Unnatural Algorithms in Machine Learning
Christian Goodbrake
Natural gradient descent has a remarkable property that in the small learning
rate limit, it displays an invariance with respect to network
reparameterizations, leading to robust training behavior even for highly
covariant network parameterizations. We show that optimization algorithms with
this property can be viewed as discrete approximations of natural
transformations from the functor determining an optimizer's state space from
the diffeomorphism group if its configuration manifold, to the functor
determining that state space's tangent bundle from this group. Algorithms with
this property enjoy greater efficiency when used to train poorly parameterized
networks, as the network evolution they generate is approximately invariant to
network reparameterizations. More specifically, the flow generated by these
algorithms in the limit as the learning rate vanishes is invariant under smooth
reparameterizations, the respective flows of the parameters being determined by
equivariant maps. By casting this property a natural transformation, we allow
for generalizations beyond equivariance with respect to group actions; this
framework can account for non-invertible maps such as projections, creating a
framework for the direct comparison of training behavior across non-isomorphic
network architectures, and the formal examination of limiting behavior as
network size increases by considering inverse limits of these projections,
should they exist. We introduce a simple method of introducing this naturality
more generally and examine a number of popular machine learning training
algorithms, finding that most are unnatural.