

In the adversarially robust streaming model, a stream of elements is presented to an algorithm and is allowed to depend on the output of the algorithm at earlier times during the stream. In the classic insertion-only model of data streams, Ben-Eliezer et. al. (PODS 2020, best paper award) show how to convert a non-robust algorithm into a robust one with a roughly $1/\varepsilon$ factor overhead. This was subsequently improved to a $1/\sqrt{\varepsilon}$ factor overhead by Hassidim et. al. (NeurIPS 2020, oral presentation), suppressing logarithmic factors. For general functions the latter is known to be best-possible, by a result of Kaplan et. al. (CRYPTO 2021). We show how to bypass this impossibility result by developing data stream algorithms for a large class of streaming problems, with no overhead in the approximation factor. Our class of streaming problems includes the most well-studied problems such as the $L_2$-heavy hitters problem, $F_p$-moment estimation, as well as empirical entropy estimation. We substantially improve upon all prior work on these problems, giving the first optimal dependence on the approximation factor. As in previous work, we obtain a general transformation that applies to any non-robust streaming algorithm and depends on the so-called flip number. However, the key technical innovation is that we apply the transformation to what we call a difference estimator for the streaming problem, rather than an estimator for the streaming problem itself. We then develop the first difference estimators for a wide range of problems. Our difference estimator methodology is not only applicable to the adversarially robust model, but to other streaming models where temporal properties of the data play a central role. (Abstract shortened to meet arXiv limit.)Comment: FOCS 202