Fine-grained Analysis of Stability and Generalization for Stochastic Bilevel Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhang, Xuelin, Chen, Hong, Gu, Bin, Gong, Tieliang, Zheng, Feng
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Zhang, Xuelin
Chen, Hong
Gu, Bin
Gong, Tieliang
Zheng, Feng
author_facet Zhang, Xuelin
Chen, Hong
Gu, Bin
Gong, Tieliang
Zheng, Feng
contents Stochastic bilevel optimization (SBO) has been integrated into many machine learning paradigms recently, including hyperparameter optimization, meta learning, and reinforcement learning. Along with the wide range of applications, there have been numerous studies on the computational behavior of SBO. However, the generalization guarantees of SBO methods are far less understood from the lens of statistical learning theory. In this paper, we provide a systematic generalization analysis of the first-order gradient-based bilevel optimization methods. Firstly, we establish the quantitative connections between the on-average argument stability and the generalization gap of SBO methods. Then, we derive the upper bounds of on-average argument stability for single-timescale stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and two-timescale SGD, where three settings (nonconvex-nonconvex (NC-NC), convex-convex (C-C), and strongly-convex-strongly-convex (SC-SC)) are considered respectively. Experimental analysis validates our theoretical findings. Compared with the previous algorithmic stability analysis, our results do not require reinitializing the inner-level parameters at each iteration and are applicable to more general objective functions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_04090
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fine-grained Analysis of Stability and Generalization for Stochastic Bilevel Optimization
Zhang, Xuelin
Chen, Hong
Gu, Bin
Gong, Tieliang
Zheng, Feng
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Stochastic bilevel optimization (SBO) has been integrated into many machine learning paradigms recently, including hyperparameter optimization, meta learning, and reinforcement learning. Along with the wide range of applications, there have been numerous studies on the computational behavior of SBO. However, the generalization guarantees of SBO methods are far less understood from the lens of statistical learning theory. In this paper, we provide a systematic generalization analysis of the first-order gradient-based bilevel optimization methods. Firstly, we establish the quantitative connections between the on-average argument stability and the generalization gap of SBO methods. Then, we derive the upper bounds of on-average argument stability for single-timescale stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and two-timescale SGD, where three settings (nonconvex-nonconvex (NC-NC), convex-convex (C-C), and strongly-convex-strongly-convex (SC-SC)) are considered respectively. Experimental analysis validates our theoretical findings. Compared with the previous algorithmic stability analysis, our results do not require reinitializing the inner-level parameters at each iteration and are applicable to more general objective functions.
title Fine-grained Analysis of Stability and Generalization for Stochastic Bilevel Optimization
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04090