High Probability Generalization Bounds with Fast Rates for Minimax Problems

Minimax problems are receiving an increasing amount of attention in a wide range of applications in machine learning (ML), for instance, reinforcement learning, robust optimization, adversarial learning, and distributed computing, to mention but a few. Current studies focus on the fundamental understanding of general minimax problems with an emphasis on convergence behavior. As a comparison, there is far less work to study the generalization performance. Additionally, existing generalization bounds are almost all derived in expectation, and the high probability bounds are all presented in the slow order $\mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{n})$, where $n$ is the sample size. In this paper, we provide improved generalization analyses and obtain sharper high probability generalization bounds for most existing generalization measures of minimax problems. We then use the improved learning bounds to establish high probability generalization bounds with fast rates for classical empirical saddle point (ESP) solution and several popular gradient-based optimization algorithms, including gradient descent ascent (GDA), stochastic gradient descent ascent (SGDA), proximal point method (PPM), extra-gradient (EG), and optimistic gradient descent ascent (OGDA). In summary, we provide a systematical analysis of sharper generalization bounds of minimax problems.