Fully sequential Gaussian process regression for preference learning

Abstract

We study continuous global optimization problems in which the objective function cannot be directly evaluated; rather, we observe only which of two selected design points appears to perform better, subject to noise. Such comparisons complicate the use of Gaussian process regression because they yield non-Gaussian posteriors. We consider a fully sequential approximation, based on moment-matching, that yields a fast closed-form update of the metamodel's mean and covariance. We then propose DOVE, a fully sequential sampling policy that combines an information gain criterion with randomized sampling designed to control error accumulation. Under fairly standard regularity conditions, we prove convergence rates for both statistical error and expected simple regret that depend on kernel smoothness. To our knowledge, these are the first such rates for fully sequential approximate Bayesian inference in continuous global optimization.