Derivative of a Higher-Order Function

Question

This is in the context of Automatic Differentiation - what would such a system do with a function like map, or filter - or even one of the SKI Combinators?

Example: I have the following function:

def func(x):
    return sum(map(lambda a: a**x, range(20)))

What would its derivative be? What will an AD system yield as a result? (This function is well-defined on real-number inputs).

Answer 1

I would like to disagree with the accepted answer that you cannot usefully differentiate higher rank functions, or that you need to restrict yourself to a particularly small subset of them by demonstrating it in practice.

Using my Haskell 'ad' package, we get:

ghci> :m + Numeric.AD
ghci> diff (\x -> sum (map (**x) [1..20])) 10
7.073726805128313e13

We can extract what was done by abusing a traced numeric type to answer your question of the derivative is:

ghci> :m + Debug.Traced
ghci> putStrLn $ showAsExp $ diff (\x -> sum (map (**x) [1..20])) (unknown "x" :: Traced Double) 
1.0 * (1.0 ** x * log 1.0) + 
1.0 * (2.0 ** x * log 2.0) +
1.0 * (3.0 ** x * log 3.0) +
1.0 * (4.0 ** x * log 4.0) +
1.0 * (5.0 ** x * log 5.0) +
1.0 * (6.0 ** x * log 6.0) +
1.0 * (7.0 ** x * log 7.0) +
1.0 * (8.0 ** x * log 8.0) +
1.0 * (9.0 ** x * log 9.0) +
1.0 * (10.0 ** x * log 10.0) +
1.0 * (11.0 ** x * log 11.0) +
1.0 * (12.0 ** x * log 12.0) +
1.0 * (13.0 ** x * log 13.0) +
1.0 * (14.0 ** x * log 14.0) +
1.0 * (15.0 ** x * log 15.0) +
1.0 * (16.0 ** x * log 16.0) +
1.0 * (17.0 ** x * log 17.0) +
1.0 * (18.0 ** x * log 18.0) +
1.0 * (19.0 ** x * log 19.0) +
1.0 * (20.0 ** x * log 20.0)

With full sharing you get the rather more horrific looking results, that are sometimes asymptotically more efficient.

ghci> putStrLn $ showAsExp $ reShare $ diff (\x -> sum (map (**x) [1..20])) 
      (unknown "x" :: Traced Double)
let _21 = 1.0 ** x;
    _23 = log 1.0;
    _20 = _21 * _23;
    _19 = 1.0 * _20;
    _26 = 2.0 ** x;
    _27 = log 2.0;
    _25 = _26 * _27;
    _24 = 1.0 * _25;
    _18 = _19 + _24;
    _30 = 3.0 ** x;
    _31 = log 3.0;
    _29 = _30 * _31;
    _28 = 1.0 * _29;
    _17 = _18 + _28;
    _34 = 4.0 ** x;
    _35 = log 4.0;
    _33 = _34 * _35;
    _32 = 1.0 * _33;
    _16 = _17 + _32;
    _38 = 5.0 ** x;
    _39 = log 5.0;
    _37 = _38 * _39;
    _36 = 1.0 * _37;
    _15 = _16 + _36;
    _42 = 6.0 ** x;
    _43 = log 6.0;
    _41 = _42 * _43;
    _40 = 1.0 * _41;
    _14 = _15 + _40;
    _46 = 7.0 ** x;
    _47 = log 7.0;
    _45 = _46 * _47;
    _44 = 1.0 * _45;
    _13 = _14 + _44;
    _50 = 8.0 ** x;
    _51 = log 8.0;
    _49 = _50 * _51;
    _48 = 1.0 * _49;
    _12 = _13 + _48;
    _54 = 9.0 ** x;
    _55 = log 9.0;
    _53 = _54 * _55;
    _52 = 1.0 * _53;
    _11 = _12 + _52;
    _58 = 10.0 ** x;
    _59 = log 10.0;
    _57 = _58 * _59;
    _56 = 1.0 * _57;
    _10 = _11 + _56;
    _62 = 11.0 ** x;
    _63 = log 11.0;
    _61 = _62 * _63;
    _60 = 1.0 * _61;
    _9 = _10 + _60;
    _66 = 12.0 ** x;
    _67 = log 12.0;
    _65 = _66 * _67;
    _64 = 1.0 * _65;
    _8 = _9 + _64;
    _70 = 13.0 ** x;
    _71 = log 13.0;
    _69 = _70 * _71;
    _68 = 1.0 * _69;
    _7 = _8 + _68;
    _74 = 14.0 ** x;
    _75 = log 14.0;
    _73 = _74 * _75;
    _72 = 1.0 * _73;
    _6 = _7 + _72;
    _78 = 15.0 ** x;
    _79 = log 15.0;
    _77 = _78 * _79;
    _76 = 1.0 * _77;
    _5 = _6 + _76;
    _82 = 16.0 ** x;
    _83 = log 16.0;
    _81 = _82 * _83;
    _80 = 1.0 * _81;
    _4 = _5 + _80;
    _86 = 17.0 ** x;
    _87 = log 17.0;
    _85 = _86 * _87;
    _84 = 1.0 * _85;
    _3 = _4 + _84;
    _90 = 18.0 ** x;
    _91 = log 18.0;
    _89 = _90 * _91;
    _88 = 1.0 * _89;
    _2 = _3 + _88;
    _94 = 19.0 ** x;
    _95 = log 19.0;
    _93 = _94 * _95;
    _92 = 1.0 * _93;
    _1 = _2 + _92;
    _98 = 20.0 ** x;
    _99 = log 20.0;
    _97 = _98 * _99;
    _96 = 1.0 * _97;
    _0 = _1 + _96;
in  _0

In general automatic differentiation has no problem with higher rank functions. Source-to-source translations may run into a few gotchas depending on the limitations of the particular tool, however.