Understanding quantum machine learning also requires rethinking generalization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gil-Fuster, Elies, Eisert, Jens, Bravo-Prieto, Carlos
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Gil-Fuster, Elies
Eisert, Jens
Bravo-Prieto, Carlos
author_facet Gil-Fuster, Elies
Eisert, Jens
Bravo-Prieto, Carlos
contents Quantum machine learning models have shown successful generalization performance even when trained with few data. In this work, through systematic randomization experiments, we show that traditional approaches to understanding generalization fail to explain the behavior of such quantum models. Our experiments reveal that state-of-the-art quantum neural networks accurately fit random states and random labeling of training data. This ability to memorize random data defies current notions of small generalization error, problematizing approaches that build on complexity measures such as the VC dimension, the Rademacher complexity, and all their uniform relatives. We complement our empirical results with a theoretical construction showing that quantum neural networks can fit arbitrary labels to quantum states, hinting at their memorization ability. Our results do not preclude the possibility of good generalization with few training data but rather rule out any possible guarantees based only on the properties of the model family. These findings expose a fundamental challenge in the conventional understanding of generalization in quantum machine learning and highlight the need for a paradigm shift in the study of quantum models for machine learning tasks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_13461
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Understanding quantum machine learning also requires rethinking generalization
Gil-Fuster, Elies
Eisert, Jens
Bravo-Prieto, Carlos
Quantum Physics
Quantum Gases
Machine Learning
Quantum machine learning models have shown successful generalization performance even when trained with few data. In this work, through systematic randomization experiments, we show that traditional approaches to understanding generalization fail to explain the behavior of such quantum models. Our experiments reveal that state-of-the-art quantum neural networks accurately fit random states and random labeling of training data. This ability to memorize random data defies current notions of small generalization error, problematizing approaches that build on complexity measures such as the VC dimension, the Rademacher complexity, and all their uniform relatives. We complement our empirical results with a theoretical construction showing that quantum neural networks can fit arbitrary labels to quantum states, hinting at their memorization ability. Our results do not preclude the possibility of good generalization with few training data but rather rule out any possible guarantees based only on the properties of the model family. These findings expose a fundamental challenge in the conventional understanding of generalization in quantum machine learning and highlight the need for a paradigm shift in the study of quantum models for machine learning tasks.
title Understanding quantum machine learning also requires rethinking generalization
topic Quantum Physics
Quantum Gases
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.13461