Bridging Game Theory and Deep Learning

Advances in generative modeling and adversarial learning gave rise to a recent surge of interest in differentiable two-players games, with much of the attention falling on generative adversarial networks (GANs). Solving these games introduces distinct challenges compared to the standard minimization tasks that the machine learning (ML) community is used to. A symptom of this issue is ML and deep learning (DL) practitioners using optimization tools on game-theoretic problems. Our NeurIPS 2018 workshop, "Smooth games optimization in ML", aimed to rectify this situation, addressing theoretical aspects of games in machine learning, their special dynamics, and typical challenges. For this year, we significantly expand our scope to tackle questions like the design of game formulations for other classes of ML problems, the integration of learning with game theory as well as their important applications. To that end, we have confirmed talks from Éva Tardos, David Balduzzi and Fei Fang. We will also solicit contributed posters and talks in the area.