In plain words: A trick that rescales the directions used to draw a network's error surface makes pictures of different networks comparable, showing how bumpy the training problem really is. It reveals how architecture choices smooth that landscape and how training settings shape the solutions found.
Abstract · Visualizing the Loss Landscape of Neural Nets
Neural network training relies on our ability to find "good" minimizers of highly non-convex loss functions. It is well-known that certain network architecture designs (e.g., skip connections) produce loss functions that train easier, and well-chosen training parameters (batch size, learning rate, optimizer) produce minimizers that generalize better. However, the reasons for these differences, and their effects on the underlying loss landscape, are not well understood. In this paper, we explore the structure of neural loss functions, and the effect of loss landscapes on generalization, using a range of visualization methods. First, we introduce a simple "filter normalization" method that helps us visualize loss function curvature and make meaningful side-by-side comparisons between loss functions. Then, using a variety of visualizations, we explore how network architecture affects the loss landscape, and how training parameters affect the shape of minimizers.
Hao Li, Zheng Xu, Gavin Taylor, Christoph Studer, Tom Goldstein
arXiv:1712.09913 · cs.LG, cs.CV, stat.ML · submitted Dec 28, 2017 · updated Nov 7, 2018
abstract · pdf · html · NIPS 2018 (extended version, 10.5 pages), code is available at https://github.com/tomgoldstein/loss-landscape