用小网络修正过时的嵌入表示,大幅降低检索模型训练开销。
A Fresh Take on Stale Embeddings: Improving Dense Retriever Training with Corrector Networks

- 引入可学习校正器动态修正缓存的过期目标嵌入
- 在不重算嵌入情况下达到顶尖性能,计算成本降4-80倍
- 适合大规模检索系统且资源受限的场景
在稠密检索中,深度编码器为输入和目标生成嵌入,使用softmax对大量候选目标(如文本段落)建模分布。当前面临三大挑战:目标数量庞大、目标编码器计算昂贵、缓存的目标嵌入因持续训练而过时。本文提出一种简单且高度可扩展的解决方案:训练一个小型参数化校正网络,对过期的缓存目标嵌入进行修正,从而实现准确的softmax近似,并采样出最新的高分“困难负例”。我们理论上分析了目标校正器的泛化能力,揭示了网络复杂度、嵌入陈旧程度与训练数据量之间的关系。在多个大型稠密检索基准数据集及基于检索增强的语言模型问答任务上进行了实验。该方法即使在训练期间不再更新目标嵌入(仅依赖预训练模型的初始缓存),也能达到最先进的性能,相比传统方法节省4-80倍的重新编码计算开销。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
In dense retrieval, deep encoders provide embeddings for both inputs and targets, and the softmax function is used to parameterize a distribution over a large number of candidate targets (e.g., textual passages for information retrieval). Significant challenges arise in training such encoders in the increasingly prevalent scenario of (1) a large number of targets, (2) a computationally expensive target encoder model, (3) cached target embeddings that are out-of-date due to ongoing training of target encoder parameters. This paper presents a simple and highly scalable response to these challenges by training a small parametric corrector network that adjusts stale cached target embeddings, enabling an accurate softmax approximation and thereby sampling of up-to-date high scoring "hard negatives." We theoretically investigate the generalization properties of our proposed target corrector, relating the complexity of the network, staleness of cached representations, and the amount of training data. We present experimental results on large benchmark dense retrieval datasets as well as on QA with retrieval augmented language models. Our approach matches state-of-the-art results even when no target embedding updates are made during training beyond an initial cache from the unsupervised pre-trained model, providing a 4-80x reduction in re-embedding computational cost.
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