从非平稳的输入数据流进行连续/终身学习是智力的基石。尽管在各种应用中表现出色，但深度神经网络仍容易在学习新信息时忘记他们以前学习的信息。这种现象称为“灾难性遗忘”，深深地植根于稳定性困境。近年来，克服深层神经网络中的灾难性遗忘已成为一个积极的研究领域。特别是，基于梯度投射的方法最近在克服灾难性遗忘时表现出了出色的表现。本文提出了基于稀疏性和异质辍学的两种受生物学启发的机制，这些机制在长期的任务上显着提高了持续学习者的表现。我们提出的方法建立在梯度投影内存（GPM）框架上。我们利用神经网络的每一层中的K-获奖者激活来为每个任务执行层次稀疏激活，以及任务间的异质辍学，鼓励网络在不同任务之间使用非重叠的激活模式。此外，我们引入了两个新的基准，用于在分配转移下连续学习，即连续的瑞士卷和Imagenet Superdog-40。最后，我们对我们提出的方法进行了深入的分析，并证明了各种基准持续学习问题的显着性能。

持续学习研究的主要重点领域是通过设计新算法对分布变化更强大的新算法来减轻神经网络中的“灾难性遗忘”问题。尽管持续学习文献的最新进展令人鼓舞，但我们对神经网络的特性有助于灾难性遗忘的理解仍然有限。为了解决这个问题，我们不关注持续的学习算法，而是在这项工作中专注于模型本身，并研究神经网络体系结构对灾难性遗忘的“宽度”的影响，并表明宽度在遗忘遗产方面具有出人意料的显着影响。为了解释这种效果，我们从各个角度研究网络的学习动力学，例如梯度正交性，稀疏性和懒惰的培训制度。我们提供了与不同架构和持续学习基准之间的经验结果一致的潜在解释。

增量任务学习（ITL）是一个持续学习的类别，试图培训单个网络以进行多个任务（一个接一个），其中每个任务的培训数据仅在培训该任务期间可用。当神经网络接受较新的任务培训时，往往会忘记旧任务。该特性通常被称为灾难性遗忘。为了解决此问题，ITL方法使用情节内存，参数正则化，掩盖和修剪或可扩展的网络结构。在本文中，我们提出了一个基于低级别分解的新的增量任务学习框架。特别是，我们表示每一层的网络权重作为几个等级1矩阵的线性组合。为了更新新任务的网络，我们学习一个排名1（或低级别）矩阵，并将其添加到每一层的权重。我们还引入了一个其他选择器向量，该向量将不同的权重分配给对先前任务的低级矩阵。我们表明，就准确性和遗忘而言，我们的方法的表现比当前的最新方法更好。与基于情节的内存和基于面具的方法相比，我们的方法还提供了更好的内存效率。我们的代码将在https://github.com/csiplab/task-increment-rank-update.git上找到。

AI的一个关键挑战是构建体现的系统，该系统在动态变化的环境中运行。此类系统必须适应更改任务上下文并持续学习。虽然标准的深度学习系统实现了最先进的静态基准的结果，但它们通常在动态方案中挣扎。在这些设置中，来自多个上下文的错误信号可能会彼此干扰，最终导致称为灾难性遗忘的现象。在本文中，我们将生物学启发的架构调查为对这些问题的解决方案。具体而言，我们表明树突和局部抑制系统的生物物理特性使网络能够以特定于上下文的方式动态限制和路由信息。我们的主要贡献如下。首先，我们提出了一种新颖的人工神经网络架构，该架构将活跃的枝形和稀疏表示融入了标准的深度学习框架中。接下来，我们在需要任务的适应性的两个单独的基准上研究这种架构的性能：Meta-World，一个机器人代理必须学习同时解决各种操纵任务的多任务强化学习环境;和一个持续的学习基准，其中模型的预测任务在整个训练中都会发生变化。对两个基准的分析演示了重叠但不同和稀疏的子网的出现，允许系统流动地使用最小的遗忘。我们的神经实现标志在单一架构上第一次在多任务和持续学习设置上取得了竞争力。我们的研究揭示了神经元的生物学特性如何通知深度学习系统，以解决通常不可能对传统ANN来解决的动态情景。

由于灾难性的遗忘，计算系统的持续学习是挑战。我们在果蝇嗅觉系统中发现了两个层神经循环，通过独特地组合稀疏编码和关联学习来解决这一挑战。在第一层中，使用稀疏，高尺寸表示来编码气味，这通过激活非重叠神经元的神经元以进行不同气味来减少内存干扰。在第二层中，在学习期间仅修改异味活性神经元和与气味相关的输出神经元之间的突触;冻结其余重量以防止不相关的存储器被覆盖。我们经验和分析显示，这种简单轻型的算法显着提高了不断的学习性能。飞行关联学习算法与经典的Perceptron学习算法引人注目，尽管我们表现出两种修改对于减少灾难性遗忘至关重要。总体而言，果蝇演变了一种有效的终身学习算法，可以转换来自神经科学的电路机制以改善机器计算。

在持续学习中使用神经网络中的任务特定组件（CL）是一种令人信服的策略，可以解决固定容量模型中稳定性 - 塑性困境，而无需访问过去的数据。当前方法仅着重于选择一个新任务的子网络，以减少忘记过去任务。但是，这种选择可能会限制有助于将来学习的相关过去知识的前瞻性转移。我们的研究表明，当统一的分类器用于所有类别的任务课程学习（class-il）时，共同满足这两个目标是更具挑战性的，因为这很容易跨越任务之间的类之间的歧义。此外，当跨任务的课程相似性增加时，挑战就会增加。为了应对这一挑战，我们提出了一种名为AFAF的新CL方法，旨在避免忘记并允许使用Fix-apainality模型在IL类中向前转移。 AFAF分配了一个子网络，该子网络可以选择性地转移相关知识到新任务，同时保留过去的知识，重复一些先前分配的组件以利用固定容量，并在存在相似之处时解决类型。该实验表明，AFAF在为模型提供多种CL所需属性方面的有效性，同时在具有不同语义相似性的各种具有挑战性的基准上优于最先进的方法。

While deep learning has led to remarkable advances across diverse applications, it struggles in domains where the data distribution changes over the course of learning. In stark contrast, biological neural networks continually adapt to changing domains, possibly by leveraging complex molecular machinery to solve many tasks simultaneously. In this study, we introduce intelligent synapses that bring some of this biological complexity into artificial neural networks. Each synapse accumulates task relevant information over time, and exploits this information to rapidly store new memories without forgetting old ones. We evaluate our approach on continual learning of classification tasks, and show that it dramatically reduces forgetting while maintaining computational efficiency.

Continual Learning (CL) is a field dedicated to devise algorithms able to achieve lifelong learning. Overcoming the knowledge disruption of previously acquired concepts, a drawback affecting deep learning models and that goes by the name of catastrophic forgetting, is a hard challenge. Currently, deep learning methods can attain impressive results when the data modeled does not undergo a considerable distributional shift in subsequent learning sessions, but whenever we expose such systems to this incremental setting, performance drop very quickly. Overcoming this limitation is fundamental as it would allow us to build truly intelligent systems showing stability and plasticity. Secondly, it would allow us to overcome the onerous limitation of retraining these architectures from scratch with the new updated data. In this thesis, we tackle the problem from multiple directions. In a first study, we show that in rehearsal-based techniques (systems that use memory buffer), the quantity of data stored in the rehearsal buffer is a more important factor over the quality of the data. Secondly, we propose one of the early works of incremental learning on ViTs architectures, comparing functional, weight and attention regularization approaches and propose effective novel a novel asymmetric loss. At the end we conclude with a study on pretraining and how it affects the performance in Continual Learning, raising some questions about the effective progression of the field. We then conclude with some future directions and closing remarks.

已知生物制剂在他们的生活过程中学习许多不同的任务，并且能够重新审视以前的任务和行为，而没有表现不损失。相比之下，人工代理容易出于“灾难性遗忘”，在以前任务上的性能随着所获取的新的任务而恶化。最近使用该方法通过鼓励参数保持接近以前任务的方法来解决此缺点。这可以通过（i）使用特定的参数正常数来完成，该参数正常数是在参数空间中映射合适的目的地，或（ii）通过将渐变投影到不会干扰先前任务的子空间来指导优化旅程。然而，这些方法通常在前馈和经常性神经网络中表现出子分子表现，并且经常性网络对支持生物持续学习的神经动力学研究感兴趣。在这项工作中，我们提出了自然的持续学习（NCL），一种统一重量正则化和预测梯度下降的新方法。 NCL使用贝叶斯重量正常化来鼓励在收敛的所有任务上进行良好的性能，并将其与梯度投影结合使用先前的精度，这可以防止在优化期间陷入灾难性遗忘。当应用于前馈和经常性网络中的连续学习问题时，我们的方法占据了标准重量正则化技术和投影的方法。最后，训练有素的网络演变了特定于任务特定的动态，这些动态被认为是学习的新任务，类似于生物电路中的实验结果。

本文研究了在连续学习框架中使用分类网络的固定架构培训深度学习模型的优化算法的新设计。训练数据是非平稳的，非平稳性是由一系列不同的任务施加的。我们首先分析了一个仅在隔离的学习任务的深层模型，并在网络参数空间中识别一个区域，其中模型性能接近恢复的最佳。我们提供的经验证据表明该区域类似于沿收敛方向扩展的锥体。我们研究了融合后优化器轨迹的主要方向，并表明沿着一些顶级主要方向旅行可以迅速将参数带到锥体之外，但其余方向并非如此。我们认为，当参数被限制以保持在训练过程中迄今为止遇到的单个任务的相交中，可以缓解持续学习环境中的灾难性遗忘。基于此观察结果，我们介绍了我们的方向约束优化（DCO）方法，在每个任务中，我们引入一个线性自动编码器以近似其相应的顶部禁止主要方向。然后将它们以正规化术语的形式合并到损失函数中，以便在不忘记的情况下学习即将到来的任务。此外，为了随着任务数量的增加而控制内存的增长，我们提出了一种称为压缩DCO（DCO-comp）的算法的内存效率版本，该版本为存储所有自动编码器的固定大小分配了存储器。我们从经验上证明，与其他基于最新正规化的持续学习方法相比，我们的算法表现出色。

The ability to sequentially learn multiple tasks without forgetting is a key skill of biological brains, whereas it represents a major challenge to the field of deep learning. To avoid catastrophic forgetting, various continual learning (CL) approaches have been devised. However, these usually require discrete task boundaries. This requirement seems biologically implausible and often limits the application of CL methods in the real world where tasks are not always well defined. Here, we take inspiration from neuroscience, where sparse, non-overlapping neuronal representations have been suggested to prevent catastrophic forgetting. As in the brain, we argue that these sparse representations should be chosen on the basis of feed forward (stimulus-specific) as well as top-down (context-specific) information. To implement such selective sparsity, we use a bio-plausible form of hierarchical credit assignment known as Deep Feedback Control (DFC) and combine it with a winner-take-all sparsity mechanism. In addition to sparsity, we introduce lateral recurrent connections within each layer to further protect previously learned representations. We evaluate the new sparse-recurrent version of DFC on the split-MNIST computer vision benchmark and show that only the combination of sparsity and intra-layer recurrent connections improves CL performance with respect to standard backpropagation. Our method achieves similar performance to well-known CL methods, such as Elastic Weight Consolidation and Synaptic Intelligence, without requiring information about task boundaries. Overall, we showcase the idea of adopting computational principles from the brain to derive new, task-free learning algorithms for CL.

持续学习的目标（CL）是随着时间的推移学习不同的任务。与CL相关的主要Desiderata是在旧任务上保持绩效，利用后者来改善未来任务的学习，并在培训过程中引入最小的开销（例如，不需要增长的模型或再培训）。我们建议通过固定密度的稀疏神经网络来解决这些避难所的神经启发性塑性适应（NISPA）体系结构。 NISPA形成了稳定的途径，可以从较旧的任务中保存知识。此外，NISPA使用连接重新设计来创建新的塑料路径，以重用有关新任务的现有知识。我们对EMNIST，FashionMnist，CIFAR10和CIFAR100数据集的广泛评估表明，NISPA的表现明显胜过代表性的最先进的持续学习基线，并且与盆地相比，它的可学习参数最多少了十倍。我们还认为稀疏是持续学习的重要组成部分。 NISPA代码可在https://github.com/burakgurbuz97/nispa上获得。

我们引入了一个新的培训范式，该范围对神经网络参数空间进行间隔约束以控制遗忘。当代持续学习（CL）方法从一系列数据流有效地培训神经网络，同时减少灾难性遗忘的负面影响，但它们不能提供任何确保的确保网络性能不会随着时间的流逝而无法控制地恶化。在这项工作中，我们展示了如何通过将模型的持续学习作为其参数空间的持续收缩来遗忘。为此，我们提出了Hypertrectangle训练，这是一种新的训练方法，其中每个任务都由参数空间中的超矩形表示，完全包含在先前任务的超矩形中。这种配方将NP-HARD CL问题降低到多项式时间，同时提供了完全防止遗忘的弹性。我们通过开发Intercontinet（间隔持续学习）算法来验证我们的主张，该算法利用间隔算术来有效地将参数区域建模为高矩形。通过实验结果，我们表明我们的方法在不连续的学习设置中表现良好，而无需存储以前的任务中的数据。

A growing body of research in continual learning focuses on the catastrophic forgetting problem. While many attempts have been made to alleviate this problem, the majority of the methods assume a single model in the continual learning setup. In this work, we question this assumption and show that employing ensemble models can be a simple yet effective method to improve continual performance. However, ensembles' training and inference costs can increase significantly as the number of models grows. Motivated by this limitation, we study different ensemble models to understand their benefits and drawbacks in continual learning scenarios. Finally, to overcome the high compute cost of ensembles, we leverage recent advances in neural network subspace to propose a computationally cheap algorithm with similar runtime to a single model yet enjoying the performance benefits of ensembles.

由于其非参数化干扰和灾难性遗忘的非参数化能力，核心连续学习\ Cite {derakhshani2021kernel}最近被成为一个强大的持续学习者。不幸的是，它的成功是以牺牲一个明确的内存为代价来存储来自过去任务的样本，这妨碍了具有大量任务的连续学习设置的可扩展性。在本文中，我们介绍了生成的内核持续学习，探讨了生成模型与内核之间的协同作用以进行持续学习。生成模型能够生产用于内核学习的代表性样本，其消除了在内核持续学习中对内存的依赖性。此外，由于我们仅在生成模型上重播，我们避免了与在整个模型上需要重播的先前的方法相比，在计算上更有效的情况下避免任务干扰。我们进一步引入了监督的对比正规化，使我们的模型能够为更好的基于内核的分类性能产生更具辨别性样本。我们对三种广泛使用的连续学习基准进行了广泛的实验，展示了我们贡献的能力和益处。最值得注意的是，在具有挑战性的SplitCifar100基准测试中，只需一个简单的线性内核，我们获得了与内核连续学习的相同的准确性，对于内存的十分之一，或者对于相同的内存预算的10.1％的精度增益。

Artificial neural networks thrive in solving the classification problem for a particular rigid task, acquiring knowledge through generalized learning behaviour from a distinct training phase. The resulting network resembles a static entity of knowledge, with endeavours to extend this knowledge without targeting the original task resulting in a catastrophic forgetting. Continual learning shifts this paradigm towards networks that can continually accumulate knowledge over different tasks without the need to retrain from scratch. We focus on task incremental classification, where tasks arrive sequentially and are delineated by clear boundaries. Our main contributions concern (1) a taxonomy and extensive overview of the state-of-the-art; (2) a novel framework to continually determine the stability-plasticity trade-off of the continual learner; (3) a comprehensive experimental comparison of 11 state-of-the-art continual learning methods and 4 baselines. We empirically scrutinize method strengths and weaknesses on three benchmarks, considering Tiny Imagenet and large-scale unbalanced iNaturalist and a sequence of recognition datasets. We study the influence of model capacity, weight decay and dropout regularization, and the order in which the tasks are presented, and qualitatively compare methods in terms of required memory, computation time and storage.

We motivate Energy-Based Models (EBMs) as a promising model class for continual learning problems. Instead of tackling continual learning via the use of external memory, growing models, or regularization, EBMs change the underlying training objective to cause less interference with previously learned information. Our proposed version of EBMs for continual learning is simple, efficient, and outperforms baseline methods by a large margin on several benchmarks. Moreover, our proposed contrastive divergence-based training objective can be combined with other continual learning methods, resulting in substantial boosts in their performance. We further show that EBMs are adaptable to a more general continual learning setting where the data distribution changes without the notion of explicitly delineated tasks. These observations point towards EBMs as a useful building block for future continual learning methods.

Real-world applications often require learning continuously from a stream of data under ever-changing conditions. When trying to learn from such non-stationary data, deep neural networks (DNNs) undergo catastrophic forgetting of previously learned information. Among the common approaches to avoid catastrophic forgetting, rehearsal-based methods have proven effective. However, they are still prone to forgetting due to task-interference as all parameters respond to all tasks. To counter this, we take inspiration from sparse coding in the brain and introduce dynamic modularity and sparsity (Dynamos) for rehearsal-based general continual learning. In this setup, the DNN learns to respond to stimuli by activating relevant subsets of neurons. We demonstrate the effectiveness of Dynamos on multiple datasets under challenging continual learning evaluation protocols. Finally, we show that our method learns representations that are modular and specialized, while maintaining reusability by activating subsets of neurons with overlaps corresponding to the similarity of stimuli.

Lack of performance when it comes to continual learning over non-stationary distributions of data remains a major challenge in scaling neural network learning to more human realistic settings. In this work we propose a new conceptualization of the continual learning problem in terms of a temporally symmetric trade-off between transfer and interference that can be optimized by enforcing gradient alignment across examples. We then propose a new algorithm, Meta-Experience Replay (MER), that directly exploits this view by combining experience replay with optimization based meta-learning. This method learns parameters that make interference based on future gradients less likely and transfer based on future gradients more likely. 1 We conduct experiments across continual lifelong supervised learning benchmarks and non-stationary reinforcement learning environments demonstrating that our approach consistently outperforms recently proposed baselines for continual learning. Our experiments show that the gap between the performance of MER and baseline algorithms grows both as the environment gets more non-stationary and as the fraction of the total experiences stored gets smaller.

机器学习的一个显着缺点是模型能够更快地解决新问题，而不会忘记获得的知识。为了更好地理解这个问题，已经出现了持续的学习来系统地调查学习协议，其中模型顺序地观察由一系列任务产生的样本。首先，我们提出了一种促进学习和遗忘之间进行权衡的最优性原则。我们从有界合理性的信息化学制定中获得了这一原则，并显示了与其他连续学习方法的联系。其次，基于这一原则，我们提出了一种神经网络层，用于持续学习，称为变分的专家（移动），缓解遗忘，同时使知识有益转移到新任务。我们对MNIST和CIFAR10数据集的变型的实验表明，与最先进的方法相比，移动层的竞争性能。