arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 9

Sample-Efficiency of Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks

The paper investigates the sample‑efficiency of Kolmogorov‑Arnold Networks (KANs) in reinforcement learning. Using experiments on the Feynman dataset and Gymnasium benchmarks, the authors find that KANs achieve comparable performance to standard Multi‑Layer Perceptrons while requiring 40% fewer samples, with up to 50% relative performance gains during training. These improvements hold even when reward noise varies, underscoring KANs’ potential for more sample‑efficient RL.

By Kevin Riehl, Shaimaa K. El-Baklish, Fan Wu, Anastasios Kouvelas
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 16

Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks: Curse of Dimensionality and Structural Bias

The paper investigates Kolmogorov‑Arnold networks (KANs) and their approximation properties. It shows that while KANs can achieve dimension‑independent approximation exponents for targets with smooth univariate edge functions, this advantage is tied to the target structure rather than the architecture itself. Empirical tests reveal that KANs outperform MLPs only when each nonlinear component depends on a single input coordinate; otherwise, MLPs can be more efficient, especially under tight parameter budgets or for interacting targets.

By Yunhao Ni, Yuxin Guo, Jie Luo, Wenjun Wu, Lei Huang