Uniform-in-time convergence bounds for Persistent Contrastive Divergence algorithms
Paul Felix Valsecchi OlivaO. Deniz AkyildizAndrew Duncan
Oct 2026
Machine LearningData Science
Abstract
We propose a continuous-time formulation of a noisy persistent contrastive divergence (PCD)-like method for maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of unnormalised densities. Our approach couples parameter updates and sampling of the parametrised density in a multiscale system of stochastic differential equations (SDEs).
From this formulation, we derive non-asymptotic bounds for weak test-function errors between the resulting numerical schemes and the MLE point target. The error is decomposed into numerical discretisation, slow-fast averaging, and finite-temperature concentration terms. We also introduce an efficient implementation based on explicit stabilized integrators and establish corresponding long-time error estimates. This leads to a novel method for training energy-based models (EBMs) with quantitative error guarantees.
This paper investigates developing real-world perception for active agents, proposes Gibson Environment for this purpose, and showcases a set of perceptual tasks learned therein.
F. Xia, Amir Zamir, Zhi-Yang He et al.· 2018 IEEE/CVF Conference on...· 1,069 citations· ⚡112
This publication proposes a definition and a classification of agile software development approaches and analyses ten software development methods that can be characterized as being "agile" against the defined criterion.
P. Abrahamsson, O. Salo, Jussi Ronkainen et al.· arXiv.org· 727 citations· ⚡54
The study shows that agile practices improve both informal and formal communication, but indicates that, in larger development situations involving multiple external stakeholders, a mismatch of adequate communication mechanisms can sometimes even hinder the communication.
M. Pikkarainen, Jukka Haikara, O. Salo et al.· Empirical Software Engineeri...· 401 citations· ⚡48
The results indicate that software engineering work practices are chosen opportunistically, adapted and configured to provide value under the constrains imposed by the startup context.
Nicolò Paternoster, Carmine Giardino, M. Unterkalmsteiner et al.· Information and Software Tec...· 394 citations· ⚡54
The possibility of inferring high-dimensional data inference in a model that consists of a prior and an auxiliary differentiable constraint given some additional information is considered, thereby allowing a range of potential applications in adapting models to new domains and tasks.
Alexandros Graikos, Esmeralda S. Whitammer, N. Jojic et al.· Neural Information Processin...· 316 citations· ⚡15
Learn how Google DeepMind and GovTech Singapore uses lightweight on-device Gemma models to intercept conversational scams in private chats with zero cloud data egress.
