Plug-in and Fine-tuning: Bridging the Gap between Small Language Models and Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kim, Kyeonghyun, Jang, Jinhee, Choi, Juhwan, Lee, Yoonji, Jin, Kyohoon, Kim, YoungBin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kim, Kyeonghyun
Jang, Jinhee
Choi, Juhwan
Lee, Yoonji
Jin, Kyohoon
Kim, YoungBin
author_facet Kim, Kyeonghyun
Jang, Jinhee
Choi, Juhwan
Lee, Yoonji
Jin, Kyohoon
Kim, YoungBin
contents Large language models (LLMs) are renowned for their extensive linguistic knowledge and strong generalization capabilities, but their high computational demands make them unsuitable for resource-constrained environments. In contrast, small language models (SLMs) are computationally efficient but often lack the broad generalization capacity of LLMs. To bridge this gap, we propose PiFi, a novel framework that combines the strengths of both LLMs and SLMs to achieve high performance while maintaining efficiency. PiFi integrates a single frozen layer from an LLM into a SLM and fine-tunes the combined model for specific tasks, boosting performance without a significant increase in computational cost. We show that PiFi delivers consistent performance improvements across a range of natural language processing tasks, including both natural language understanding and generation. Moreover, our findings demonstrate PiFi's ability to effectively leverage LLM knowledge, enhancing generalization to unseen domains and facilitating the transfer of linguistic abilities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_07424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Plug-in and Fine-tuning: Bridging the Gap between Small Language Models and Large Language Models
Kim, Kyeonghyun
Jang, Jinhee
Choi, Juhwan
Lee, Yoonji
Jin, Kyohoon
Kim, YoungBin
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Large language models (LLMs) are renowned for their extensive linguistic knowledge and strong generalization capabilities, but their high computational demands make them unsuitable for resource-constrained environments. In contrast, small language models (SLMs) are computationally efficient but often lack the broad generalization capacity of LLMs. To bridge this gap, we propose PiFi, a novel framework that combines the strengths of both LLMs and SLMs to achieve high performance while maintaining efficiency. PiFi integrates a single frozen layer from an LLM into a SLM and fine-tunes the combined model for specific tasks, boosting performance without a significant increase in computational cost. We show that PiFi delivers consistent performance improvements across a range of natural language processing tasks, including both natural language understanding and generation. Moreover, our findings demonstrate PiFi's ability to effectively leverage LLM knowledge, enhancing generalization to unseen domains and facilitating the transfer of linguistic abilities.
title Plug-in and Fine-tuning: Bridging the Gap between Small Language Models and Large Language Models
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.07424