arXiv AI

Do Neural Networks Lose Plasticity in a Gradually Changing World?

arXiv:2602. 09234v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Continual learning has become a trending topic in machine learning.

Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jun 23

Can Scale Save Us From Plasticity Loss in Large Language Models?

The loss of plasticity - the ability of a network to learn new information after having already learned older information - is a fundamental challenge in creating artificial neural networks capable of continual learning. Although this phenomenon has been known for decades, it has mostly been studied in older, relatively small architectures and rarely in natural-language domains.

arXiv AI
Jun 24

Can Scale Save Us From Plasticity Loss in Large Language Models?

arXiv:2606. 24752v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The loss of plasticity - the ability of a network to learn new information after having already learned older information - is a fundamental challenge in creating artificial neural networks capable of continual learning.

By J. Fernando Hernandez-Garcia, Tom\'as Figliolia, Beren Millidge
arXiv AI
Sep 1

On the Plasticity Collapse in Continual Machine Unlearning

The paper investigates continual machine unlearning, where models must forget data over time. It identifies a fundamental issue called plasticity collapse, where successive unlearning requests cause geometric constraints that saturate parameter space, leading to two failure modes: forward failure (reduced forgetting quality) and backward failure (re‑memorization). Experiments across architectures and datasets confirm that plasticity collapse is a pervasive problem in continual unlearning.

By Yingdan Shi, Xiang Xu, Kaize Ding, Alfred O. Hero, Ren Wang
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 20

SingularClip: Preventing Spectral Collapse to Maintain Plasticity in Continual and Reinforcement Learning

The paper introduces SingularClip, a method that periodically clips the singular values of all weight matrices to prevent spectral collapse, a newly identified cause of plasticity loss in neural networks trained on nonstationary tasks. The authors empirically and theoretically analyze how growing anisotropy of singular values degrades the ability to fit new targets, and demonstrate that SingularClip outperforms baseline approaches in both continual supervised learning and deep reinforcement learning settings.

By Tyler Kastner, Nimrod De La Vega, Amir-massoud Farahmand
arXiv AI
Aug 7

Continual Learning in Transition

arXiv:2608. 06216v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Classical continual learning (CL) has primarily focused on enabling models to update and retain knowledge through parameter-centric mechanisms, e.

By Zhiyan Hou, Dan Zhang, Tao Feng, Liyuan Wang, Wei Li, Xiangzhao Hao, Hongyan An, Junfeng Fang, Haokai Ma, Zhaohui Xu, Haiyun Guo, Jinqiao Wang, Tat-Seng Chua
arXiv Machine Learning
1d ago

Continual Reinforcement Learning with Neuroevolution

The paper investigates continual reinforcement learning using neuroevolution, comparing evolution strategies (ES) and genetic algorithms (GAs) across diverse environments and network sizes. ES consistently achieves a better balance between stability and plasticity, while GAs are more plastic but forget more. The authors attribute this to ES finding wider neighborhoods in weight space, with overlap between consecutive tasks correlating with the stability-plasticity trade‑off, and note that common RL plasticity issues do not transfer to neuroevolution.

By Eleni Nisioti, Andrea Cossu, Kathrin Korte, Sebastian Risi