arXiv:2602.19510cs.LGmath.OC2026-02

减少数据权重更新次数,反而能提升模型收敛性。

Less is More: Convergence Benefits of Fewer Data Weight Updates over Longer Horizon

  • 用有限步内更新替代完全收敛,更利于优化效果。
  • 在固定计算预算下,最优更新步数与日志成正比。
  • 适合关注训练效率与稳定性的算法研究者。

数据混合——通过策略性重加权训练数据域——是训练鲁棒机器学习模型的关键。该问题可自然表述为双层优化:外层优化域权重以最小化验证损失,内层优化模型参数以最小化加权训练损失。传统双层优化依赖超梯度,理论上要求内层优化达到收敛。然而受计算限制,现有方法通常采用有限且较少的内层更新步数后便更新权重。这一近似带来的理论影响尚不明确。本文严格分析了使用有限内层步数 $T$ 的数据混合收敛行为。我们证明,实践中常用的 $T=1$ 的贪婪策略在简单二次例子中可能失效。在固定参数更新预算 $N$ 且假设各域损失强凸的前提下,我们证明最优 $T$ 在全梯度情况下为 $Θ(\log N)$,在随机梯度情况下为 $Θ((N \log N)^{1/2})$。我们还通过概念验证实验验证了理论结果。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Data mixing--the strategic reweighting of training domains--is a critical component in training robust machine learning models. This problem is naturally formulated as a bilevel optimization task, where the outer loop optimizes domain weights to minimize validation loss, and the inner loop optimizes model parameters to minimize the weighted training loss. Classical bilevel optimization relies on hypergradients, which theoretically require the inner optimization to reach convergence. However, due to computational constraints, state-of-the-art methods use a finite, often small, number of inner update steps before updating the weights. The theoretical implications of this approximation are not well understood. In this work, we rigorously analyze the convergence behavior of data mixing with a finite number of inner steps $T$. We prove that the "greedy" practical approach of using $T=1$ can fail even in a simple quadratic example. Under a fixed parameter update budget $N$ and assuming the per-domain losses are strongly convex, we show that the optimal $T$ scales as $Θ(\log N)$ (resp., $Θ({(N \log N)}^{1/2})$) for the data mixing problem with access to full (resp., stochastic) gradients. We complement our theoretical results with proof-of-concept experiments.

双层优化数据混合收敛性分析

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