Transformers can do Bayesian Clustering

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bhaskaran, Prajit, Viering, Tom
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Bhaskaran, Prajit
Viering, Tom
author_facet Bhaskaran, Prajit
Viering, Tom
contents Bayesian clustering accounts for uncertainty but is computationally demanding at scale. Furthermore, real-world datasets often contain missing values, and simple imputation ignores the associated uncertainty, resulting in suboptimal results. We present Cluster-PFN, a Transformer-based model that extends Prior-Data Fitted Networks (PFNs) to unsupervised Bayesian clustering. Trained entirely on synthetic datasets generated from a finite Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) prior, Cluster-PFN learns to estimate the posterior distribution over both the number of clusters and the cluster assignments. Our method estimates the number of clusters more accurately than handcrafted model selection procedures such as AIC, BIC and Variational Inference (VI), and achieves clustering quality competitive with VI while being orders of magnitude faster. Cluster-PFN can be trained on complex priors that include missing data, outperforming imputation-based baselines on real-world genomic datasets, at high missingness. These results show that the Cluster-PFN can provide scalable and flexible Bayesian clustering.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_24318
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Transformers can do Bayesian Clustering
Bhaskaran, Prajit
Viering, Tom
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Bayesian clustering accounts for uncertainty but is computationally demanding at scale. Furthermore, real-world datasets often contain missing values, and simple imputation ignores the associated uncertainty, resulting in suboptimal results. We present Cluster-PFN, a Transformer-based model that extends Prior-Data Fitted Networks (PFNs) to unsupervised Bayesian clustering. Trained entirely on synthetic datasets generated from a finite Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) prior, Cluster-PFN learns to estimate the posterior distribution over both the number of clusters and the cluster assignments. Our method estimates the number of clusters more accurately than handcrafted model selection procedures such as AIC, BIC and Variational Inference (VI), and achieves clustering quality competitive with VI while being orders of magnitude faster. Cluster-PFN can be trained on complex priors that include missing data, outperforming imputation-based baselines on real-world genomic datasets, at high missingness. These results show that the Cluster-PFN can provide scalable and flexible Bayesian clustering.
title Transformers can do Bayesian Clustering
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24318