Progress & Compress: A scalable framework for continual learning

Jonathan Schwarz, Wojciech Czarnecki, Jelena Luketina, Agnieszka Grabska-Barwinska, Yee Whye Teh, Razvan Pascanu, Raia Hadsell
Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 80:4528-4537, 2018.

Abstract

We introduce a conceptually simple and scalable framework for continual learning domains where tasks are learned sequentially. Our method is constant in the number of parameters and is designed to preserve performance on previously encountered tasks while accelerating learning progress on subsequent problems. This is achieved by training a network with two components: A knowledge base, capable of solving previously encountered problems, which is connected to an active column that is employed to efficiently learn the current task. After learning a new task, the active column is distilled into the knowledge base, taking care to protect any previously acquired skills. This cycle of active learning (progression) followed by consolidation (compression) requires no architecture growth, no access to or storing of previous data or tasks, and no task-specific parameters. We demonstrate the progress & compress approach on sequential classification of handwritten alphabets as well as two reinforcement learning domains: Atari games and 3D maze navigation.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v80-schwarz18a, title = {Progress & Compress: A scalable framework for continual learning}, author = {Schwarz, Jonathan and Czarnecki, Wojciech and Luketina, Jelena and Grabska-Barwinska, Agnieszka and Teh, Yee Whye and Pascanu, Razvan and Hadsell, Raia}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning}, pages = {4528--4537}, year = {2018}, editor = {Dy, Jennifer and Krause, Andreas}, volume = {80}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {10--15 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {http://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/schwarz18a/schwarz18a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/schwarz18a.html}, abstract = {We introduce a conceptually simple and scalable framework for continual learning domains where tasks are learned sequentially. Our method is constant in the number of parameters and is designed to preserve performance on previously encountered tasks while accelerating learning progress on subsequent problems. This is achieved by training a network with two components: A knowledge base, capable of solving previously encountered problems, which is connected to an active column that is employed to efficiently learn the current task. After learning a new task, the active column is distilled into the knowledge base, taking care to protect any previously acquired skills. This cycle of active learning (progression) followed by consolidation (compression) requires no architecture growth, no access to or storing of previous data or tasks, and no task-specific parameters. We demonstrate the progress & compress approach on sequential classification of handwritten alphabets as well as two reinforcement learning domains: Atari games and 3D maze navigation.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Progress & Compress: A scalable framework for continual learning %A Jonathan Schwarz %A Wojciech Czarnecki %A Jelena Luketina %A Agnieszka Grabska-Barwinska %A Yee Whye Teh %A Razvan Pascanu %A Raia Hadsell %B Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2018 %E Jennifer Dy %E Andreas Krause %F pmlr-v80-schwarz18a %I PMLR %P 4528--4537 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/schwarz18a.html %V 80 %X We introduce a conceptually simple and scalable framework for continual learning domains where tasks are learned sequentially. Our method is constant in the number of parameters and is designed to preserve performance on previously encountered tasks while accelerating learning progress on subsequent problems. This is achieved by training a network with two components: A knowledge base, capable of solving previously encountered problems, which is connected to an active column that is employed to efficiently learn the current task. After learning a new task, the active column is distilled into the knowledge base, taking care to protect any previously acquired skills. This cycle of active learning (progression) followed by consolidation (compression) requires no architecture growth, no access to or storing of previous data or tasks, and no task-specific parameters. We demonstrate the progress & compress approach on sequential classification of handwritten alphabets as well as two reinforcement learning domains: Atari games and 3D maze navigation.
APA
Schwarz, J., Czarnecki, W., Luketina, J., Grabska-Barwinska, A., Teh, Y.W., Pascanu, R. & Hadsell, R.. (2018). Progress & Compress: A scalable framework for continual learning. Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 80:4528-4537 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/schwarz18a.html.

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