将多个独立训练的模型直接合并,无需重新训练或原始数据。
Model Merging: Foundations and Algorithms

- 通过弗兰克-沃尔夫优化实现权重空间对齐,使模型平均有意义。
- 发现任务向量具有低秩结构,可压缩并减少干扰。
- 提出自适应路由与进化框架,降低评估成本50倍以上。
现代深度学习通常将模型视为独立实体:各自独立训练、针对特定任务优化,新版本出现时即被替换。本文研究模型合并这一替代范式:在权重空间直接合并独立训练的神经网络,几乎无需额外优化,且不依赖原始训练数据。论文探讨两种主要情形。在单任务场景中,提出基于弗兰克-沃尔夫优化的循环一致性合并算法C²M³,将多个网络对齐至无参考参数空间,使权重平均具有意义而不偏倚任一模型。在多任务场景中,首先建立任务向量作为近似梯度的理论框架,解释任务算术的有效性与局限性。在此基础上,发现任务向量继承梯度的低秩特性,提出任务奇异向量(TSV)分解,实现压缩与干扰减少。进一步提出MASS,一种基于TSV几何的输入自适应路由方法,在推理时选择相关子空间。最后引入MERGE³,一种基于项目反应理论的演化合并框架,将评估成本降低最高50倍,同时保持解的质量。这些成果为模型合并提供了理论与算法基础,支持能力可组合、复用与扩展的新型模型协作范式。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Modern deep learning usually treats models as separate artifacts: trained independently, specialized for particular purposes, and replaced when improved versions appear. This thesis studies model merging as an alternative paradigm: combining independently trained neural networks directly in weight space, with little or no optimization and without requiring access to the original training data. The thesis considers two main regimes. In the single-task setting, where models share an objective but differ in initialization, we introduce C$^2$M$^3$, a cycle-consistent merging algorithm based on Frank-Wolfe optimization. C$^2$M$^3$ aligns multiple networks into a shared, reference-free parameter space, making weight averaging meaningful without privileging any individual model. In the multi-task setting, where models are fine-tuned for different downstream tasks from a common pretrained initialization, we first develop a theoretical account of task vectors as approximate gradients. This explains both the effectiveness and the limitations of task arithmetic. Building on this view, we show that task vectors inherit the low-rank structure of gradients and introduce Task Singular Vectors (TSV), a decomposition that enables compression and interference reduction through TSV-Merge. We then present MASS, an input-adaptive routing method that uses TSV geometry to select task-relevant subspaces at inference time. Finally, we introduce MERGE$^3$, an evolutionary merging framework that uses Item Response Theory to reduce evaluation costs by up to 50$\times$ while preserving solution quality. Together, these contributions provide theoretical and algorithmic foundations for model merging, supporting a paradigm in which learned capabilities can be composed, reused, and extended across models.
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