arXiv Machine Learning

High-Probability Nash Regret for Decentralized Learning in Markov $\alpha$-Potential Games: Episodic and Fully Online Asynchronous Algorithms with Applications to Markov Congestion Games

arXiv:2609. 14959v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study decentralized learning of Nash equilibria (NE) in infinite-horizon discounted Markov games under bandit feedback, focusing on Markov $\alpha$-potential games.

arXiv AI
Jul 14

Efficient Online Proportional Sampling with Applications to Smoothed Online Learning

arXiv:2607. 10963v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We study the problem of efficient online proportional sampling from a high-dimensional domain under a $\sigma$-smoothed adversary, where the sampling distribution is induced by a dynamically evolving weight function defined over a sequence of piecewise-structured partitions.

By Amirmahdi Mirfakhar, Maria-Florina Balcan, Hedyeh Beyhaghi
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 19

Reinforcement Learning in MDPs with Information-Ordered Policies

The paper introduces a framework for reinforcement learning in Markov decision processes where policies are ordered by the information they provide, allowing data from one policy to estimate the performance of others. An epoch‑based algorithm is developed for infinite‑horizon average‑cost MDPs with continuous state and action spaces, achieving regret that scales with the width of the policy class’s information order. The authors apply the framework to lost‑sales inventory, dual‑sourcing, and state‑dependent queueing systems, demonstrating improved regret bounds and empirical performance without requiring global convexity or specific arrival‑rate structures.

By Zhongjun Zhang, Shipra Agrawal, Ilan Lobel, Sean R. Sinclair, Christina Lee Yu
arXiv AI
Jul 10

Provably Optimal Learning Algorithms for Assistance Games

arXiv:2607. 08012v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This paper studies an online variant of the assistance games framework, where an informed agent and an uninformed agent repeatedly interact over $T$ timesteps to optimize a common reward function.

By Nivasini Ananthakrishnan, Mark Bedaywi, Michael I. Jordan, Stuart Russell, Nika Haghtalab
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 22

Learning to Allocate Resources with Censored Feedback

The paper addresses an online resource allocation problem where a budget must be distributed among multiple arms under censored feedback. Each arm yields a reward only if it is activated by an unknown Bernoulli process and the allocated budget exceeds a random threshold from an unknown parametric distribution. The authors establish a worst‑case regret lower bound of Σ(√T), propose the RA‑UCB algorithm achieving near‑optimal regret when the budget is known, and introduce MG‑UCB for unknown, round‑dependent budgets, validating both approaches experimentally.

By Giovanni Montanari, C\^ome Fiegel, Corentin Pla, Aadirupa Saha, Vianney Perchet
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 3

Online Generalized-Mean Welfare Maximization: Achieving Near-Optimal Regret from Samples

The paper investigates online fair allocation of sequential items to agents with heterogeneous preferences, aiming to maximize generalized-mean welfare. In an i.i.d. arrival setting, a pure greedy algorithm achieves near-optimal “~O(1/T)” average regret without needing distributional knowledge. For nonstationary arrivals, the authors show that a single historical sample per distribution suffices to recover the same regret rate, using re-solving algorithms that remain robust to distribution shifts.

By Zongjun Yang, Rachitesh Kumar, Christian Kroer