arXiv Machine Learning

HERD: Harness-Evolving Recursive Distillation for Continual Learning

HERD (Harness-Evolving Recursive Distillation) is a hybrid continual learning framework that combines harness-based non‑parametric methods with parametric distillation. It refines reusable skills in a harness while storing high‑residual examples in bounded memory, and applies drift‑constrained distillation with dual anchors to reduce forgetting. On the 25‑stage TRACE+17 task stream, HERD matches the best parametric baseline in new‑task learning while achieving the lowest forgetting and strongest retention of general capabilities under fixed memory and compute budgets.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 15

Realistic Continual Learning Approach using Pre-trained Models

arXiv:2404.07729v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Continual learning (CL) evaluates adaptability in learning solutions to retain knowledge. Our research addresses the challenge of catastrophic forg...

By Nadia Nasri, Carlos Guti\'errez-\'Alvarez, Sergio Lafuente-Arroyo, Saturnino Maldonado-Basc\'on, Roberto J. L\'opez-Sastre
arXiv AI
Sep 7

MePo++: Unifying Representation Refinement and Reconciliation for General Continual Learning

MePo++ is a post‑training framework designed for general continual learning (GCL) that unifies representation refinement and reconciliation. It introduces MetaPrep, which enhances representation plasticity via unsupervised meta‑refinement on pseudo continual sequences, and StreamAlign, which maintains stability by reconciling online features with a stable pretrained geometry. Experiments across various pretrained models, datasets, and continual learning baselines show that MePo++ consistently improves performance in PTM‑based GCL.

By Guanglong Sun, Kanglei Zhou, Liyuan Wang, Qi Cheng, Hongwei Yan, Shuang Cui, Hang Su, Jun Zhu, Yi Zhong
arXiv AI
Oct 27

Harness-Model Collaboration for Long-Horizon Continual Learning

The paper introduces HaMo, a Harness-Model collaborative framework designed for long-horizon continual learning. HaMo combines fast non‑parametric experience accumulation—distilling trajectories into strategy‑level experience cards for immediate retrieval—with slow parametric adaptation, training the model to interpret, ground, and execute these strategies across changing contexts. A retrieval‑coverage‑based selection mechanism identifies compact, complementary trajectories for parameter updates, and experiments demonstrate that HaMo outperforms both harness‑only and model‑only approaches in within‑domain and cross‑domain settings, improving retention and adaptation.

By Zhen Bi, Zhizhi Peng, Yan Wang, Xueshu Chen, Haofei Zhang, Yaobo Zhang, Zeyu Yang, Qing Shen, Jungang Lou
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Oct 5

Off-Policy Merging Beats On-Policy Self-Distillation for Continual Learning

The paper demonstrates that off‑policy merging, called grafting, outperforms on‑policy self‑distillation for continual learning. Grafting learns updates on an earlier donor checkpoint, scales the update, and optionally masks sensitive directions, thereby reducing interference with existing capabilities. Across various continual learning scenarios, grafting achieves better new‑task and old‑task performance without costly on‑policy sampling.