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Main Authors: Zhang, Yiming, Liu, Sitong, Cloninger, Alex
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11669
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author Zhang, Yiming
Liu, Sitong
Cloninger, Alex
author_facet Zhang, Yiming
Liu, Sitong
Cloninger, Alex
contents We address the computational and theoretical limitations of current distributional alignment methods for source-free unsupervised domain adaptation (SFUDA) using source class-mean features. In particular, we focus on estimating classification performance and confidence in the absence of target labels. Current theoretical frameworks for these methods often yield computationally intractable quantities and fail to adequately reflect the properties of the alignment algorithms employed. To overcome these challenges, we introduce the Optimal Transport (OT) score, a confidence metric derived from a novel theoretical analysis that exploits the flexibility of decision boundaries induced by Semi-Discrete Optimal Transport alignment. The proposed OT score is intuitively interpretable and theoretically rigorous. It provides principled uncertainty estimates for any given set of target pseudo-labels. Experimental results demonstrate that OT score outperforms existing confidence scores. Moreover, it improves SFUDA performance through training-time reweighting and provides a reliable, label-free proxy for model performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_11669
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle OT Score: An OT based Confidence Score for Prototype-Assisted Source Free Unsupervised Domain Adaptation
Zhang, Yiming
Liu, Sitong
Cloninger, Alex
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
We address the computational and theoretical limitations of current distributional alignment methods for source-free unsupervised domain adaptation (SFUDA) using source class-mean features. In particular, we focus on estimating classification performance and confidence in the absence of target labels. Current theoretical frameworks for these methods often yield computationally intractable quantities and fail to adequately reflect the properties of the alignment algorithms employed. To overcome these challenges, we introduce the Optimal Transport (OT) score, a confidence metric derived from a novel theoretical analysis that exploits the flexibility of decision boundaries induced by Semi-Discrete Optimal Transport alignment. The proposed OT score is intuitively interpretable and theoretically rigorous. It provides principled uncertainty estimates for any given set of target pseudo-labels. Experimental results demonstrate that OT score outperforms existing confidence scores. Moreover, it improves SFUDA performance through training-time reweighting and provides a reliable, label-free proxy for model performance.
title OT Score: An OT based Confidence Score for Prototype-Assisted Source Free Unsupervised Domain Adaptation
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11669