Part of Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 36 (NeurIPS 2023) Main Conference Track
Sangwoong Yoon, Frank Park, Gunsu YUN, Iljung Kim, Yung-Kyun Noh
Kernel density estimation (KDE) is integral to a range of generative and discriminative tasks in machine learning. Drawing upon tools from the multidimensional calculus of variations, we derive an optimal weight function that reduces bias in standard kernel density estimates for density ratios, leading to improved estimates of prediction posteriors and information-theoretic measures. In the process, we shed light on some fundamental aspects of density estimation, particularly from the perspective of algorithms that employ KDEs as their main building blocks.