arXiv:2607.03574cs.LGcs.AI2026-07

让程序运行时可微分,加速神经符号学习中的搜索效率。

Differentiate the Evaluator, Not the Program: An Efficient Runtime Representation for Neuro-Symbolic Learning

  • 将程序符号结构与数值状态分离,运行时直接计算梯度
  • 在固定预算内比传统方法快24倍找到高质量解
  • 适合需要快速迭代程序与参数的科学发现场景

AI系统越来越多地提出可执行的科学模型,其价值取决于符号结构和连续参数的协同。这使得程序与参数联合搜索中的参数校准成为瓶颈:外层循环生成数千个候选程序,每个需内层基于梯度的优化才能评估。将每个候选程序编译为独立可微图虽快,但牺牲了程序作为数据的灵活性;解释器方法虽保留程序为运行时数据,但解释器开销远超数值计算。我们提出原生可微虚拟机(NDVM),一种无需为每个候选程序单独编译图的运行时表示。NDVM将符号结构(标签、符号、环境、控制流)保留在原生运行时数据中,而数值数据存储于密集批处理缓冲区,并沿实际执行轨迹记录精确反向模式梯度,使一次评估可分摊到大量参数向量上。基于真实可微自托管Scheme解释器的成本模型设计。我们实现的NDVM与参考后端具有前向与梯度等价性,每通道批处理摊销约60倍,接近线性多核扩展,支持两个独立前端。在大语言模型提出的程序上进行固定预算联合搜索,NDVM在实际时间上提前约24倍达到高质量解,表明运行时微分是科学发现工作流的实际系统基础。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

AI systems increasingly propose executable scientific models whose value depends on both their symbolic structure and their fitted continuous parameters. This makes parameter calibration the bottleneck of program-and-parameter co-search: an outer loop can generate thousands of candidate programs, but each needs an inner gradient-based optimization before it can be assessed. Staging each candidate into its own differentiable graph makes individual models fast but sacrifices the program-as-data property that keeps search fluid; interpreter-based approaches preserve programs as runtime data but pay interpreter overhead that dominates the numerical work. We present the Native Differentiable Virtual Machine (NDVM), a runtime representation that differentiates executable programs without compiling each candidate into a separate graph. NDVM separates symbolic structure from differentiable numeric state: tags, symbols, environments, and control remain native runtime data, while numeric payloads live in dense batched buffers with exact reverse-mode gradients recorded along the realized execution trace, so one evaluator walk is amortized across large populations of parameter vectors. A locked cost model of a real differentiable self-hosted Scheme interpreter motivates the design. We realize NDVM as a native runtime with forward and gradient equivalence to the reference backend, about 60x per-lane batch amortization, near-linear multicore scaling, and two independent front ends. In fixed-budget co-search over LLM-proposed programs, NDVM reaches high-quality solutions about 24x sooner in wall-clock time, suggesting runtime differentiation as a practical systems foundation for scientific discovery workflows.

神经符号可微分程序搜索

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