研究大模型生成过程的随机自回归学习,揭示其与确定性理论的本质差异。
Stochastic Autoregressive Learning
- 引入基于伯努利分布的随机自回归学习框架,模拟大模型逐词生成过程。
- 三种监督形式下样本复杂度存在根本差异,且无统一比较关系。
- 链式思维与端到端学习可被基线学习高效逼近,为实际训练提供理论指导。
受大语言模型逐词采样生成机制启发,本文提出一种二元随机自回归学习的PAC学习模型,推广了Joshi等人(COLT 2025)的确定性自回归学习框架。在该模型中,一个固定生成器为每个提示串分配一个伯努利型的下一个词分布;从输入提示开始,采样一个词并追加至提示,再对扩展后的提示重复应用同一生成器,此过程持续$M$步。考虑三种监督形式:基础单步样本、揭示完整长度为$M$的随机轨迹的链式思维(CoT)样本,以及仅揭示最终词的端到端(e2e)样本。针对生成器类,研究学习单步概率(基线模型)、最终词概率(CoT和e2e模型)所需的最小样本数 $m_{base}(), m_{CoT}(), m_{e2e}()$,误差为平方损失 $$。结果表明,随机自回归学习与确定性理论有本质区别:在规模 $$ 下,三者间无普遍比较关系,$m_{CoT}/m_{base}$ 和 $m_{e2e}/m_{CoT}$ 均可同时远大于 $M/$。然而,在尺度调整后,对任意生成器类,CoT学习在规模 $$ 的复杂度被基线学习在规模 $/M^2$ 上界控制,而e2e学习在规模 $$ 的复杂度被 $(M/) m_{CoT}(Θ())$ 控制(含对数因子)。这些依赖关系与尺度基本紧致。进一步通过研究维度 $d$ 的逻辑函数类验证理论边界。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Motivated by LLMs, which generate outputs by iteratively sampling from next-token distributions, we introduce a PAC-learning model for binary stochastic autoregressive learning. This generalizes the deterministic autoregressive learning framework of Joshi et al., COLT 2025. In our model, one fixed generator assigns a Bernoulli next-token distribution to every prompt string. Starting from an input prompt, a token is sampled and appended to the prompt; the same generator is then applied again to this expanded prompt; this procedure is repeated for $M$ steps. Three forms of supervision are considered: base one-step samples, chain-of-thought (CoT) samples that reveal full random trajectories of length $M$, and end-to-end (e2e) samples that reveal only the final token of length $M$ trajectories. For a generator class, we study the minimum number of samples $m_{base}(\varepsilon),m_{CoT}(\varepsilon), m_{e2e}(\varepsilon)$, resp., required to learn the one-step probabilities in the base model, and the final-token probability in the CoT and e2e models, under squared loss error~$\varepsilon$. We show that stochastic autoregressive learning fundamentally differs from the deterministic theory. At scale $\varepsilon$, there is no universal comparison between the three learning tasks: both $m_{CoT}/m_{base}$ and $m_{e2e}/m_{CoT}$ can be made simultaneously arbitrarily larger than $M/\varepsilon$, the natural analogue for the existing deterministic results. Nevertheless, after altering scales, for every class, CoT learning at scale $\varepsilon$ is upper-bounded by base learning at scale $\varepsilon/M^2$, whereas e2e learning at scale $\varepsilon$ is upper-bounded, up to logarithmic factors, by $(M/\varepsilon) m_{CoT}(Θ(\varepsilon))$. These dependencies and scales are essentially tight. We complement these bounds by studying dimension $d$ logistic functions in our model.
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