Scalable Bayesian Monte Carlo: fast uncertainty estimation beyond deep ensembles

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Liang, Xinzhu, Lukens, Joseph M., Lohani, Sanjaya, Kirby, Brian T., Searles, Thomas A., Qiu, Xin, Law, Kody J. H.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Liang, Xinzhu
Lukens, Joseph M.
Lohani, Sanjaya
Kirby, Brian T.
Searles, Thomas A.
Qiu, Xin
Law, Kody J. H.
author_facet Liang, Xinzhu
Lukens, Joseph M.
Lohani, Sanjaya
Kirby, Brian T.
Searles, Thomas A.
Qiu, Xin
Law, Kody J. H.
contents This work introduces a new method designed for Bayesian deep learning called scalable Bayesian Monte Carlo (SBMC). The method is comprised of a model and an algorithm. The model interpolates between a point estimator and the posterior. The algorithm is a parallel implementation of sequential Monte Carlo sampler (SMC$_\parallel$) or Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC$_\parallel$). We collectively refer to these consistent (asymptotically unbiased) algorithms as Bayesian Monte Carlo (BMC), and any such algorithm can be used in our SBMC method. The utility of the method is demonstrated on practical examples: MNIST, CIFAR, IMDb. A systematic numerical study reveals that for the same wall-clock time as state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods like deep ensembles (DE), SBMC achieves comparable or better accuracy and substantially improved uncertainty quantification (UQ)--in particular, epistemic UQ. This is demonstrated on the downstream task of estimating the confidence in predictions, which can be used for reliability assessment or abstention decisions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_13585
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scalable Bayesian Monte Carlo: fast uncertainty estimation beyond deep ensembles
Liang, Xinzhu
Lukens, Joseph M.
Lohani, Sanjaya
Kirby, Brian T.
Searles, Thomas A.
Qiu, Xin
Law, Kody J. H.
Machine Learning
Computation
This work introduces a new method designed for Bayesian deep learning called scalable Bayesian Monte Carlo (SBMC). The method is comprised of a model and an algorithm. The model interpolates between a point estimator and the posterior. The algorithm is a parallel implementation of sequential Monte Carlo sampler (SMC$_\parallel$) or Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC$_\parallel$). We collectively refer to these consistent (asymptotically unbiased) algorithms as Bayesian Monte Carlo (BMC), and any such algorithm can be used in our SBMC method. The utility of the method is demonstrated on practical examples: MNIST, CIFAR, IMDb. A systematic numerical study reveals that for the same wall-clock time as state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods like deep ensembles (DE), SBMC achieves comparable or better accuracy and substantially improved uncertainty quantification (UQ)--in particular, epistemic UQ. This is demonstrated on the downstream task of estimating the confidence in predictions, which can be used for reliability assessment or abstention decisions.
title Scalable Bayesian Monte Carlo: fast uncertainty estimation beyond deep ensembles
topic Machine Learning
Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13585