Benjamin Recht

numpywren: serverless linear algebra

2018 · arXiv (Cornell University)

Linear algebra operations are widely used in scientific computing and machine learning applications. However, it is challenging for scientists and data analysts to run linear algebra at scales beyond a single machine. Traditional approaches either …

The Gap Between Model-Based and Model-Free Methods on the Linear Quadratic Regulator: An Asymptotic Viewpoint

2018 · arXiv (Cornell University)

The effectiveness of model-based versus model-free methods is a long-standing question in reinforcement learning (RL). Motivated by recent empirical success of RL on continuous control tasks, we study the sample complexity of popular model-based and …

Recommendations and user agency

2020

Recommender systems often rely on models which are trained to maximize accuracy in predicting user preferences. When the systems are deployed, these models determine the availability of content and information to different users. The gap …