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The paper presents a spiking neural network (SNN) approach that uses time-to-first-spike (TTFS) coding to limit each neuron to at most one spike per time window, enabling energy-efficient large language models (LLMs). A reference-based strategy is introduced to encode the four core LLM components—embedding layers, layer normalization, attention-related operations, and dropout—allowing the construction of a fully TTFS-based SNN architecture trained end-to-end. Experiments on BERT and GPT-2 show performance comparable to artificial neural network (ANN) counterparts on natural language understanding and common-sense reasoning, while achieving a 1.5‑billion‑parameter spiking LLM and providing an estimate of spike-related energy consumption.
arXiv:2512. 01906v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are biologically inspired, event-driven models suited for temporal data processing and energy-efficient neuromorphic computing.
Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are promoted as an energy-efficient substrate because sparse, event-driven activity replaces dense multiply-accumulates with cheap accumulates. We argue the energy dividend of sparsity is not a property of SNNs but of the task.
arXiv:2607. 26648v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are promoted as an energy-efficient substrate because sparse, event-driven activity replaces dense multiply-accumulates with cheap accumulates.
arXiv:2607. 02283v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: In-context learning (ICL) operates via implicit gradient descent embedded in the forward pass of modern AI architectures -- Transformers, Mamba, state-space models, and MLPs.
The paper proposes a biologically inspired micro‑sleep technique called napping for recurrent spiking neural networks, combining proportional weight scaling with continuous stochastic membrane activity. Experiments on an unsupervised SNN trained with trace‑based STDP on Gabor‑preprocessed MNIST show that well‑tuned napping can match the classification accuracy of conventional weight normalization while offering different clustering characteristics. The study suggests that napping may be preferable when representational structure is more important than raw classification speed, despite its higher simulation cost.