用进化策略微调大模型时,新任务会引发旧任务性能漂移,但可通过参数正则化解决。
Overcoming Forgetting in LLM Fine-Tuning with Evolution Strategies

- 提出锚定权重衰减(AWD)正则化方法,约束优化向初始参数靠近。
- 在不增加计算成本情况下,稳定旧任务性能,且保持新任务效果。
- 揭示遗忘本质是可逆性能漂移,非进化策略独有,适用于持续学习场景。
进化策略(ES)作为大语言模型微调的替代方法,具有简单、可扩展、仅需推理训练等优势。然而,近期研究指出其在新任务微调中可能导致旧任务性能下降。本文首先表明,这种现象更应被视为性能漂移而非不可逆遗忘,且旧任务性能常可在训练中恢复;其次,该漂移并非仅限于ES,强化学习方法同样存在。分析发现,漂移源于权重空间中弱约束方向上的随机游走行为。基于此,提出锚定权重衰减(AWD),通过参数空间正则化约束优化路径接近初始模型。AWD能有效稳定旧任务表现,同时维持目标任务性能,实现与大种群规模相当的效果,却只需更低计算成本。因此,本文证明,基于进化策略的旧任务遗忘大多可避免,使其成为大模型持续学习的有力候选方案。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Evolution Strategies (ES) has recently emerged as a competitive alternative to reinforcement learning (RL) for large language model (LLM) fine-tuning, offering advantages through simplicity, scalability, and inference-only training. However, recent work suggests that ES fine-tuning on new tasks may induce forgetting of prior tasks. First, this paper shows that prior task forgetting (1) is better characterized as performance drift rather than irreversible forgetting, with prior-task performance often recovering during ES training; and (2) is not a specific failure mode of ES, but can also arise for fine-tuning with RL methods. Second, it analyzes when and why such drift arises, highlighting its dependence on ES training dynamics, particularly random walk behavior in weakly constrained directions of the weight space. Third, based on these insights, it introduces Anchored Weight Decay (AWD) as a parameter-space regularization technique that constrains optimization toward the initial model parameters. AWD effectively stabilizes prior-task performance while preserving target-task performance, achieving benefits comparable to large ES population sizes at much lower computational cost. Thus, contrary to previous beliefs, the paper shows that prior-task forgetting under ES is largely avoidable, positioning ES as a promising approach for continual learning in LLMs.
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