Improving Memory Efficiency for Training KANs via Meta Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhao, Zhangchi, Shu, Jun, Meng, Deyu, Xu, Zongben
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866915333247336448
author Zhao, Zhangchi
Shu, Jun
Meng, Deyu
Xu, Zongben
author_facet Zhao, Zhangchi
Shu, Jun
Meng, Deyu
Xu, Zongben
contents Inspired by the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem, KANs offer a novel framework for function approximation by replacing traditional neural network weights with learnable univariate functions. This design demonstrates significant potential as an efficient and interpretable alternative to traditional MLPs. However, KANs are characterized by a substantially larger number of trainable parameters, leading to challenges in memory efficiency and higher training costs compared to MLPs. To address this limitation, we propose to generate weights for KANs via a smaller meta-learner, called MetaKANs. By training KANs and MetaKANs in an end-to-end differentiable manner, MetaKANs achieve comparable or even superior performance while significantly reducing the number of trainable parameters and maintaining promising interpretability. Extensive experiments on diverse benchmark tasks, including symbolic regression, partial differential equation solving, and image classification, demonstrate the effectiveness of MetaKANs in improving parameter efficiency and memory usage. The proposed method provides an alternative technique for training KANs, that allows for greater scalability and extensibility, and narrows the training cost gap with MLPs stated in the original paper of KANs. Our code is available at https://github.com/Murphyzc/MetaKAN.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_07549
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Improving Memory Efficiency for Training KANs via Meta Learning
Zhao, Zhangchi
Shu, Jun
Meng, Deyu
Xu, Zongben
Machine Learning
Inspired by the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem, KANs offer a novel framework for function approximation by replacing traditional neural network weights with learnable univariate functions. This design demonstrates significant potential as an efficient and interpretable alternative to traditional MLPs. However, KANs are characterized by a substantially larger number of trainable parameters, leading to challenges in memory efficiency and higher training costs compared to MLPs. To address this limitation, we propose to generate weights for KANs via a smaller meta-learner, called MetaKANs. By training KANs and MetaKANs in an end-to-end differentiable manner, MetaKANs achieve comparable or even superior performance while significantly reducing the number of trainable parameters and maintaining promising interpretability. Extensive experiments on diverse benchmark tasks, including symbolic regression, partial differential equation solving, and image classification, demonstrate the effectiveness of MetaKANs in improving parameter efficiency and memory usage. The proposed method provides an alternative technique for training KANs, that allows for greater scalability and extensibility, and narrows the training cost gap with MLPs stated in the original paper of KANs. Our code is available at https://github.com/Murphyzc/MetaKAN.
title Improving Memory Efficiency for Training KANs via Meta Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.07549