100 research outputs found
Passive Learning with Target Risk
In this paper we consider learning in passive setting but with a slight
modification. We assume that the target expected loss, also referred to as
target risk, is provided in advance for learner as prior knowledge. Unlike most
studies in the learning theory that only incorporate the prior knowledge into
the generalization bounds, we are able to explicitly utilize the target risk in
the learning process. Our analysis reveals a surprising result on the sample
complexity of learning: by exploiting the target risk in the learning
algorithm, we show that when the loss function is both strongly convex and
smooth, the sample complexity reduces to \O(\log (\frac{1}{\epsilon})), an
exponential improvement compared to the sample complexity
\O(\frac{1}{\epsilon}) for learning with strongly convex loss functions.
Furthermore, our proof is constructive and is based on a computationally
efficient stochastic optimization algorithm for such settings which demonstrate
that the proposed algorithm is practically useful
- …