MLSep 26, 2025Code
Multidimensional Uncertainty Quantification via Optimal TransportNikita Kotelevskii, Maiya Goloburda, Vladimir Kondratyev et al.
Most uncertainty quantification (UQ) approaches provide a single scalar value as a measure of model reliability. However, different uncertainty measures could provide complementary information on the prediction confidence. Even measures targeting the same type of uncertainty (e.g., ensemble-based and density-based measures of epistemic uncertainty) may capture different failure modes. We take a multidimensional view on UQ by stacking complementary UQ measures into a vector. Such vectors are assigned with Monge-Kantorovich ranks produced by an optimal-transport-based ordering method. The prediction is then deemed more uncertain than the other if it has a higher rank. The resulting VecUQ-OT algorithm uses entropy-regularized optimal transport. The transport map is learned on vectors of scores from in-distribution data and, by design, applies to unseen inputs, including out-of-distribution cases, without retraining. Our framework supports flexible non-additive uncertainty fusion (including aleatoric and epistemic components). It yields a robust ordering for downstream tasks such as selective prediction, misclassification detection, out-of-distribution detection, and selective generation. Across synthetic, image, and text data, VecUQ-OT shows high efficiency even when individual measures fail. The code for the method is available at: https://github.com/stat-ml/multidimensional_uncertainty.
MLFeb 16, 2024
From Risk to Uncertainty: Generating Predictive Uncertainty Measures via Bayesian EstimationNikita Kotelevskii, Vladimir Kondratyev, Martin Takáč et al.
There are various measures of predictive uncertainty in the literature, but their relationships to each other remain unclear. This paper uses a decomposition of statistical pointwise risk into components, associated with different sources of predictive uncertainty, namely aleatoric uncertainty (inherent data variability) and epistemic uncertainty (model-related uncertainty). Together with Bayesian methods, applied as an approximation, we build a framework that allows one to generate different predictive uncertainty measures. We validate our method on image datasets by evaluating its performance in detecting out-of-distribution and misclassified instances using the AUROC metric. The experimental results confirm that the measures derived from our framework are useful for the considered downstream tasks.
MLSep 29, 2025
Neural Optimal Transport Meets Multivariate Conformal PredictionVladimir Kondratyev, Alexander Fishkov, Nikita Kotelevskii et al.
We propose a framework for conditional vector quantile regression (CVQR) that combines neural optimal transport with amortized optimization, and apply it to multivariate conformal prediction. Classical quantile regression does not extend naturally to multivariate responses, while existing approaches often ignore the geometry of joint distributions. Our method parametrizes the conditional vector quantile function as the gradient of a convex potential implemented by an input-convex neural network, ensuring monotonicity and uniform ranks. To reduce the cost of solving high-dimensional variational problems, we introduced amortized optimization of the dual potentials, yielding efficient training and faster inference. We then exploit the induced multivariate ranks for conformal prediction, constructing distribution-free predictive regions with finite-sample validity. Unlike coordinatewise methods, our approach adapts to the geometry of the conditional distribution, producing tighter and more informative regions. Experiments on benchmark datasets show improved coverage-efficiency trade-offs compared to baselines, highlighting the benefits of integrating neural optimal transport with conformal prediction.