Simultaneous linear connectivity of neural networks modulo permutation

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Sharma, Ekansh, Kwok, Devin, Denton, Tom, Roy, Daniel M., Rolnick, David, Dziugaite, Gintare Karolina
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Sharma, Ekansh
Kwok, Devin
Denton, Tom
Roy, Daniel M.
Rolnick, David
Dziugaite, Gintare Karolina
author_facet Sharma, Ekansh
Kwok, Devin
Denton, Tom
Roy, Daniel M.
Rolnick, David
Dziugaite, Gintare Karolina
contents Neural networks typically exhibit permutation symmetries which contribute to the non-convexity of the networks' loss landscapes, since linearly interpolating between two permuted versions of a trained network tends to encounter a high loss barrier. Recent work has argued that permutation symmetries are the only sources of non-convexity, meaning there are essentially no such barriers between trained networks if they are permuted appropriately. In this work, we refine these arguments into three distinct claims of increasing strength. We show that existing evidence only supports "weak linear connectivity"-that for each pair of networks belonging to a set of SGD solutions, there exist (multiple) permutations that linearly connect it with the other networks. In contrast, the claim "strong linear connectivity"-that for each network, there exists one permutation that simultaneously connects it with the other networks-is both intuitively and practically more desirable. This stronger claim would imply that the loss landscape is convex after accounting for permutation, and enable linear interpolation between three or more independently trained models without increased loss. In this work, we introduce an intermediate claim-that for certain sequences of networks, there exists one permutation that simultaneously aligns matching pairs of networks from these sequences. Specifically, we discover that a single permutation aligns sequences of iteratively trained as well as iteratively pruned networks, meaning that two networks exhibit low loss barriers at each step of their optimization and sparsification trajectories respectively. Finally, we provide the first evidence that strong linear connectivity may be possible under certain conditions, by showing that barriers decrease with increasing network width when interpolating among three networks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_06498
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Simultaneous linear connectivity of neural networks modulo permutation
Sharma, Ekansh
Kwok, Devin
Denton, Tom
Roy, Daniel M.
Rolnick, David
Dziugaite, Gintare Karolina
Machine Learning
Neural networks typically exhibit permutation symmetries which contribute to the non-convexity of the networks' loss landscapes, since linearly interpolating between two permuted versions of a trained network tends to encounter a high loss barrier. Recent work has argued that permutation symmetries are the only sources of non-convexity, meaning there are essentially no such barriers between trained networks if they are permuted appropriately. In this work, we refine these arguments into three distinct claims of increasing strength. We show that existing evidence only supports "weak linear connectivity"-that for each pair of networks belonging to a set of SGD solutions, there exist (multiple) permutations that linearly connect it with the other networks. In contrast, the claim "strong linear connectivity"-that for each network, there exists one permutation that simultaneously connects it with the other networks-is both intuitively and practically more desirable. This stronger claim would imply that the loss landscape is convex after accounting for permutation, and enable linear interpolation between three or more independently trained models without increased loss. In this work, we introduce an intermediate claim-that for certain sequences of networks, there exists one permutation that simultaneously aligns matching pairs of networks from these sequences. Specifically, we discover that a single permutation aligns sequences of iteratively trained as well as iteratively pruned networks, meaning that two networks exhibit low loss barriers at each step of their optimization and sparsification trajectories respectively. Finally, we provide the first evidence that strong linear connectivity may be possible under certain conditions, by showing that barriers decrease with increasing network width when interpolating among three networks.
title Simultaneous linear connectivity of neural networks modulo permutation
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.06498