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Main Authors: Tate, Tomoya, Sugiyama, Kosuke, Uchida, Masato
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19713
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author Tate, Tomoya
Sugiyama, Kosuke
Uchida, Masato
author_facet Tate, Tomoya
Sugiyama, Kosuke
Uchida, Masato
contents This paper addresses binary classification in scenarios where obtaining explicit instance level labels is impractical, by exploiting multiple weak labels defined on instance pairs. The existing SconfConfDiff classification framework relies on continuous valued probabilistic supervision, including similarity-confidence, the probability of class agreement, and confidence-difference, the difference in positive class probabilities. However, probabilistic labeling requires subjective uncertainty quantification, often leading to unstable supervision. We propose SD-Pcomp classification, a binary judgment based weakly supervised learning framework that relies only on relative judgments, namely class agreement between two instances and pairwise preference toward the positive class. The method employs Similarity/Dissimilarity (SD) labels and Pairwise Comparison (Pcomp) labels, and develops two unbiased risk estimators, (i) a convex combination of SD and Pcomp and (ii) a unified estimator that integrates both labels by modeling their relationship. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed approach improves classification performance over methods using a single weak label, and is robust to label noise and uncertainty in class prior estimation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_19713
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning from Similarity/Dissimilarity and Pairwise Comparison
Tate, Tomoya
Sugiyama, Kosuke
Uchida, Masato
Machine Learning
This paper addresses binary classification in scenarios where obtaining explicit instance level labels is impractical, by exploiting multiple weak labels defined on instance pairs. The existing SconfConfDiff classification framework relies on continuous valued probabilistic supervision, including similarity-confidence, the probability of class agreement, and confidence-difference, the difference in positive class probabilities. However, probabilistic labeling requires subjective uncertainty quantification, often leading to unstable supervision. We propose SD-Pcomp classification, a binary judgment based weakly supervised learning framework that relies only on relative judgments, namely class agreement between two instances and pairwise preference toward the positive class. The method employs Similarity/Dissimilarity (SD) labels and Pairwise Comparison (Pcomp) labels, and develops two unbiased risk estimators, (i) a convex combination of SD and Pcomp and (ii) a unified estimator that integrates both labels by modeling their relationship. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed approach improves classification performance over methods using a single weak label, and is robust to label noise and uncertainty in class prior estimation.
title Learning from Similarity/Dissimilarity and Pairwise Comparison
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19713