FLOPS: Forward Learning with OPtimal Sampling

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Ren, Tao, Zhang, Zishi, Jiang, Jinyang, Li, Guanghao, Zhang, Zeliang, Feng, Mingqian, Peng, Yijie
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Ren, Tao
Zhang, Zishi
Jiang, Jinyang
Li, Guanghao
Zhang, Zeliang
Feng, Mingqian
Peng, Yijie
author_facet Ren, Tao
Zhang, Zishi
Jiang, Jinyang
Li, Guanghao
Zhang, Zeliang
Feng, Mingqian
Peng, Yijie
contents Given the limitations of backpropagation, perturbation-based gradient computation methods have recently gained focus for learning with only forward passes, also referred to as queries. Conventional forward learning consumes enormous queries on each data point for accurate gradient estimation through Monte Carlo sampling, which hinders the scalability of those algorithms. However, not all data points deserve equal queries for gradient estimation. In this paper, we study the problem of improving the forward learning efficiency from a novel perspective: how to reduce the gradient estimation variance with minimum cost? For this, we propose to allocate the optimal number of queries over each data in one batch during training to achieve a good balance between estimation accuracy and computational efficiency. Specifically, with a simplified proxy objective and a reparameterization technique, we derive a novel plug-and-play query allocator with minimal parameters. Theoretical results are carried out to verify its optimality. We conduct extensive experiments for fine-tuning Vision Transformers on various datasets and further deploy the allocator to two black-box applications: prompt tuning and multimodal alignment for foundation models. All findings demonstrate that our proposed allocator significantly enhances the scalability of forward-learning algorithms, paving the way for real-world applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_05966
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FLOPS: Forward Learning with OPtimal Sampling
Ren, Tao
Zhang, Zishi
Jiang, Jinyang
Li, Guanghao
Zhang, Zeliang
Feng, Mingqian
Peng, Yijie
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Given the limitations of backpropagation, perturbation-based gradient computation methods have recently gained focus for learning with only forward passes, also referred to as queries. Conventional forward learning consumes enormous queries on each data point for accurate gradient estimation through Monte Carlo sampling, which hinders the scalability of those algorithms. However, not all data points deserve equal queries for gradient estimation. In this paper, we study the problem of improving the forward learning efficiency from a novel perspective: how to reduce the gradient estimation variance with minimum cost? For this, we propose to allocate the optimal number of queries over each data in one batch during training to achieve a good balance between estimation accuracy and computational efficiency. Specifically, with a simplified proxy objective and a reparameterization technique, we derive a novel plug-and-play query allocator with minimal parameters. Theoretical results are carried out to verify its optimality. We conduct extensive experiments for fine-tuning Vision Transformers on various datasets and further deploy the allocator to two black-box applications: prompt tuning and multimodal alignment for foundation models. All findings demonstrate that our proposed allocator significantly enhances the scalability of forward-learning algorithms, paving the way for real-world applications.
title FLOPS: Forward Learning with OPtimal Sampling
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.05966