content type paperpublished July 2021
Tensor Programs IIb: Architectural Universality of Neural Tangent Kernel Training Dynamics
AuthorsEtai Littwin, Greg Yang
Yang (2020a) recently showed that the Neural Tangent Kernel (NTK) at initialization has an infinite-width limit for a large class of architectures including modern staples such as ResNet and Transformers. However, their analysis does not apply to training. Here, we show the same neural networks (in the so-called NTK parametrization) during training follow a kernel gradient descent dynamics in function space, where the kernel is the infinite-width NTK. This completes the proof of the architectural universality of NTK behavior. To achieve this result, we apply the Tensor Programs technique: Write the entire SGD dynamics inside a Tensor Program and analyze it via the Master Theorem. To facilitate this proof, we develop a graphical notation for Tensor Programs.
Related readings and updates.
Implicit Acceleration and Feature Learning in Infinitely Wide Neural Networks with Bottlenecks
This paper was accepted at the workshop on Overparameterization: Pitfalls and Opportunities at the ICML 2021 conference.
We analyze the learning dynamics of infinitely wide neural networks with a finite sized bottle-neck. Unlike the neural tangent kernel limit, a bottleneck in an otherwise infinite width network al-lows data dependent feature learning in its bottle-neck representation. We empirically show that a single bottleneck in infinite…
See paper detailsCollegial Ensembles
Modern neural network performance typically improves as model size increases. A recent line of research on the Neural Tangent Kernel (NTK) of over-parameterized networks indicates that the improvement with size increase is a product of a better conditioned loss landscape. In this work, we investigate a form of over- parameterization achieved through ensembling, where we define collegial en- sembles (CE) as the aggregation of multiple independent…
See paper details
Discover opportunities in Machine Learning.
Our research in machine learning breaks new ground every day.