Counting and Algorithmic Generalization with Transformers

Algorithmic generalization in machine learning refers to the ability to learn the underlying algorithm that generates data in a way that generalizes out-of-distribution. This is generally considered a difficult task for most machine learning algorithms. Here, we analyze algorithmic generalization wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2023-10
Main Authors: Ouellette, Simon, Pfister, Rolf, Jud, Hansueli
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ablation
Algorithms
Machine learning
Transformers
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Algorithmic generalization in machine learning refers to the ability to learn the underlying algorithm that generates data in a way that generalizes out-of-distribution. This is generally considered a difficult task for most machine learning algorithms. Here, we analyze algorithmic generalization when counting is required, either implicitly or explicitly. We show that standard Transformers are based on architectural decisions that hinder out-of-distribution performance for such tasks. In particular, we discuss the consequences of using layer normalization and of normalizing the attention weights via softmax. With ablation of the problematic operations, we demonstrate that a modified transformer can exhibit a good algorithmic generalization performance on counting while using a very lightweight architecture.
ISSN:2331-8422