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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cheng, Xiang, Chen, Yuxin, Sra, Suvrit
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.06528
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Table of Contents:
  • Many neural network architectures are known to be Turing Complete, and can thus, in principle implement arbitrary algorithms. However, Transformers are unique in that they can implement gradient-based learning algorithms under simple parameter configurations. This paper provides theoretical and empirical evidence that (non-linear) Transformers naturally learn to implement gradient descent in function space, which in turn enable them to learn non-linear functions in context. Our results apply to a broad class of combinations of non-linear architectures and non-linear in-context learning tasks. Additionally, we show that the optimal choice of non-linear activation depends in a natural way on the class of functions that need to be learned.