arXiv:2605.04308cs.LGcs.AI2026-05中稿 · ICML

用马尔可夫矩阵建模语言模型记忆,实现零遗忘的知识增量学习

Memory as a Markov Matrix: Sample Efficient Knowledge Expansion via Token-to-Dictionary Mapping

论文配图:Memory as a Markov Matrix: Sample Efficient Knowledge Expansion via Token-to-Dictionary Mapping
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 将语言生成视为令牌间的马尔可夫过程,记忆由转移矩阵表示
  • 新增一个令牌仅需线性样本数,与已有令牌数量成正比
  • 通过嵌入调优实现极小参数更新,适合持续学习场景

持续注入新知识是大语言模型长期演进的关键。现有方法依赖参数更新缓解灾难性遗忘,但存在根本缺陷:1)随着新知识量增加,遗忘不可避免;2)模型更新往往不可逆。当现代大模型表达能力不断增强时,获取少量新知识是否仍需大规模权重更新?本文提出一种原理性框架,将自回归语言生成建模为令牌上的马尔可夫过程,模型记忆以马尔可夫转移矩阵表示。在此框架下,引入新知识/令牌对应状态空间扩展,保持原有转移关系可保证已有知识保留。我们证明了通过令牌到词典映射策略引入新令牌的样本复杂度上界:每个新令牌的学习所需样本数与其映射的已有令牌数量呈线性关系。为此,我们提出一种嵌入调优算法,仅需极少参数更新且零遗忘。实验验证了方法的有效性,并支持理论结论。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Continual incorporation of new knowledge is essential for the long-term evolution of large language models (LLMs). Existing approaches typically rely on parameter-update algorithms to mitigate catastrophic forgetting, yet they suffer from fundamental limitations: 1) forgetting is unavoidable as the amount of newly injected knowledge grows; and 2) model updates are often irreversible. As modern LLMs become increasingly expressive, it is natural to question whether large-scale weight updates are necessary for acquiring a small amount of new knowledge. In this work, we propose a principled framework that models autoregressive language generation as a Markov process over tokens, where model memory is represented by a Markov transition matrix. Under this formulation, incorporating new knowledge/tokens corresponds to extending the state space, and preserving existing transitions guarantees retention of previously learned knowledge. We then prove a sample complexity bound for incorporating new tokens via a token-to-dictionary mapping strategy. In particular, for learning the transition behavior of each new token, the required number of samples scales linearly with the number of existing tokens it is mapped to. To realize this mapping, we propose an embedding-tuning algorithm that requires minimal parameter updates and induces zero forgetting. Experimental results further demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and validate our theoretical findings.

持续学习记忆建模零遗忘马尔可夫过程

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