arXiv:2505.11581cs.CVcs.LG2025-05被引 26

对比演化与训练网络,发现传统方法导致内部表征混乱。

Questioning Representational Optimism in Deep Learning: The Fractured Entangled Representation Hypothesis

  • 用演化算法和SGD分别训练网络,可视化每个神经元行为
  • 相同输出下,SGD网络呈现碎片化纠缠表征(FER),演化网络则接近统一分解表征
  • 发现表征混乱可能损害模型泛化、创造力和持续学习能力

现代人工智能的兴奋点在于扩大系统规模能带来更好性能。但性能提升是否意味着内部表征更优?本文挑战这一表征乐观主义假设。通过在生成单张图像的简单任务上,比较经开放式搜索演化出的网络与传统随机梯度下降(SGD)训练的网络,我们发现:尽管两者输出行为一致,其内部表示却截然不同。SGD训练的网络表现出一种称为‘碎片化纠缠表征’(Fractured Entangled Representation, FER)的无序状态;而演化网络几乎完全避免了这种现象,甚至趋近于‘统一分解表征’(Unified Factored Representation, UFR)。在大模型中,FER可能削弱泛化、创造力及(持续)学习等核心能力。因此,理解并缓解FER对未来发展至关重要。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Much of the excitement in modern AI is driven by the observation that scaling up existing systems leads to better performance. But does better performance necessarily imply better internal representations? While the representational optimist assumes it must, this position paper challenges that view. We compare neural networks evolved through an open-ended search process to networks trained via conventional stochastic gradient descent (SGD) on the simple task of generating a single image. This minimal setup offers a unique advantage: each hidden neuron's full functional behavior can be easily visualized as an image, thus revealing how the network's output behavior is internally constructed neuron by neuron. The result is striking: while both networks produce the same output behavior, their internal representations differ dramatically. The SGD-trained networks exhibit a form of disorganization that we term fractured entangled representation (FER). Interestingly, the evolved networks largely lack FER, even approaching a unified factored representation (UFR). In large models, FER may be degrading core model capacities like generalization, creativity, and (continual) learning. Therefore, understanding and mitigating FER could be critical to the future of representation learning.

表征学习深度学习神经网络演化计算

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