将多臂老虎机扩展为函数型问题,用于高效识别最优黑箱函数。
Functional multi-armed bandit and the best function identification problems
- 每根臂是一个未知黑箱函数,通过反馈值迭代优化选择
- 提出F-LCB算法,基于已知收敛率的非线性优化方法构建
- 适用于大模型训练等真实场景,理论有保证且实验验证有效
bandit优化通常指一类仅有局部反馈的在线优化问题:决策者仅能获取当前点的目标值,无法获得目标函数的梯度。虽然该名称准确描述了反馈受限的特点,但容易引发误解,因为它与经典的多臂老虎机(MAB)问题并无直接关联。本文提出了两类新问题:函数型多臂老虎机问题(FMAB)和最佳函数识别问题。它们分别是多臂老虎机和最佳臂识别问题的推广,其中每根臂代表一个未知的黑箱函数。这类问题在建模实际场景(如竞争性大语言模型训练)时表现出极佳的适用性。为此,我们提出一种新的归约方案,构造出基于已知收敛率的非线性优化算法的UCB型算法——F-LCB算法。我们基于基算法的收敛速率给出了该归约方案的上界。数值实验验证了所提方法的有效性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Bandit optimization usually refers to the class of online optimization problems with limited feedback, namely, a decision maker uses only the objective value at the current point to make a new decision and does not have access to the gradient of the objective function. While this name accurately captures the limitation in feedback, it is somehow misleading since it does not have any connection with the multi-armed bandits (MAB) problem class. We propose two new classes of problems: the functional multi-armed bandit problem (FMAB) and the best function identification problem. They are modifications of a multi-armed bandit problem and the best arm identification problem, respectively, where each arm represents an unknown black-box function. These problem classes are a surprisingly good fit for modeling real-world problems such as competitive LLM training. To solve the problems from these classes, we propose a new reduction scheme to construct UCB-type algorithms, namely, the F-LCB algorithm, based on algorithms for nonlinear optimization with known convergence rates. We provide the regret upper bounds for this reduction scheme based on the base algorithms' convergence rates. We add numerical experiments that demonstrate the performance of the proposed scheme.
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