Nonparametric Regression with Shallow Overparametrized Neural Networks Trained by GD with Early Stopping
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We explore the ability of overparameterized shallow neural networks to learn Lipschitz regression functions with and without label noise when trained by Gradient Descent (GD). To avoid the problem that in the presence of noisy labels, neural networks trained to nearly zero training error are inconsistent on this class, we propose an early stopping rule that allows us to show optimal rates. This provides an alternative to the result of Hu et al. (2021) who studied the performance of l2 -regularized GD for training shallow networks in nonparametric regression which fully relied on the infinite-width network (Neural Tangent Kernel (NTK)) approximation. Here we present a simpler analysis which is based on a partitioning argument of the input space (as in the case of 1-nearest-neighbor rule) coupled with the fact that trained neural networks are smooth with respect to their inputs when trained by GD. In the noise-free case the proof does not rely on any kernelization and can be regarded as a finite-width result. In the case of label noise, by slightly modifying the proof, the noise is controlled using a technique of Yao, Rosasco, and Caponnetto (2007).
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.026 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".