Data Amplification: Instance-Optimal Property Estimation

Yi Hao, Alon Orlitsky
Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 119:4049-4059, 2020.

Abstract

The best-known and most commonly used technique for distribution-property estimation uses a plug-in estimator, with empirical frequency replacing the underlying distribution. We present novel linear-time-computable estimators that significantly “amplify” the effective amount of data available. For a large variety of distribution properties including four of the most popular ones and for every underlying distribution, they achieve the accuracy that the empirical-frequency plug-in estimators would attain using a logarithmic-factor more samples. Specifically, for Shannon entropy and a broad class of Lipschitz properties including the $L_1$ distance to a fixed distribution, the new estimators use $n$ samples to achieve the accuracy attained by the empirical estimators with $n\log n$ samples. For support-size and coverage, the new estimators use $n$ samples to achieve the performance of empirical frequency with sample size $n$ times the logarithm of the property value. Significantly strengthening the traditional min-max formulation, these results hold not only for the worst distributions, but for each and every underlying distribution. Furthermore, the logarithmic amplification factors are optimal. Experiments on a wide variety of distributions show that the new estimators outperform the previous state-of-the-art estimators designed for each specific property.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v119-hao20a, title = {Data Amplification: Instance-Optimal Property Estimation}, author = {Hao, Yi and Orlitsky, Alon}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning}, pages = {4049--4059}, year = {2020}, editor = {III, Hal Daumé and Singh, Aarti}, volume = {119}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {13--18 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {http://proceedings.mlr.press/v119/hao20a/hao20a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v119/hao20a.html}, abstract = {The best-known and most commonly used technique for distribution-property estimation uses a plug-in estimator, with empirical frequency replacing the underlying distribution. We present novel linear-time-computable estimators that significantly “amplify” the effective amount of data available. For a large variety of distribution properties including four of the most popular ones and for every underlying distribution, they achieve the accuracy that the empirical-frequency plug-in estimators would attain using a logarithmic-factor more samples. Specifically, for Shannon entropy and a broad class of Lipschitz properties including the $L_1$ distance to a fixed distribution, the new estimators use $n$ samples to achieve the accuracy attained by the empirical estimators with $n\log n$ samples. For support-size and coverage, the new estimators use $n$ samples to achieve the performance of empirical frequency with sample size $n$ times the logarithm of the property value. Significantly strengthening the traditional min-max formulation, these results hold not only for the worst distributions, but for each and every underlying distribution. Furthermore, the logarithmic amplification factors are optimal. Experiments on a wide variety of distributions show that the new estimators outperform the previous state-of-the-art estimators designed for each specific property.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Data Amplification: Instance-Optimal Property Estimation %A Yi Hao %A Alon Orlitsky %B Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2020 %E Hal Daumé III %E Aarti Singh %F pmlr-v119-hao20a %I PMLR %P 4049--4059 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v119/hao20a.html %V 119 %X The best-known and most commonly used technique for distribution-property estimation uses a plug-in estimator, with empirical frequency replacing the underlying distribution. We present novel linear-time-computable estimators that significantly “amplify” the effective amount of data available. For a large variety of distribution properties including four of the most popular ones and for every underlying distribution, they achieve the accuracy that the empirical-frequency plug-in estimators would attain using a logarithmic-factor more samples. Specifically, for Shannon entropy and a broad class of Lipschitz properties including the $L_1$ distance to a fixed distribution, the new estimators use $n$ samples to achieve the accuracy attained by the empirical estimators with $n\log n$ samples. For support-size and coverage, the new estimators use $n$ samples to achieve the performance of empirical frequency with sample size $n$ times the logarithm of the property value. Significantly strengthening the traditional min-max formulation, these results hold not only for the worst distributions, but for each and every underlying distribution. Furthermore, the logarithmic amplification factors are optimal. Experiments on a wide variety of distributions show that the new estimators outperform the previous state-of-the-art estimators designed for each specific property.
APA
Hao, Y. & Orlitsky, A.. (2020). Data Amplification: Instance-Optimal Property Estimation. Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 119:4049-4059 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v119/hao20a.html.

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