Learning to Speed Up Structured Output Prediction

Predicting structured outputs can be computationally onerous due to the combinatorially large output spaces. In this paper, we focus on reducing the prediction time of a trained black-box structured classifier without losing accuracy. To do so, we train a speedup classifier that learns to mimic a black-box classifier under the learning-to-search approach. As the structured classifier predicts more examples, the speedup classifier will operate as a learned heuristic to guide search to favorable regions of the output space. We present a mistake bound for the speedup classifier and identify inference situations where it can independently make correct judgments without input features. We evaluate our method on the task of entity and relation extraction and show that the speedup classifier outperforms even greedy search in terms of speed without loss of accuracy.Comment: International Conference on Machine Learning, Stockholm, Sweden, 201

Strategic Prediction with Latent Aggregative Games

We introduce a new class of context dependent, incomplete information games to serve as structured prediction models for settings with significant strategic interactions. Our games map the input context to outcomes by first condensing the input into private player types that specify the utilities, weighted interactions, as well as the initial strategies for the players. The game is played over multiple rounds where players respond to weighted aggregates of their neighbors' strategies. The predicted output from the model is a mixed strategy profile (a near-Nash equilibrium) and each observation is thought of as a sample from this strategy profile. We introduce two new aggregator paradigms with provably convergent game dynamics, and characterize the conditions under which our games are identifiable from data. Our games can be parameterized in a transferable manner so that the sets of players can change from one game to another. We demonstrate empirically that our games as models can recover meaningful strategic interactions from real voting data