arXiv Machine Learning

How much Data do We Need? Sequential Data Collection for Stochastic Programming

arXiv:2607. 10207v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Data-driven optimization often requires collecting data to estimate uncertain model parameters before solving the underlying decision problem.

arXiv Statistics ML
3d ago

Towards Optimal Inventory Control under Censored Demand: A Biased Sample-Average Approximation Approach

The paper presents a data‑driven framework for multi‑period lost‑sales inventory control when demand is censored, meaning stockouts only reveal that demand exceeded the stocking level. It introduces a new cost decomposition for base‑stock policies and a biased sample‑average approximation (SAA) method, leading to two algorithms: an upper‑biased SAA that achieves near‑optimal sample complexity under an offline coverage condition, and a lower‑biased SAA that actively generates coverage to achieve near‑optimal online regret. The biased SAA approach offers a general principle for applying pessimism and optimism in settings with censored feedback.

By Yuxuan Han, Xiaoyu Fan, Jiawei Zhang, Zhengyuan Zhou
arXiv AI
Jul 7

Strategic Buying Agents

arXiv:2607. 04708v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Agentic AI is shifting online shopping from search toward delegated purchasing, where autonomous buying agents monitor markets and decide when to buy on a consumer's behalf.

By Mingyang Fu, Ming Hu
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 7

Optimal Data Acquisition for Reinforcement Learning: A Large Deviations Perspective

The paper presents a large deviations framework for efficient data acquisition in infinite-horizon reinforcement learning, introducing the exponential decay rate of policy-selection error probability as a key efficiency metric. It derives a variational characterization leading to a nested optimization problem, then proposes a tractable convex relaxation and a lazy one-step projected subgradient method to construct an adaptive data acquisition policy. The resulting algorithm is shown to be near-robustly optimal under the proposed criterion, with extensions to linear function approximation and supporting numerical experiments.

By Mingjie Hu, Jian-Qiang Hu, Enlu Zhou