Task Arithmetic Through The Lens Of One-Shot Federated Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Tao, Zhixu Silvia, Mason, Ian, Kulkarni, Sanjeev, Boix, Xavier
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Tao, Zhixu Silvia
Mason, Ian
Kulkarni, Sanjeev
Boix, Xavier
author_facet Tao, Zhixu Silvia
Mason, Ian
Kulkarni, Sanjeev
Boix, Xavier
contents Task Arithmetic is a model merging technique that enables the combination of multiple models' capabilities into a single model through simple arithmetic in the weight space, without the need for additional fine-tuning or access to the original training data. However, the factors that determine the success of Task Arithmetic remain unclear. In this paper, we examine Task Arithmetic for multi-task learning by framing it as a one-shot Federated Learning problem. We demonstrate that Task Arithmetic is mathematically equivalent to the commonly used algorithm in Federated Learning, called Federated Averaging (FedAvg). By leveraging well-established theoretical results from FedAvg, we identify two key factors that impact the performance of Task Arithmetic: data heterogeneity and training heterogeneity. To mitigate these challenges, we adapt several algorithms from Federated Learning to improve the effectiveness of Task Arithmetic. Our experiments demonstrate that applying these algorithms can often significantly boost performance of the merged model compared to the original Task Arithmetic approach. This work bridges Task Arithmetic and Federated Learning, offering new theoretical perspectives on Task Arithmetic and improved practical methodologies for model merging.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_18607
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Task Arithmetic Through The Lens Of One-Shot Federated Learning
Tao, Zhixu Silvia
Mason, Ian
Kulkarni, Sanjeev
Boix, Xavier
Machine Learning
Task Arithmetic is a model merging technique that enables the combination of multiple models' capabilities into a single model through simple arithmetic in the weight space, without the need for additional fine-tuning or access to the original training data. However, the factors that determine the success of Task Arithmetic remain unclear. In this paper, we examine Task Arithmetic for multi-task learning by framing it as a one-shot Federated Learning problem. We demonstrate that Task Arithmetic is mathematically equivalent to the commonly used algorithm in Federated Learning, called Federated Averaging (FedAvg). By leveraging well-established theoretical results from FedAvg, we identify two key factors that impact the performance of Task Arithmetic: data heterogeneity and training heterogeneity. To mitigate these challenges, we adapt several algorithms from Federated Learning to improve the effectiveness of Task Arithmetic. Our experiments demonstrate that applying these algorithms can often significantly boost performance of the merged model compared to the original Task Arithmetic approach. This work bridges Task Arithmetic and Federated Learning, offering new theoretical perspectives on Task Arithmetic and improved practical methodologies for model merging.
title Task Arithmetic Through The Lens Of One-Shot Federated Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18607