# Efficient Gaussian Process Classification Using Polya-Gamma Data Augmentation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.06383 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.06383/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 18 Feb 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [GMMSeg: Gaussian Mixture based Generative Semantic Segmentation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02025/) (2022)
- [Personalized Federated Learning with Gaussian Processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.15482/) (2021)
- [GP-Tree: A Gaussian Process Classifier for Few-Shot Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07868/) (2021)
- [Meta-learning Adaptive Deep Kernel Gaussian Processes for Molecular Property Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.02708/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Inducing Points Selection For Gaussian Processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10066/) (2021)
- [Scalable Cross Validation Losses for Gaussian Process Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.11535/) (2021)
- [Heterogeneous Multi-Task Gaussian Cox Processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.15364/) (2023)
- [Efficient Nonparametric Tensor Decomposition for Binary and Count Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07711/) (2024)
- [Hyperbolic Secant representation of the logistic function: Application to probabilistic Multiple Instance Learning for CT intracranial hemorrhage detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14829/) (2024)
- [Conditionally-Conjugate Gaussian Process Factor Analysis for Spike Count Data via Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11683/) (2024)
- [Task Diversity in Bayesian Federated Learning: Simultaneous Processing of Classification and Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10897/) (2024)
- [On the Calibration and Uncertainty with P'olya-Gamma Augmentation for Dialog Retrieval Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08606/) (2023)
- [Function-Space Regularization for Deep Bayesian Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06055/) (2023)
- [Video-based Surgical Skill Assessment using Tree-based Gaussian Process Classifier](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10208/) (2023)
- [Decentralized Gaussian Process Classification and an Application in Subsea Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.15529/) (2025)
- [Simplex-to-Euclidean Bijection for Conjugate and Calibrated Multiclass Gaussian Process Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16621/) (2026)
- [Video-based Surgical Skill Assessment Using Dynamics-and-Uncertainty-Aware Tree-based Gaussian Process Classifier](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24619/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a scalable stochastic variational approach to GP classification building on Polya-Gamma data augmentation and inducing points. Unlike former approaches, we obtain closed-form updates based on natural gradients that lead to efficient optimization. We evaluate the algorithm on real-world datasets containing up to 11 million data points and demonstrate that it is up to two orders of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art while being competitive in terms of prediction performance.