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York University

Refining the sample complexity of comparative learning

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The PAC (Probably Approximately Correct) framework is a well-established theoretical framework for analyzing the statistical (and sometimes computational) complexity of machine learning tasks. Comparative learning is a recently introduced variation of the PAC framework that interpolates between the two standard extreme settings of realizable and agnostic PAC learning. In comparative learning the labeling is assumed to be from one hypothesis class (the source) while the learner's performance is to be measured against another hypothesis class (the benchmark). This setup allows for incorporating more specific prior knowledge into PAC-type learning bounds, which are known to be otherwise overly pessimistic. In this work we study the sample complexity of a variation of this setting we call proper comparative learning where we require the learning algorithm to output a hypothesis from the benchmark class. This setting represents model distillation tasks, where a predictor with specific requirements (e.g., interpretability) is trained on the labels from another model.

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Rahmanian Ashkezari, Sajad
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Urner, Ruth

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/10315/43007
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/43007

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
York University
Base URL
yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Rahmanian Ashkezari, Sajad. Refining the sample complexity of comparative learning. 2025. https://hdl.handle.net/10315/43007