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Vanilla Bayesian Optimization Performs Great in High Dimensions

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arxiv 2402.02229 v5 pith:OC4VIXVZ submitted 2024-02-03 cs.LG stat.ML

classification cs.LGstat.ML
keywords algorithmsbayesianoptimizationhigh-dimensionalvanillaassumptionscommonlycomplexity
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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High-dimensional problems have long been considered the Achilles' heel of Bayesian optimization algorithms. Spurred by the curse of dimensionality, a large collection of algorithms aim to make it more performant in this setting, commonly by imposing various simplifying assumptions on the objective. In this paper, we identify the degeneracies that make vanilla Bayesian optimization poorly suited to high-dimensional tasks, and further show how existing algorithms address these degeneracies through the lens of lowering the model complexity. Moreover, we propose an enhancement to the prior assumptions that are typical to vanilla Bayesian optimization algorithms, which reduces the complexity to manageable levels without imposing structural restrictions on the objective. Our modification - a simple scaling of the Gaussian process lengthscale prior with the dimensionality - reveals that standard Bayesian optimization works drastically better than previously thought in high dimensions, clearly outperforming existing state-of-the-art algorithms on multiple commonly considered real-world high-dimensional tasks.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. OpenAlex reports about 7 citations worldwide. Full citation record

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