Universality in Transfer Learning for Linear Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ghane, Reza, Akhtiamov, Danil, Hassibi, Babak
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ghane, Reza
Akhtiamov, Danil
Hassibi, Babak
author_facet Ghane, Reza
Akhtiamov, Danil
Hassibi, Babak
contents We study the problem of transfer learning and fine-tuning in linear models for both regression and binary classification. In particular, we consider the use of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on a linear model initialized with pretrained weights and using a small training data set from the target distribution. In the asymptotic regime of large models, we provide an exact and rigorous analysis and relate the generalization errors (in regression) and classification errors (in binary classification) for the pretrained and fine-tuned models. In particular, we give conditions under which the fine-tuned model outperforms the pretrained one. An important aspect of our work is that all the results are "universal", in the sense that they depend only on the first and second order statistics of the target distribution. They thus extend well beyond the standard Gaussian assumptions commonly made in the literature. Furthermore, our universality results extend beyond standard SGD training to the test error of a classification task trained using a ridge regression.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_02164
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Universality in Transfer Learning for Linear Models
Ghane, Reza
Akhtiamov, Danil
Hassibi, Babak
Machine Learning
We study the problem of transfer learning and fine-tuning in linear models for both regression and binary classification. In particular, we consider the use of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on a linear model initialized with pretrained weights and using a small training data set from the target distribution. In the asymptotic regime of large models, we provide an exact and rigorous analysis and relate the generalization errors (in regression) and classification errors (in binary classification) for the pretrained and fine-tuned models. In particular, we give conditions under which the fine-tuned model outperforms the pretrained one. An important aspect of our work is that all the results are "universal", in the sense that they depend only on the first and second order statistics of the target distribution. They thus extend well beyond the standard Gaussian assumptions commonly made in the literature. Furthermore, our universality results extend beyond standard SGD training to the test error of a classification task trained using a ridge regression.
title Universality in Transfer Learning for Linear Models
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.02164