arXiv Machine Learning

Cascading Bandits with Noisy Observations: Algorithms and Regret Bounds

arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 12

Accelerating Linear Bandits with Persistent Candidate Sets

The paper introduces Persistent Candidate LinUCB (PC‑LinUCB), a variant of the LinUCB algorithm for linear bandits that reduces per‑round score evaluations from ≥×K to ≥×(k+q) by maintaining a small set of active actions and sampling challengers from the remaining actions. It provides high‑probability regret bounds that include a standard learning term and an additive discovery cost of order ≥×((K-k)×log(K-k))/q, which does not grow with the horizon. Experiments demonstrate that PC‑LinUCB accelerates LinUCB while keeping regret comparable, and the persistent candidate approach can be applied beyond LinUCB.

By Bingkui Tong, Daria Korovaitceva, Marina Sheshukova, Sergey Samsonov, Junpei Komiyama
arXiv Machine Learning
18h ago

The Price of Current-Effect Inference in Nonstationary Multi-Armed Bandits

The paper studies the trade‑off between maximizing rewards and accurately estimating current treatment effects in nonstationary multi‑armed bandits. For $K$‑armed bandits with H"older‑smooth mean rewards, the authors derive minimax bounds on expected dynamic regret under a high‑probability simultaneous coverage requirement for all current effects. They propose the TRACE algorithm, which achieves a regret–precision trade‑off that separates reward‑learning regret from the unavoidable cost of refreshing current‑effect estimates, and extend the method with an empirical‑Bernstein e‑process to adapt exploration while preserving worst‑case guarantees.

By Sharan Sahu, Martin T. Wells
arXiv AI
Sep 2

Bandits in Prod: Hyperparameter Optimization at Inference Time

The paper introduces Online Hyperparameter Optimization (OHPO), framing it as an infinitely many‑armed bandit problem over mixed and conditional search spaces. It proposes the IMABO framework, which couples any bandit policy with any oracle for proposing new configurations, and presents IMOSS—a restart‑free anytime policy with provable regret bounds. Experiments show that IMABO, combined with practical oracles such as TPE, an incumbent‑mutation oracle, and a pretrained tabular foundation model, outperforms random search across a range of settings from classical ML models to LLM‑based agents.

By Louis Abraham, Tuan-Anh Nguyen, Nicolas Devatine
arXiv AI
Oct 1

On the Complexity of Preference-Based Bandits

The paper investigates preference-based bandits where a learner selects pairs of arms and receives binary preference feedback modeled by Bradley–Terry. It introduces the locally sensitive eluder dimension, a new complexity measure for logistic preference feedback, and proposes the GINOP algorithm that uses log-loss confidence sets to balance optimism and exploration. The authors prove a first-order regret bound showing that learning with preference feedback can be as statistically efficient as learning from direct rewards, and they validate their theory with empirical experiments.

By Ahmed Ben Yahmed (CREST, ENSAE Paris, FAIRPLAY), Marc Abeille (FAIRPLAY), Cl\'ement Calauz\`enes (FAIRPLAY)
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 9

Nonlinear Bandit

arXiv:2607. 07304v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In this paper we first study the problem of generalized linear bandit (GLB) under heavy-tailed noise.

By Tianshuo Zheng, Ting Wu, Zhi-Hua Zhou, Keqin Liu