arXiv AI By Nikita Kozodoi, Zainab Afolabi, Jack Butler

Are we Merging the Right Models? Impact of Expert Training Duration on Model Merging for LLMs

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arXiv:2607. 11997v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Multi-task model merging combines separately trained expert models into a single model that handles all tasks without co-training.

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arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 22

Merge++: Universal Merge Refinement Through Data-Free Checkpoint Inversion

Merge++ is a post‑hoc refinement technique for model merging that synthesizes task‑representative images by inverting expert checkpoints and then distills expert knowledge into a merged model. It operates without any additional data beyond the checkpoints and can be applied universally across existing weight‑space merging algorithms. Experiments show consistent improvements, with average gains of +2 to +8 points and up to +25.9 on specific configurations.

By Aditya Pola, Vineeth N. Balasubramanian
arXiv Computation and Language
Aug 28

Consolidating RLVR Capabilities Across Domains: A Deep Dive into Fusion Paradigms

The paper investigates three fusion paradigms—Merge, Mix RL, and multi‑teacher on‑policy distillation (MOPD)—for consolidating reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) across multiple domains. Experiments across model scales and a multi‑domain benchmark show that while overall performance differences are small, significant gaps can appear on specific tasks, and each method exhibits distinct training dynamics and constraints. Practical guidelines are offered: Merge for cheap fusion when experts exist, Mix RL for unified training with adjustable domain mixtures, and MOPD when preserving domain‑specific gains is paramount.

By Siye Wu, Kai Yang, Yuchen Cai, Xin Xu, Peng-Yuan Wang, Jiaxuan Wang, Jiashun Liu, Jiafei Lyu, Yangkun Chen, Saiyong Yang, Yanghua Xiao