arXiv Machine Learning

Tight Sample Complexity of Transformers

arXiv:2606. 09731v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We tightly characterize the VC dimension of depth-$L$ Transformers with a total of $W$ parameters, mapping an input sequence of length $T$ to a single output, establishing an upper bound of $O(L W \log (T W))$ and a nearly matching lower bound of $\Omega(L W \log (T W / L))$.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 10

Length Generalization for Transformers via Compression

arXiv:2609.08851v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Recent advancements in transformer length generalization theory enable us to reliably predict when a transformer can learn to solve a task. In particul...

By Georg Zetzsche, Hongjian Jiang, Andy Yang, Pascal Bergstr\"a{\ss}er, Marco S\"alzer, David Chiang, Anthony W. Lin
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 11

How Many Different Outputs Can a Transformer Generate?

arXiv:2605. 22223v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We study how we can leverage only a handful of characteristics of a transformer's architecture to closely predict the number of different sequences it can output, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

By Maxime Meyer, Mario Michelessa, Caroline Chaux, Vincent Y. F. Tan
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 25

Bandit Multiclass PAC Learning: Corrected Lower Bounds, Exact Families, and a Confidence Direct-Sum Phenomenon

The paper revisits realizable multiclass PAC learning with bandit feedback, correcting a previously claimed lower bound on sample complexity. It introduces a new anchored dimension, “aBDS,” and establishes a constant‑free three‑part lower bound, while also providing tighter upper bounds that eliminate dependence on the total label count. The authors demonstrate that the optimal sample complexity can vary dramatically even among classes with identical dimensional profiles, revealing a confidence direct‑sum phenomenon and a rank‑saturation phase transition.

By Guangjian Zhang
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 25

Transformers as Cross-Task Learners: Shared Structure Drives Sample Efficiency in In-Context Learning

Transformers can learn broad families of tasks during pretraining and adapt to unseen tasks from a short prompt, but a rigorous understanding of this capability is limited. This paper studies how shared cross‑task structure influences the sample complexity of in‑context learning (ICL) by characterizing task‑space complexity through covering numbers, yielding a set of anchor functions that localize unseen tasks and predict responses. The authors construct a Transformer with Softmax attention to approximate this procedure and derive an error bound that separates the effects of pretraining tasks and prompt length, showing that once enough tasks are available the dependence on prompt length becomes dimension‑free.

By Zhongjie Shi, Rongjie Lai, Alexander Cloninger, Wenjing Liao
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 2

Length Generalization Bounds for Transformers

arXiv:2603. 02238v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Length generalization is a key property of a learning algorithm that enables it to make correct predictions on inputs of any length, given finite training data.

By Andy Yang, Pascal Bergstr\"a{\ss}er, Georg Zetzsche, David Chiang, Anthony W. Lin