Soss: Lightweight Probabilistic Programming in Julia

Chad Scherrer

Senior Data Scientist, Metis

Managed Uncertainty

Rational Decisions

Bayesian Analysis

Probabilistic Programming

  • Physical systems
  • Hypothesis testing
  • Modeling as simulation
  • Medicine
  • Finance
  • Insurance

Risk

Custom models

A disconnect between the "user language" and "developer language"

X

3

Python

C

Deep Learning Framework

  • Harder for beginner users
  • Barrier to entry for developers
  • Limits extensibility

?

  • Give an easy way to specify models
  • Code generation for each (model, type of data, inference primitive)
  • Composability




P(\mu,\sigma|x)\propto P(\mu,\sigma)P(x|\mu,\sigma)
\begin{aligned} \mu &\sim \text{Normal}(0,5)\\ \sigma &\sim \text{Cauchy}_+(0,3) \\ x_j &\sim \text{Normal}(\mu,\sigma) \end{aligned}

Theory

Soss

julia> Soss.sourceLogpdf()(m)
quote
    _ℓ = 0.0
    _ℓ += logpdf(Normal(0, 5), μ)
    _ℓ += logpdf(Normal(μ, σ), σ)
    _ℓ += logpdf(Normal(μ, σ) |> iid(N), x)
    return _ℓ
end
m = @model N begin
    μ ~ Normal(0,5)
    σ ~ Normal(μ,σ)
    x ~ Normal(μ,σ) |> iid(N)
end;
m = @model x begin
    α ~ Cauchy()
    β ~ Normal()
    σ ~ HalfNormal()
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
        Normal(yhat[j], σ)
    end
end
julia> m(x=truth.x)
Joint Distribution
    Bound arguments: [x]
    Variables: [σ, β, α, yhat, y]

@model x begin
        σ ~ HalfNormal()
        β ~ Normal()
        α ~ Cauchy()
        yhat = α .+ β .* x
        y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
                Normal(yhat[j], σ)
            end
    end

Observed data is not specified yet!

julia> post = dynamicHMC(m(x=truth.x), (y=truth.y,)) |> particles
(σ = 2.02 ± 0.15, β = 2.99 ± 0.19, α = 0.788 ± 0.2)

Posterior distribution

Possible best-fit lines

Start with Data

Sample Parameters|Data

Sample Data|Parameters

Real Data

Replicated Fake Data

Compare

Posterior

Distribution

Predictive

Distribution

julia> pred = predictive(m, :α, :β, :σ)
@model (x, α, β, σ) begin
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
            Normal(yhat[j], σ)
        end
end
m = @model x begin
    α ~ Cauchy()
    β ~ Normal()
    σ ~ HalfNormal()
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
        Normal(yhat[j], σ)
    end
end
postpred = [pred(θ)((x=x,)) for θ ∈ post] .|> rand |> particles

predictive makes a new model!

posterior predictive distributions

draw samples

convert to particles

pvals = mean.(truth.y .> postpred.y)

Where we expect the data

Where we see the data

m2 = @model x begin
    α ~ Cauchy()
    β ~ Normal()
    σ ~ HalfNormal(10)
    νinv ~ HalfNormal()
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
        StudentT(1/νinv,yhat[j],σ)
    end
end;
julia> post2 = dynamicHMC(m2(x=truth.x), (y=truth.y,)) |> particles
(σ = 0.444 ± 0.065, νinv = 0.807 ± 0.15
, β = 3.07 ± 0.064, α = 0.937 ± 0.062)

Inference Primitives

  • xform, rand, particles, logpdf, weightedSample

Inference Algorithms

  • stream(sampler, myModel(args), data)

Stream Combinators

  • Rejection sampling
  • Approximate Bayes (ABC)
  • Expectation
julia> Soss.sourceRand()(m)
quote
    σ = rand(HalfNormal())
    β = rand(Normal())
    α = rand(Cauchy())
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y = rand(For(((j,)->begin
            Normal(yhat[j], σ)
        end), eachindex(x)))
    (x = x, yhat = yhat, α = α
    , β = β, σ = σ, y = y)
end
m = @model x begin
    α ~ Cauchy()
    β ~ Normal()
    σ ~ HalfNormal()
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
        Normal(yhat[j], σ)
    end
end
julia> Soss.sourceLogpdf()(m)
quote
    _ℓ = 0.0
    _ℓ += logpdf(HalfNormal(), σ)
    _ℓ += logpdf(Normal(), β)
    _ℓ += logpdf(Cauchy(), α)
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    _ℓ += logpdf(For(eachindex(x)) do j
              Normal(yhat[j], σ)
          end, y)
    return _ℓ
end
m = @model x begin
    α ~ Cauchy()
    β ~ Normal()
    σ ~ HalfNormal()
    yhat = α .+ β .* x
    y ~ For(eachindex(x)) do j
        Normal(yhat[j], σ)
    end
end
julia> m = @model begin
           a ~ @model begin
               x ~ Normal()
           end
       end;

julia> rand(m())
(a = (x = -0.20051706307697828,),)
julia> m2 = @model anotherModel begin
           y ~ anotherModel
           z ~ anotherModel
           w ~ Normal(y.a.x / z.a.x, 1)
       end;

julia> rand(m2(anotherModel=m)).w
-1.822683102320004
\sum_j\left(a + b x_j\right) \rightarrow Na + b \sum_j x_j
  • Stream combinators via Transducers.jl and OnlineStats.jl
  • Connection to other PPLs: Turing.jl, Gen.jl
  • Normalizing flows with Bijectors.jl
  • Deep learning with Flux.jl
  • Gaussian processes
  • Symbolic simplification

Thank You!

Special Thanks for

2019-09-26 Strata NY

By Chad Scherrer

2019-09-26 Strata NY

  • 1,771