Theoretical Methods in Machine Learning

Abstract

The problem of optimization in machine learning is well established but it entails several approximations. The theory of Hilbert spaces, which is principled and well established, helps solve the representation problem in machine learning by providing a rich (universal) class of functions where the optimization can be conducted. Working with functions is cumbersome, but for the class of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs) it is still manageable provided the algorithm is restricted to inner products. The best example is the support vector machine (SVM), which is a batch mode algorithm that uses a very efficient (supralinear) optimization procedure. However, the problem of SVMs is that they display large memory and computational complexity. For the large-scale data limit, SVMs are restrictive because for fast operation the Gram matrix, which increases with the square of the number of samples, must fit in computer memory. The computation in this best-case scenario is also proportional to number of samples square. This is not specific to the SVM algorithm and is shared by kernel regression. There are also other relevant data processing scenarios such as streaming data (also called a time series) where the size of the data is unbounded and potentially nonstationary, therefore batch mode is not directly applicable and brings added difficulties.