arXiv:2608. 16345v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Pre-trained models (PTMs) provide a strong foundation for continual learning by offering stable representations that facilitate lightweight adaptation to new tasks.
arXiv:2605. 05285v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) often suffer from catastrophic forgetting in continual learning: after learning new tasks sequentially, they perform worse on earlier tasks.
arXiv:2607. 07847v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: As large language models (LLMs) become increasingly capable, the next question is how can we enable models to continually learn?
The paper identifies functionally specialized subnetworks in large language models using gradient‑attribution profiling, revealing that these subnetworks have minimal overlap. It introduces CiMEO, a continual learning framework that routes each training example to its corresponding subnetwork, limiting updates to selected parameters and optimizer states. On 1.4 million sequential instructions across five generative benchmarks, CiMEO outperforms other methods while reducing catastrophic forgetting and preserving pre‑trained representations.
The paper investigates how language models can aid their own continual learning by generating replay data and selecting preservation targets. By organizing task descriptions into Task Banks, the authors show that replay generated by frozen models reduces forgetting on tasks outside the bank and that informed selection of replay targets can improve retention. The study demonstrates that models can support broader self‑preservation, especially when larger models are used, and that replacing new‑task examples with replay can enhance preservation under a fixed example budget.
arXiv:2607. 15587v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Continual learning studies how deployed language models can continually acquire new tasks without expensive retraining from scratch.
The paper introduces PIECE, a Parameter Importance-Driven Continual Learning method that selectively updates only 0.1% of core parameters to preserve general abilities while learning new domain knowledge. PIECE employs two importance estimators—PIECE‑F using Fisher Information and PIECE‑S combining gradient and curvature information—to guide updates. Experiments on three language models and two multimodal models demonstrate that PIECE maintains general capabilities and achieves state‑of‑the‑art continual learning performance without accessing prior training data or adding parameter overhead.
arXiv:2606. 02461v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Language agents spend substantial inference time solving individual tasks, yet the experience acquired in one episode is often underutilized in future episodes.
arXiv:2606. 02461v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Language agents spend substantial inference time solving individual tasks, yet the experience acquired in one episode is often underutilized in future episodes.
arXiv:2610.10379v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Continual learning requires models to adapt to new domains and new classes while retaining prior knowledge. Many existing methods rely on continued opt...
The paper introduces an algorithmic stability framework to analyze catastrophic forgetting in continual learning using SGD, without assuming a specific model architecture. It decomposes forgetting into intra‑task and cross‑task generalization gaps plus empirical forgetting, and derives bounds for different learning‑rate schedules. Experiments on Split CIFAR‑100 and Split MiniImageNet illustrate the theoretical insights.
The paper introduces Evolving Functional REpertoires (EFRE), a method that replaces a single prompt with a dynamic set of functions to enable large language models to learn new tasks sequentially without forgetting. EFRE refines existing functions when updates are compatible and creates new ones when updates conflict, thereby mitigating catastrophic forgetting and overfitting. Experiments on a three‑task continual‑learning stream show EFRE outperforms GRPO by 7.50 percentage points and reduces performance drop on a subsequent task by only 1.56 percentage points compared to base prompt optimization.