arXiv:2606.31184cs.LGcs.AI2026-06

用Transformer模拟贝叶斯实验者,自适应优化处理效应估计

Transformers as Bayesian In-Context Experimenters: Smoothness-Adaptive Efficient ATE Estimation

论文配图:Transformers as Bayesian In-Context Experimenters: Smoothness-Adaptive Efficient ATE Estimation
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 设计基于Transformer的贝叶斯实验策略,模仿后验奈曼规则分配处理
  • 在真实数据上实现近似最优分配,显著提升平均处理效应估计精度
  • 适合需要高效自适应实验设计的研究者,尤其关注因果推断场景

自适应平均处理效应(ATE)实验需在有效推断与统计效率间平衡随机分配。最优设计依赖于未知的协变量相关结果方差的奈曼规则。本文探索是否可通过上下文学习实现该序列方差估计与分配过程的摊销。提出贝叶斯上下文实验者:训练Transformer策略以模仿基于贝叶斯后验的奈曼教师。教师利用实验历史更新潜在结果的非参数信念,分配后验奈曼处理概率。该设计收敛至最优规则,支持高效ATE推断。Transformer通过注意力机制构建充分统计量并结合投影梯度下降,实现高斯先验下的贝叶斯更新。为应对未知结果光滑性,采用平滑性索引的专家混合变压器,门控机制作为光滑性类别的分层后验,聚焦近最优专家。通过约束变压器类复杂度,证明该摊销策略可经监督预训练通过经验风险最小化学习。实验验证了对教师策略的准确模仿、自适应分配及相较于基线更高的ATE精度。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Adaptive experiments for average treatment effects (ATE) require randomized allocations balancing valid inference with statistical efficiency. The oracle design is a covariate-dependent Neyman rule governed by unknown arm-conditional outcome variances. We investigate whether this sequential variance-estimation and allocation process can be amortized via in-context learning. We introduce Bayesian in-context experimenters: transformer policies trained to imitate a Bayesian posterior Neyman teacher. The teacher updates nonparametric beliefs over potential outcomes using experimental history to assign posterior Neyman treatment probabilities. This design converges to the oracle rule, supporting efficient ATE inference. Transformers constructively implement this mapping through attention-based sufficient statistics and projected gradient descent, imitating Bayesian updating for Gaussian-series priors. To address unknown outcome smoothness, we combine smoothness-indexed experimenters using a mixture-of-experts transformer. The gate acts as a hierarchical posterior over smoothness classes, concentrating on near-oracle experts. By bounding the complexity of the transformer class, we prove this amortized policy can be learned via empirical risk minimization using supervised pretraining. Experiments confirm accurate teacher imitation, adaptive allocation, and improved ATE precision over baselines.

因果推断Transformer自适应实验贝叶斯方法

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