# From Monte Carlo to Las Vegas: Improving Restricted Boltzmann Machine Training Through Stopping Sets

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.08442 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.08442/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Nov 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Optimizing Connectivity through Network Gradients for Restricted Boltzmann Machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06932/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a Las Vegas transformation of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimators of Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs). We denote our approach Markov Chain Las Vegas (MCLV). MCLV gives statistical guarantees in exchange for random running times. MCLV uses a stopping set built from the training data and has maximum number of Markov chain steps K (referred as MCLV-K). We present a MCLV-K gradient estimator (LVS-K) for RBMs and explore the correspondence and differences between LVS-K and Contrastive Divergence (CD-K), with LVS-K significantly outperforming CD-K training RBMs over the MNIST dataset, indicating MCLV to be a promising direction in learning generative models.