16 accepted papers
From adversarial robustness to multi-agent learning, many machine learning tasks can be cast as finite-sum min–max optimization or, more generally, as variational inequality problems (VIPs). Owing to their simplicity and scalability, stochastic gradient methods with constant step size are widely us…
Cooperative reasoning under incomplete information remains complex for both humans and multi-agent AI, requiring agents to transcend individual logic in favor of recursive Theory-of-Mind (ToM) and strategic coordination. To investigate these challenges, we conduct a large-scale evaluation of 17 stat…
Many emerging applications—such as adversarial training, AI alignment, and robust optimization—can be framed as zero-sum games between neural nets, with von Neumann–Nash equilibria (NE) capturing the desirable system behavior. While such games often involve non-convex non-concave objectives, empiri…
We contribute the first provable guarantees of global convergence to Nash equilibria (NE) in two-player zero-sum convex Markov games (cMGs) by using independent policy gradient methods. Convex Markov games, recently defined by Gemp et al.(2024), extend Markov decision processes to multi-agent settin…
Real-life contractual relations typically involve repeated interactions between the principal and agent, where, despite theoretical appeal, players rarely use complex dynamic strategies and instead manage uncertainty through learning algorithms. In this paper, we initiate the study of repeated cont…
Computing Nash equilibrium policies is a central problem in multi-agent reinforcement learning that has received extensive attention both in theory and in practice. However, in light of computational intractability barriers in general-sum games, provable guarantees have been thus far either limited…
A wide array of modern machine learning applications – from adversarial models to multi-agent reinforcement learning – can be formulated as non-cooperative games whose Nash equilibria represent the system’s desired operational states. Despite having a highly non-convex loss landscape, many cases of…
Contemporary applications of machine learning raise important and overlooked theoretical questions regarding optimization in two-team games. Formally, two-team zero-sum games are defined as multi-player games where players are split into two competing sets of agents, each experiencing a utility iden…
From optimal transport to robust dimensionality reduction, many machine learning applications can be cast into the min-max optimization problems over Riemannian manifolds. Though many min-max algorithms have been analyzed in the Euclidean setting, it has been elusive how these results translate to t…
Learning in stochastic games is a notoriously difficult problem because, in addition to each other's strategic decisions, the players must also contend with the fact that the game itself evolves over time, possibly in a very complicated manner. Because of this, the convergence properties of popular…
In this paper, we examine the convergence rate of a wide range of regularized methods for learning in games. To that end, we propose a unified algorithmic template that we call “follow the generalized leader” (FTGL), and which includes as special cases the canonical “follow the regularized leader” a…
Many recent AI architectures are inspired by zero-sum games, however, the behavior of their dynamics is still not well understood. Inspired by this, we study standard gradient descent ascent (GDA) dynamics in a specific class of non-convex non-concave zero-sum games, that we call hidden zero-sum gam…
Understanding the behavior of no-regret dynamics in general N-player games is a fundamental question in online learning and game theory. A folk result in the field states that, in finite games, the empirical frequency of play under no-regret learning converges to the game’s set of coarse correlated…
We study the fundamental task of estimating the median of an underlying distribution from a finite number of samples, under pure differential privacy constraints. We focus on distributions satisfying the minimal assumption that they have a positive density at a small neighborhood around the median.…
We consider the case of derivative-free algorithms for non-convex optimization, also known as zero order algorithms, that use only function evaluations rather than gradients. For a wide variety of gradient approximators based on finite differences, we establish asymptotic convergence to second order…
We study a wide class of non-convex non-concave min-max games that generalizes over standard bilinear zero-sum games. In this class, players control the inputs of a smooth function whose output is being applied to a bilinear zero-sum game. This class of games is motivated by the indirect nature of…