用压缩版小模型代替弱适配器,实现安全高效的联邦大模型微调
FedProxy: Federated Fine-Tuning of LLMs via Proxy SLMs and Heterogeneity-Aware Fusion

- 用从大模型压缩的代理小模型替代传统轻量适配器
- 在异构数据下性能接近集中式训练,超越现有方法
- 适合需要保护模型版权且数据分布不均的场景
联邦微调大语言模型面临三重挑战:保护模型知识产权、保障客户端隐私、缓解异构数据导致的性能下降。现有方法如离站微调(OT)通过客户端仅训练轻量适配器来保护模型知识产权,但分析表明其存在根本性性能瓶颈,与集中式训练仍有显著差距。为此,我们提出FedProxy,一种新的联邦适应框架。该框架将弱适配器替换为从专有大模型压缩得到的统一强大代理小模型(Proxy SLM),作为协作微调的高保真代理。通过三阶段架构系统解决三重挑战:(i) 服务器引导压缩生成资源友好型代理;(ii) 采用抗干扰聚合策略应对数据异构;(iii) 通过免训练“插件”机制无缝融合知识回大模型。实验表明,FedProxy显著优于OT方法,逼近集中式性能,树立了安全高效联邦大模型微调的新基准。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Federated fine-tuning of Large Language Models (LLMs) is obstructed by a trilemma of challenges: protecting LLMs intellectual property (IP), ensuring client privacy, and mitigating performance loss on heterogeneous data. Existing methods like Offsite-Tuning (OT) secure the LLMs IP by having clients train only lightweight adapters, yet our analysis reveals they suffer from a fundamental performance bottleneck, leaving a significant gap compared to centralized training. To bridge this gap, we introduce FedProxy, a new federated adaptation framework. FedProxy replaces weak adapters with a unified, powerful Proxy Small Language Model (SLM), compressed from the proprietary LLM, to serve as a high-fidelity surrogate for collaborative fine-tuning. Our framework systematically resolves the trilemma through a three-stage architecture: (i) Efficient Representation via server-guided compression to create a resource-friendly proxy; (ii) Robust Optimization through an interference-mitigating aggregation strategy to handle data heterogeneity; and (iii) Effortless Fusion via a training-free "plug-in" mechanism to integrate learned knowledge back into the LLM. Experiments show FedProxy significantly outperforms OT methods and approaches centralized performance, establishing a new benchmark for secure and high-performance federated LLM adaptation.
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