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Main Authors: Mousavi-Hosseini, Alireza, Javanmard, Adel, Erdogdu, Murat A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.16449
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author Mousavi-Hosseini, Alireza
Javanmard, Adel
Erdogdu, Murat A.
author_facet Mousavi-Hosseini, Alireza
Javanmard, Adel
Erdogdu, Murat A.
contents Recently, there have been numerous studies on feature learning with neural networks, specifically on learning single- and multi-index models where the target is a function of a low-dimensional projection of the input. Prior works have shown that in high dimensions, the majority of the compute and data resources are spent on recovering the low-dimensional projection; once this subspace is recovered, the remainder of the target can be learned independently of the ambient dimension. However, implications of feature learning in adversarial settings remain unexplored. In this work, we take the first steps towards understanding adversarially robust feature learning with neural networks. Specifically, we prove that the hidden directions of a multi-index model offer a Bayes optimal low-dimensional projection for robustness against $\ell_2$-bounded adversarial perturbations under the squared loss, assuming that the multi-index coordinates are statistically independent from the rest of the coordinates. Therefore, robust learning can be achieved by first performing standard feature learning, then robustly tuning a linear readout layer on top of the standard representations. In particular, we show that adversarially robust learning is just as easy as standard learning. Specifically, the additional number of samples needed to robustly learn multi-index models when compared to standard learning does not depend on dimensionality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_16449
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robust Feature Learning for Multi-Index Models in High Dimensions
Mousavi-Hosseini, Alireza
Javanmard, Adel
Erdogdu, Murat A.
Machine Learning
Recently, there have been numerous studies on feature learning with neural networks, specifically on learning single- and multi-index models where the target is a function of a low-dimensional projection of the input. Prior works have shown that in high dimensions, the majority of the compute and data resources are spent on recovering the low-dimensional projection; once this subspace is recovered, the remainder of the target can be learned independently of the ambient dimension. However, implications of feature learning in adversarial settings remain unexplored. In this work, we take the first steps towards understanding adversarially robust feature learning with neural networks. Specifically, we prove that the hidden directions of a multi-index model offer a Bayes optimal low-dimensional projection for robustness against $\ell_2$-bounded adversarial perturbations under the squared loss, assuming that the multi-index coordinates are statistically independent from the rest of the coordinates. Therefore, robust learning can be achieved by first performing standard feature learning, then robustly tuning a linear readout layer on top of the standard representations. In particular, we show that adversarially robust learning is just as easy as standard learning. Specifically, the additional number of samples needed to robustly learn multi-index models when compared to standard learning does not depend on dimensionality.
title Robust Feature Learning for Multi-Index Models in High Dimensions
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.16449