4,624 research outputs found
Totally Corrective Multiclass Boosting with Binary Weak Learners
In this work, we propose a new optimization framework for multiclass boosting
learning. In the literature, AdaBoost.MO and AdaBoost.ECC are the two
successful multiclass boosting algorithms, which can use binary weak learners.
We explicitly derive these two algorithms' Lagrange dual problems based on
their regularized loss functions. We show that the Lagrange dual formulations
enable us to design totally-corrective multiclass algorithms by using the
primal-dual optimization technique. Experiments on benchmark data sets suggest
that our multiclass boosting can achieve a comparable generalization capability
with state-of-the-art, but the convergence speed is much faster than stage-wise
gradient descent boosting. In other words, the new totally corrective
algorithms can maximize the margin more aggressively.Comment: 11 page
Multiclass Learning with Simplex Coding
In this paper we discuss a novel framework for multiclass learning, defined
by a suitable coding/decoding strategy, namely the simplex coding, that allows
to generalize to multiple classes a relaxation approach commonly used in binary
classification. In this framework, a relaxation error analysis can be developed
avoiding constraints on the considered hypotheses class. Moreover, we show that
in this setting it is possible to derive the first provably consistent
regularized method with training/tuning complexity which is independent to the
number of classes. Tools from convex analysis are introduced that can be used
beyond the scope of this paper
Generalized Boosting Algorithms for Convex Optimization
Boosting is a popular way to derive powerful learners from simpler hypothesis
classes. Following previous work (Mason et al., 1999; Friedman, 2000) on
general boosting frameworks, we analyze gradient-based descent algorithms for
boosting with respect to any convex objective and introduce a new measure of
weak learner performance into this setting which generalizes existing work. We
present the weak to strong learning guarantees for the existing gradient
boosting work for strongly-smooth, strongly-convex objectives under this new
measure of performance, and also demonstrate that this work fails for
non-smooth objectives. To address this issue, we present new algorithms which
extend this boosting approach to arbitrary convex loss functions and give
corresponding weak to strong convergence results. In addition, we demonstrate
experimental results that support our analysis and demonstrate the need for the
new algorithms we present.Comment: Extended version of paper presented at the International Conference
on Machine Learning, 2011. 9 pages + appendix with proof
Axiomatic Interpretability for Multiclass Additive Models
Generalized additive models (GAMs) are favored in many regression and binary
classification problems because they are able to fit complex, nonlinear
functions while still remaining interpretable. In the first part of this paper,
we generalize a state-of-the-art GAM learning algorithm based on boosted trees
to the multiclass setting, and show that this multiclass algorithm outperforms
existing GAM learning algorithms and sometimes matches the performance of full
complexity models such as gradient boosted trees.
In the second part, we turn our attention to the interpretability of GAMs in
the multiclass setting. Surprisingly, the natural interpretability of GAMs
breaks down when there are more than two classes. Naive interpretation of
multiclass GAMs can lead to false conclusions. Inspired by binary GAMs, we
identify two axioms that any additive model must satisfy in order to not be
visually misleading. We then develop a technique called Additive
Post-Processing for Interpretability (API), that provably transforms a
pre-trained additive model to satisfy the interpretability axioms without
sacrificing accuracy. The technique works not just on models trained with our
learning algorithm, but on any multiclass additive model, including multiclass
linear and logistic regression. We demonstrate the effectiveness of API on a
12-class infant mortality dataset.Comment: KDD 201
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