arXiv:2605.24274cs.LGstat.ML2026-05

提出新方法提升ICNN训练效果,解决权重死区和损失停滞问题。

A lift for input-convex neural network training

论文配图:A lift for input-convex neural network training
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用无约束超网络生成非负权重,通过批量随机性软化损失曲面
  • 在图像潜空间与21维表格数据上均实现更低测试损失
  • 适合需要稳定训练的凸优化类模型,如密度估计与流模型

输入凸神经网络(ICNN)广泛用于对数凹密度估计、凸势能归一化流、最优传输及高维贝叶斯后验的传输映射反演。这些任务共享一个结构约束:层间权重必须非负。传统方法投影梯度下降(PGD)采用硬投影,非光滑且收敛性难保证;可微替代方案softplus则使梯度随权重幅度指数衰减,导致权重死亡与损失平台。受偏微分方程反问题参数扩展启发,本文提出‘提升’方法:不直接约束权重,而是训练一个无约束超网络,从输入批次的置换不变摘要中生成权重。该方法引入训练动态中的随机性,软化损失曲面,使迭代跳出梯度衰减区域。我们证明三重结构要素——可学习偏置作为松弛项、基于目标批次的超网络主体、通过批随机性耦合两者的交叉协方差——缺一不可。在单变量模拟目标到图像风格潜空间的对数凹能量建模,以及21维表格基准上的凸势能归一化流实验中,该方法达到比PGD与直接softplus更低的测试损失,并将平台化轨迹转变为下坡下降轨迹。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Input-convex neural networks (ICNNs) are widely used for log-concave density estimation, convex-potential normalizing flows, optimal transport, and transport-map inversion for high-dimensional Bayesian posteriors. These tasks share a structural constraint: the inter-layer weights of the ICNN must remain non-negative. The standard recipe, projected gradient descent (PGD) onto the non-negative cone, applies a hard, non-smooth projection -- the stiff-penalty limit of an ADMM-style constraint splitting -- and its classical convergence guarantees do not transfer to the non-smooth ICNN training landscape; the differentiable alternative, softplus reparametrization, attenuates the gradient exponentially in the weight magnitude, stalling training with dead inter-layer weights and plateaued loss. Inspired by parameter-extension lifts of PDE-constrained inverse problems, we propose the lift: instead of constraining the inter-layer weights directly, we train an unconstrained hypernetwork that emits them from a permutation-invariant summary of the input batch. This adds stochasticity to the training dynamics that softens the loss landscape, letting the iterates escape the gradient-attenuated region where direct softplus stalls. We trace this softening to three structural ingredients -- a learnable bias acting as slack, a hypernetwork body that conditions on the target batch, and a cross-covariance coupling the two through batch stochasticity -- and prove each one necessary: deleting any single ingredient collapses the cross-covariance that carries the softening. On log-concave energy-based modeling from one-dimensional toy targets to image-flavored latents, and convex-potential normalizing flows on a 21-dimensional tabular benchmark, we show that the lift reaches a lower test loss than both PGD and direct softplus, and turns a plateau-bounded training trajectory into a valley-descending one.

神经网络凸优化训练方法权重约束

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