Learn More, Forget Less: A Gradient-Aware Data Selection Approach for LLM

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Liu, Yibai, Wang, Shihang, Liu, Zeming, Song, Zheming, Wang, Junzhe, Liu, Jingjing, Liu, Qingjie, Wang, Yunhong
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Liu, Yibai
Wang, Shihang
Liu, Zeming
Song, Zheming
Wang, Junzhe
Liu, Jingjing
Liu, Qingjie
Wang, Yunhong
author_facet Liu, Yibai
Wang, Shihang
Liu, Zeming
Song, Zheming
Wang, Junzhe
Liu, Jingjing
Liu, Qingjie
Wang, Yunhong
contents Despite large language models (LLMs) have achieved impressive achievements across numerous tasks, supervised fine-tuning (SFT) remains essential for adapting these models to specialized domains. However, SFT for domain specialization can be resource-intensive and sometimes leads to a deterioration in performance over general capabilities due to catastrophic forgetting (CF). To address these issues, we propose a self-adaptive gradient-aware data selection approach (GrADS) for supervised fine-tuning of LLMs, which identifies effective subsets of training data by analyzing gradients obtained from a preliminary training phase. Specifically, we design self-guided criteria that leverage the magnitude and statistical distribution of gradients to prioritize examples that contribute the most to the model's learning process. This approach enables the acquisition of representative samples that enhance LLMs understanding of domain-specific tasks. Through extensive experimentation with various LLMs across diverse domains such as medicine, law, and finance, GrADS has demonstrated significant efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Remarkably, utilizing merely 5% of the selected GrADS data, LLMs already surpass the performance of those fine-tuned on the entire dataset, and increasing to 50% of the data results in significant improvements! With catastrophic forgetting substantially mitigated simultaneously. We will release our code for GrADS later.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_08620
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learn More, Forget Less: A Gradient-Aware Data Selection Approach for LLM
Liu, Yibai
Wang, Shihang
Liu, Zeming
Song, Zheming
Wang, Junzhe
Liu, Jingjing
Liu, Qingjie
Wang, Yunhong
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Despite large language models (LLMs) have achieved impressive achievements across numerous tasks, supervised fine-tuning (SFT) remains essential for adapting these models to specialized domains. However, SFT for domain specialization can be resource-intensive and sometimes leads to a deterioration in performance over general capabilities due to catastrophic forgetting (CF). To address these issues, we propose a self-adaptive gradient-aware data selection approach (GrADS) for supervised fine-tuning of LLMs, which identifies effective subsets of training data by analyzing gradients obtained from a preliminary training phase. Specifically, we design self-guided criteria that leverage the magnitude and statistical distribution of gradients to prioritize examples that contribute the most to the model's learning process. This approach enables the acquisition of representative samples that enhance LLMs understanding of domain-specific tasks. Through extensive experimentation with various LLMs across diverse domains such as medicine, law, and finance, GrADS has demonstrated significant efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Remarkably, utilizing merely 5% of the selected GrADS data, LLMs already surpass the performance of those fine-tuned on the entire dataset, and increasing to 50% of the data results in significant improvements! With catastrophic forgetting substantially mitigated simultaneously. We will release our code for GrADS later.
title Learn More, Forget Less: A Gradient-Aware Data Selection Approach for LLM
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.08620