arXiv AI By Xiandong Zou, Jianshu Li, Jing Huang, Pan Zhou

Variational Speculative Decoding: Rethinking Draft Training from Token Likelihood to Sequence Acceptance

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arXiv:2602. 05774v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Speculative decoding accelerates inference for (M)LLMs, yet a training-decoding discrepancy persists: while existing methods optimize single greedy trajectories, decoding involves verifying and ranking multiple sampled draft paths.

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