ITSO: A novel Inverse Transform Sampling-based Optimization algorithm for stochastic search

Abstract

Optimization algorithms appear in the core calculations of numerous Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning methods, as well as Engineering and Business applications. Following recent works on the theoretical deficiencies of AI, a rigor context for the optimization problem of a \textit{black-box} objective function is developed. The algorithm stems directly from the theory of probability, instead of a presumed inspiration, thus the convergence properties of the proposed methodology are inherently stable. In particular, the proposed optimizer utilizes an algorithmic implementation of the $n$-dimensional inverse transform sampling as a search strategy. No control parameters are required to be tuned, and the trade-off among exploration and exploitation is by definition satisfied. A theoretical proof is provided, concluding that only falling into the proposed framework, either directly or incidentally, any optimization algorithm converges in the fastest possible time. The numerical experiments, verify the theoretical results on the efficacy of the algorithm apropos reaching the optimum, as fast as possible.