# Robust Learning from Discriminative Feature Feedback

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.03946 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.03946/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Mar 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Teaching an Active Learner with Contrastive Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14888/) (2021)
- [Closed-Loop Unsupervised Representation Disentanglement with β-VAE Distillation and Diffusion Probabilistic Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02346/) (2024)
- [Practical Benefits of Feature Feedback Under Distribution Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.07566/) (2021)
- [Formal Models of Active Learning from Contrastive Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15893/) (2025)
- [Improved Robust Algorithms for Learning with Discriminative Feature Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03753/) (2022)
- [Discriminative Feature Feedback with General Teacher Classes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07245/) (2025)
- [Learning Half-Spaces from Perturbed Contrastive Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02080/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent work introduced the model of learning from discriminative feature feedback, in which a human annotator not only provides labels of instances, but also identifies discriminative features that highlight important differences between pairs of instances. It was shown that such feedback can be conducive to learning, and makes it possible to efficiently learn some concept classes that would otherwise be intractable. However, these results all relied upon perfect annotator feedback. In this paper, we introduce a more realistic, robust version of the framework, in which the annotator is allowed to make mistakes. We show how such errors can be handled algorithmically, in both an adversarial and a stochastic setting. In particular, we derive regret bounds in both settings that, as in the case of a perfect annotator, are independent of the number of features. We show that this result cannot be obtained by a naive reduction from the robust setting to the non-robust setting.