Examining Common Paradigms in Multi-Task Learning

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Hauptverfasser: Elich, Cathrin, Kirchdorfer, Lukas, Köhler, Jan M., Schott, Lukas
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Elich, Cathrin
Kirchdorfer, Lukas
Köhler, Jan M.
Schott, Lukas
author_facet Elich, Cathrin
Kirchdorfer, Lukas
Köhler, Jan M.
Schott, Lukas
contents While multi-task learning (MTL) has gained significant attention in recent years, its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Recent methods did not yield consistent performance improvements over single task learning (STL) baselines, underscoring the importance of gaining more profound insights about challenges specific to MTL. In our study, we investigate paradigms in MTL in the context of STL: First, the impact of the choice of optimizer has only been mildly investigated in MTL. We show the pivotal role of common STL tools such as the Adam optimizer in MTL empirically in various experiments. To further investigate Adam's effectiveness, we theoretical derive a partial loss-scale invariance under mild assumptions. Second, the notion of gradient conflicts has often been phrased as a specific problem in MTL. We delve into the role of gradient conflicts in MTL and compare it to STL. For angular gradient alignment we find no evidence that this is a unique problem in MTL. We emphasize differences in gradient magnitude as the main distinguishing factor. Overall, we find surprising similarities between STL and MTL suggesting to consider methods from both fields in a broader context.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_04698
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Examining Common Paradigms in Multi-Task Learning
Elich, Cathrin
Kirchdorfer, Lukas
Köhler, Jan M.
Schott, Lukas
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
While multi-task learning (MTL) has gained significant attention in recent years, its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Recent methods did not yield consistent performance improvements over single task learning (STL) baselines, underscoring the importance of gaining more profound insights about challenges specific to MTL. In our study, we investigate paradigms in MTL in the context of STL: First, the impact of the choice of optimizer has only been mildly investigated in MTL. We show the pivotal role of common STL tools such as the Adam optimizer in MTL empirically in various experiments. To further investigate Adam's effectiveness, we theoretical derive a partial loss-scale invariance under mild assumptions. Second, the notion of gradient conflicts has often been phrased as a specific problem in MTL. We delve into the role of gradient conflicts in MTL and compare it to STL. For angular gradient alignment we find no evidence that this is a unique problem in MTL. We emphasize differences in gradient magnitude as the main distinguishing factor. Overall, we find surprising similarities between STL and MTL suggesting to consider methods from both fields in a broader context.
title Examining Common Paradigms in Multi-Task Learning
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.04698