通过冲突样本优化合并模型,提升多任务性能并减少参数干扰。
CoMerge: Conflict-Driven Preference Optimization for Multi-Task Model Merging

- 将模型合并重构为偏好优化问题,利用朴素合并的缺陷作为负样本。
- 在MergeBench上平均性能达0.9968,优于所有对比方法。
- 仅优化1445个标量系数,显著提升指令遵循与安全性能。
模型合并可在不重新训练全模型的情况下高效构建多任务大语言模型,但面临参数干扰挑战。现有方法虽力求保留专家模型能力并缓解干扰,却未直接利用朴素合并暴露的退化行为。本文提出冲突驱动的偏好优化框架CoMerge,将模型合并重构为偏好优化问题。该方法采用自监督的冲突驱动策略,利用朴素合并(如任务算术)的缺陷作为硬负样本,构建无需外部标注的偏好对。通过偏好优化调整轻量级、张量级合并系数,CoMerge有效缓解参数空间冲突,同时保持任务特异性能力。大量实验表明,CoMerge在MergeBench上实现0.9968的平均归一化性能,超越所有评估的数据无关与数据驱动合并基线。在Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct上,其在冲突敏感任务(如指令遵循与安全性)上表现显著提升,且仅优化1,445个标量系数,仍可媲美全参数微调。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Model merging provides an efficient paradigm for constructing multi-task large language models (LLMs) without full model retraining, yet it remains challenged by parameter interference. While existing methods aim to preserve the capabilities of individual expert models and mitigate interference, they generally do not directly learn from the potentially degraded behaviors exposed by naive merging. In this paper, we propose a conflict-driven preference optimization framework for model merging (CoMerge), which reformulates model merging as a preference optimization problem. The approach utilizes a self-supervised, conflict-driven strategy that leverages the defects of naive merging methods (e.g., task arithmetic) as hard negative samples to construct preference pairs without external annotations. By applying preference optimization to refine lightweight, tensor-wise merging coefficients, CoMerge enables the model to mitigate parameter-space conflicts while preserving task-specific capabilities. Extensive experiments show that CoMerge achieves an average normalized performance of 0.9968 on MergeBench, outperforming all evaluated data-free and data-driven model-merging baselines. Furthermore, on Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, CoMerge yields marked improvements on conflict-sensitive tasks such as instruction following and safety, while remaining highly competitive with full-parameter fine-tuning despite optimizing only 1,445 scalar coefficients.
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