Can LLMs Learn New Concepts Incrementally without Forgetting?

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Zheng, Junhao, Qiu, Shengjie, Ma, Qianli
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Zheng, Junhao
Qiu, Shengjie
Ma, Qianli
author_facet Zheng, Junhao
Qiu, Shengjie
Ma, Qianli
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success across various tasks, yet their ability to learn incrementally without forgetting remains underexplored. Incremental learning (IL) is crucial as it enables models to acquire new knowledge while retaining previously learned information, akin to human learning. Existing benchmarks for IL are insufficient due to data leakage issues and the overqualification of LLMs. To address these challenges, we introduce Concept-1K, a novel dataset comprising 1,023 recently emerged concepts across diverse domains. The concepts in Concept-1K are discrete, interpretable units of knowledge that allow for fine-grained analysis of learning and forgetting processes. Using Concept-1K as a testbed, we aim to answer the question: ``Can LLMs learn new concepts incrementally without forgetting like humans?'' Our investigation reveals that LLMs still suffer from catastrophic forgetting and that LoRA, despite fine-tuning fewer parameters, may lead to more forgetting on training data. Additionally, we explore the roles of in-context learning, model scale, buffer size, and pretraining in IL performance. These findings highlight the strengths and limitations of LLMs in IL scenarios and provide a robust benchmark for future research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_08526
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can LLMs Learn New Concepts Incrementally without Forgetting?
Zheng, Junhao
Qiu, Shengjie
Ma, Qianli
Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success across various tasks, yet their ability to learn incrementally without forgetting remains underexplored. Incremental learning (IL) is crucial as it enables models to acquire new knowledge while retaining previously learned information, akin to human learning. Existing benchmarks for IL are insufficient due to data leakage issues and the overqualification of LLMs. To address these challenges, we introduce Concept-1K, a novel dataset comprising 1,023 recently emerged concepts across diverse domains. The concepts in Concept-1K are discrete, interpretable units of knowledge that allow for fine-grained analysis of learning and forgetting processes. Using Concept-1K as a testbed, we aim to answer the question: ``Can LLMs learn new concepts incrementally without forgetting like humans?'' Our investigation reveals that LLMs still suffer from catastrophic forgetting and that LoRA, despite fine-tuning fewer parameters, may lead to more forgetting on training data. Additionally, we explore the roles of in-context learning, model scale, buffer size, and pretraining in IL performance. These findings highlight the strengths and limitations of LLMs in IL scenarios and provide a robust benchmark for future research.
title Can LLMs Learn New Concepts Incrementally without Forgetting?
topic Machine Learning
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08526