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Main Authors: Pang, Yijiang, Zhou, Jiayu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01621
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author Pang, Yijiang
Zhou, Jiayu
author_facet Pang, Yijiang
Zhou, Jiayu
contents Large foundation models, such as large language models, have performed exceptionally well in various application scenarios. Building or fully fine-tuning such large models is usually prohibitive due to either hardware budget or lack of access to backpropagation. The zeroth-order methods offer a promising direction for tackling this challenge, where only forward passes are needed to update the model. This paper introduces an efficient Stochastic Two-Point (S2P) approach within the gradient-free regime. We present the theoretical convergence properties of S2P under the general and relaxed smoothness assumptions, and the derived results help understand and inherently connect the two popular types of zeroth-order methods, basic random search and stochastic three-point method. The theoretical properties also shed light on a Variant of S2P (VS2P), through exploiting our new convergence properties that better represent the dynamics of deep models in training. Our comprehensive empirical results show that VS2P is highly effective in optimizing objectives for deep models. It outperforms or achieves competitive performance compared to standard methods across various model types and scales.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_01621
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stochastic Two Points Method for Deep Model Zeroth-order Optimization
Pang, Yijiang
Zhou, Jiayu
Machine Learning
Large foundation models, such as large language models, have performed exceptionally well in various application scenarios. Building or fully fine-tuning such large models is usually prohibitive due to either hardware budget or lack of access to backpropagation. The zeroth-order methods offer a promising direction for tackling this challenge, where only forward passes are needed to update the model. This paper introduces an efficient Stochastic Two-Point (S2P) approach within the gradient-free regime. We present the theoretical convergence properties of S2P under the general and relaxed smoothness assumptions, and the derived results help understand and inherently connect the two popular types of zeroth-order methods, basic random search and stochastic three-point method. The theoretical properties also shed light on a Variant of S2P (VS2P), through exploiting our new convergence properties that better represent the dynamics of deep models in training. Our comprehensive empirical results show that VS2P is highly effective in optimizing objectives for deep models. It outperforms or achieves competitive performance compared to standard methods across various model types and scales.
title Stochastic Two Points Method for Deep Model Zeroth-order Optimization
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01621