stat.MLJan 21, 2026

Non-Stationary Functional Bilevel Optimization

Authors: Jason BohneIeva PetrulionyteMichael ArbelJulien MairalPaweł Polak

Organizations: Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA · Inria, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LJK, Université Grenoble Alpes

Abstract

Functional bilevel optimization (FBO) provides a powerful framework for hierarchical learning in function spaces, yet current methods are limited to static offline settings and perform suboptimally in online, non-stationary scenarios. We propose SmoothFBO, the first algorithm for non-stationary FBO with both theoretical guarantees and practical scalability. SmoothFBO introduces a time-smoothed stochastic hypergradient estimator that reduces variance through a window parameter, enabling stable outer-loop updates with sublinear regret. Importantly, the classical parametric bilevel case is a special reduction of our framework, making SmoothFBO a natural extension to online, non-stationary settings. Empirically, SmoothFBO consistently outperforms existing FBO methods in non-stationary hyperparameter optimization and model-based reinforcement learning, demonstrating its practical effectiveness. Together, these results establish SmoothFBO as a general, theoretically grounded, and practically viable foundation for bilevel optimization in online, non-stationary scenarios.

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