arXiv:2505.07101stat.MLcs.LG2025-05

统一框架解决带约束的在线决策问题,理论强且实用。

Constrained Online Decision-Making: A Unified Framework

  • 用反事实置信上界设计高效算法,兼容多种学习器。
  • 提出广义弹性维数,刻画复杂环境下的约束不确定性影响。
  • 适合需安全、公平或资源限制的推荐、定价等场景。

带有约束的上下文在线决策问题广泛存在于现实应用中,如安全约束下的自适应实验设计、资源受限的个性化推荐以及公平性要求下的动态定价。本文研究一种通用的阶段可行性约束序列决策框架:每轮中,学习者基于观测上下文选择动作,同时确保满足特定可行性条件。我们提出一个统一的算法框架,涵盖约束强化学习、标签预算下的主动学习、类型I误差控制的在线假设检验及模型校准等问题。核心是引入上反事实置信上界,使任意离线条件密度估计器均可用于设计具有强理论保障的高效在线算法。为应对复杂环境中的可行性约束,我们提出广义弹性维数,将经典基于平方损失的弹性维数扩展至更广泛的度量类概率散度。该方法可刻画各类密度函数族的复杂性,并量化因可行性约束不确定性带来的效用损失。研究成果为约束性序列决策提供了坚实的理论与实践基础。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Contextual online decision-making problems with constraints appear in a wide range of real-world applications, such as adaptive experimental design under safety constraints, personalized recommendation with resource limits, and dynamic pricing under fairness requirements. In this paper, we investigate a general formulation of sequential decision-making with stage-wise feasibility constraints, where at each round, the learner must select an action based on observed context while ensuring that a problem-specific feasibility criterion is satisfied. We propose a unified algorithmic framework that captures many existing constrained learning problems, including constrained bandits, active learning with label budgets, online hypothesis testing with Type I error control, and model calibration. Central to our approach is the concept of upper counterfactual confidence bounds, which enables the design of practically efficient online algorithms with strong theoretical guarantees using any offline conditional density estimation oracle. To handle feasibility constraints in complex environments, we introduce a generalized notion of the eluder dimension, extending it from the classical setting based on square loss to a broader class of metric-like probability divergences. This allows us to capture the complexity of various density function classes and characterize the utility regret incurred due to feasibility constraint uncertainty. Our result offers a principled foundation for constrained sequential decision-making in both theory and practice.

在线决策约束学习算法框架置信上界

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。