Feature Selection as Deep Sequential Generative Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Ying, Wangyang, Wang, Dongjie, Chen, Haifeng, Fu, Yanjie
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Ying, Wangyang
Wang, Dongjie
Chen, Haifeng
Fu, Yanjie
author_facet Ying, Wangyang
Wang, Dongjie
Chen, Haifeng
Fu, Yanjie
contents Feature selection aims to identify the most pattern-discriminative feature subset. In prior literature, filter (e.g., backward elimination) and embedded (e.g., Lasso) methods have hyperparameters (e.g., top-K, score thresholding) and tie to specific models, thus, hard to generalize; wrapper methods search a feature subset in a huge discrete space and is computationally costly. To transform the way of feature selection, we regard a selected feature subset as a selection decision token sequence and reformulate feature selection as a deep sequential generative learning task that distills feature knowledge and generates decision sequences. Our method includes three steps: (1) We develop a deep variational transformer model over a joint of sequential reconstruction, variational, and performance evaluator losses. Our model can distill feature selection knowledge and learn a continuous embedding space to map feature selection decision sequences into embedding vectors associated with utility scores. (2) We leverage the trained feature subset utility evaluator as a gradient provider to guide the identification of the optimal feature subset embedding;(3) We decode the optimal feature subset embedding to autoregressively generate the best feature selection decision sequence with autostop. Extensive experimental results show this generative perspective is effective and generic, without large discrete search space and expert-specific hyperparameters.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_03838
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Feature Selection as Deep Sequential Generative Learning
Ying, Wangyang
Wang, Dongjie
Chen, Haifeng
Fu, Yanjie
Machine Learning
Feature selection aims to identify the most pattern-discriminative feature subset. In prior literature, filter (e.g., backward elimination) and embedded (e.g., Lasso) methods have hyperparameters (e.g., top-K, score thresholding) and tie to specific models, thus, hard to generalize; wrapper methods search a feature subset in a huge discrete space and is computationally costly. To transform the way of feature selection, we regard a selected feature subset as a selection decision token sequence and reformulate feature selection as a deep sequential generative learning task that distills feature knowledge and generates decision sequences. Our method includes three steps: (1) We develop a deep variational transformer model over a joint of sequential reconstruction, variational, and performance evaluator losses. Our model can distill feature selection knowledge and learn a continuous embedding space to map feature selection decision sequences into embedding vectors associated with utility scores. (2) We leverage the trained feature subset utility evaluator as a gradient provider to guide the identification of the optimal feature subset embedding;(3) We decode the optimal feature subset embedding to autoregressively generate the best feature selection decision sequence with autostop. Extensive experimental results show this generative perspective is effective and generic, without large discrete search space and expert-specific hyperparameters.
title Feature Selection as Deep Sequential Generative Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03838