A Convexity-dependent Two-Phase Training Algorithm for Deep Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Hrycej, Tomas, Bermeitinger, Bernhard, Pavone, Massimo, Wiegand, Götz-Henrik, Handschuh, Siegfried
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Hrycej, Tomas
Bermeitinger, Bernhard
Pavone, Massimo
Wiegand, Götz-Henrik
Handschuh, Siegfried
author_facet Hrycej, Tomas
Bermeitinger, Bernhard
Pavone, Massimo
Wiegand, Götz-Henrik
Handschuh, Siegfried
contents The key task of machine learning is to minimize the loss function that measures the model fit to the training data. The numerical methods to do this efficiently depend on the properties of the loss function. The most decisive among these properties is the convexity or non-convexity of the loss function. The fact that the loss function can have, and frequently has, non-convex regions has led to a widespread commitment to non-convex methods such as Adam. However, a local minimum implies that, in some environment around it, the function is convex. In this environment, second-order minimizing methods such as the Conjugate Gradient (CG) give a guaranteed superlinear convergence. We propose a novel framework grounded in the hypothesis that loss functions in real-world tasks swap from initial non-convexity to convexity towards the optimum. This is a property we leverage to design an innovative two-phase optimization algorithm. The presented algorithm detects the swap point by observing the gradient norm dependence on the loss. In these regions, non-convex (Adam) and convex (CG) algorithms are used, respectively. Computing experiments confirm the hypothesis that this simple convexity structure is frequent enough to be practically exploited to substantially improve convergence and accuracy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_25366
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Convexity-dependent Two-Phase Training Algorithm for Deep Neural Networks
Hrycej, Tomas
Bermeitinger, Bernhard
Pavone, Massimo
Wiegand, Götz-Henrik
Handschuh, Siegfried
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Optimization and Control
The key task of machine learning is to minimize the loss function that measures the model fit to the training data. The numerical methods to do this efficiently depend on the properties of the loss function. The most decisive among these properties is the convexity or non-convexity of the loss function. The fact that the loss function can have, and frequently has, non-convex regions has led to a widespread commitment to non-convex methods such as Adam. However, a local minimum implies that, in some environment around it, the function is convex. In this environment, second-order minimizing methods such as the Conjugate Gradient (CG) give a guaranteed superlinear convergence. We propose a novel framework grounded in the hypothesis that loss functions in real-world tasks swap from initial non-convexity to convexity towards the optimum. This is a property we leverage to design an innovative two-phase optimization algorithm. The presented algorithm detects the swap point by observing the gradient norm dependence on the loss. In these regions, non-convex (Adam) and convex (CG) algorithms are used, respectively. Computing experiments confirm the hypothesis that this simple convexity structure is frequent enough to be practically exploited to substantially improve convergence and accuracy.
title A Convexity-dependent Two-Phase Training Algorithm for Deep Neural Networks
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25366