Statistical Query Lower Bounds for Robust Estimation of High-dimensional Gaussians and Gaussian Mixtures
This work addresses fundamental challenges in computational learning theory by providing lower bounds that reveal statistical-computational trade-offs for high-dimensional robust estimation, which is incremental but important for understanding algorithmic limitations in machine learning.
The paper tackles the problem of establishing computational lower bounds for robust estimation of high-dimensional Gaussians and Gaussian mixtures using Statistical Query (SQ) algorithms, showing super-polynomial gaps between sample and computational complexity for learning Gaussian mixture models and robust learning of a single Gaussian, with results matching known algorithms and implying near-optimal accuracy for existing methods.
We describe a general technique that yields the first {\em Statistical Query lower bounds} for a range of fundamental high-dimensional learning problems involving Gaussian distributions. Our main results are for the problems of (1) learning Gaussian mixture models (GMMs), and (2) robust (agnostic) learning of a single unknown Gaussian distribution. For each of these problems, we show a {\em super-polynomial gap} between the (information-theoretic) sample complexity and the computational complexity of {\em any} Statistical Query algorithm for the problem. Our SQ lower bound for Problem (1) is qualitatively matched by known learning algorithms for GMMs. Our lower bound for Problem (2) implies that the accuracy of the robust learning algorithm in~\cite{DiakonikolasKKLMS16} is essentially best possible among all polynomial-time SQ algorithms. Our SQ lower bounds are attained via a unified moment-matching technique that is useful in other contexts and may be of broader interest. Our technique yields nearly-tight lower bounds for a number of related unsupervised estimation problems. Specifically, for the problems of (3) robust covariance estimation in spectral norm, and (4) robust sparse mean estimation, we establish a quadratic {\em statistical--computational tradeoff} for SQ algorithms, matching known upper bounds. Finally, our technique can be used to obtain tight sample complexity lower bounds for high-dimensional {\em testing} problems. Specifically, for the classical problem of robustly {\em testing} an unknown mean (known covariance) Gaussian, our technique implies an information-theoretic sample lower bound that scales {\em linearly} in the dimension. Our sample lower bound matches the sample complexity of the corresponding robust {\em learning} problem and separates the sample complexity of robust testing from standard (non-robust) testing.