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A Generalist Neural Algorithmic Learner (arxiv.org)
1 point by hardmaru on Sep 23, 2022 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A graph network that works on connected points learns to run algorithms—sorting, searching, path-finding, geometry—at once, instead of a model for each. Tweaks to its inputs and training boosted single-task performance by over 20% versus earlier work, and the combined model matched the specialists.

Abstract

The cornerstone of neural algorithmic reasoning is the ability to solve algorithmic tasks, especially in a way that generalises out of distribution. While recent years have seen a surge in methodological improvements in this area, they mostly focused on building specialist models. Specialist models are capable of learning to neurally execute either only one algorithm or a collection of algorithms with identical control-flow backbone. Here, instead, we focus on constructing a generalist neural algorithmic learner -- a single graph neural network processor capable of learning to execute a wide range of algorithms, such as sorting, searching, dynamic programming, path-finding and geometry. We leverage the CLRS benchmark to empirically show that, much like recent successes in the domain of perception, generalist algorithmic learners can be built by "incorporating" knowledge. That is, it is possible to effectively learn algorithms in a multi-task manner, so long as we can learn to execute them well in a single-task regime. Motivated by this, we present a series of improvements to the input representation, training regime and processor architecture over CLRS, improving average single-task performance by over 20% from prior art. We then conduct a thorough ablation of multi-task learners leveraging these improvements. Our results demonstrate a generalist learner that effectively incorporates knowledge captured by specialist models.

Borja Ibarz, Vitaly Kurin, George Papamakarios, Kyriacos Nikiforou, Mehdi Bennani, Róbert Csordás, Andrew Dudzik, Matko Bošnjak, Alex Vitvitskyi, Yulia Rubanova, Andreea Deac, Beatrice Bevilacqua, et al.
arXiv:2209.11142 · cs.LG, cs.AI, stat.ML · submitted Sep 22, 2022 · updated Dec 3, 2022
abstract · pdf · html · To appear at LoG 2022 (Spotlight talk). 23 pages, 11 figures

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Also discussed: Dec 2022 (92 points, 15 comments)