KIF: Knowledge Identification and Fusion for Language Model Continual Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Feng, Yujie, Chu, Xu, Xu, Yongxin, Lu, Zexin, Liu, Bo, Yu, Philip S., Wu, Xiao-Ming
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Feng, Yujie
Chu, Xu
Xu, Yongxin
Lu, Zexin
Liu, Bo
Yu, Philip S.
Wu, Xiao-Ming
author_facet Feng, Yujie
Chu, Xu
Xu, Yongxin
Lu, Zexin
Liu, Bo
Yu, Philip S.
Wu, Xiao-Ming
contents Language model continual learning (CL) has recently attracted significant interest for its ability to adapt large language models (LLMs) to dynamic real-world scenarios without retraining. A major challenge in this domain is catastrophic forgetting, where models lose previously acquired knowledge upon learning new tasks. Existing approaches commonly utilize multiple parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) blocks to acquire task-specific knowledge, yet these methods are inefficient and fail to leverage potential knowledge transfer across tasks. In this paper, we introduce a novel CL framework for language models, named Knowledge Identification and Fusion (KIF), which boosts knowledge transfer without depending on memory replay. KIF initially segregates the model into 'skill units' based on parameter dependencies, allowing for more precise control. Subsequently, it employs a novel group-wise knowledge identification technique to ascertain the importance distribution of skill units for a new task. By comparing this importance distribution with those from previous tasks, we implement a fine-grained knowledge fusion strategy that retains task-specific knowledge, thereby preventing forgetting, and updates task-shared knowledge, which facilitates bi-directional knowledge transfer. As a result, KIF achieves an optimal balance between retaining prior knowledge and excelling in new tasks. KIF also demonstrates strong generalizability, making it suitable for various base models and adaptable to PEFT methods like LoRA. Furthermore, it offers notable extensibility, supporting enhancements through integration with memory replay techniques. Comprehensive experiments conducted on two CL benchmarks, involving models ranging from 220M to 7B parameters, affirm the effectiveness of KIF and its variants across different settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_05200
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle KIF: Knowledge Identification and Fusion for Language Model Continual Learning
Feng, Yujie
Chu, Xu
Xu, Yongxin
Lu, Zexin
Liu, Bo
Yu, Philip S.
Wu, Xiao-Ming
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Language model continual learning (CL) has recently attracted significant interest for its ability to adapt large language models (LLMs) to dynamic real-world scenarios without retraining. A major challenge in this domain is catastrophic forgetting, where models lose previously acquired knowledge upon learning new tasks. Existing approaches commonly utilize multiple parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) blocks to acquire task-specific knowledge, yet these methods are inefficient and fail to leverage potential knowledge transfer across tasks. In this paper, we introduce a novel CL framework for language models, named Knowledge Identification and Fusion (KIF), which boosts knowledge transfer without depending on memory replay. KIF initially segregates the model into 'skill units' based on parameter dependencies, allowing for more precise control. Subsequently, it employs a novel group-wise knowledge identification technique to ascertain the importance distribution of skill units for a new task. By comparing this importance distribution with those from previous tasks, we implement a fine-grained knowledge fusion strategy that retains task-specific knowledge, thereby preventing forgetting, and updates task-shared knowledge, which facilitates bi-directional knowledge transfer. As a result, KIF achieves an optimal balance between retaining prior knowledge and excelling in new tasks. KIF also demonstrates strong generalizability, making it suitable for various base models and adaptable to PEFT methods like LoRA. Furthermore, it offers notable extensibility, supporting enhancements through integration with memory replay techniques. Comprehensive experiments conducted on two CL benchmarks, involving models ranging from 220M to 7B parameters, affirm the effectiveness of KIF and its variants across different settings.
title KIF: Knowledge Identification and Fusion for Language Model Continual Learning
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.05200