2023/02/27 by Jordan Cotler, Cotler, Jordan, Kai Sheng Tai +7 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Dynamical Systems (math.DS) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Mathematics #Gaussian Processes and Bayesian Inference #Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis #Machine Learning (cs.LG) #Model Reduction and Neural Networks
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2302.14078
openalex publication_date 2023/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
A core challenge in the interpretation of deep neural networks is identifying commonalities between the underlying algorithms implemented by distinct networks trained for the same task. Motivated by this problem, we introduce DYNAMO, an algorithm that constructs low-dimensional manifolds where each point corresponds to a neural network model, and two points are nearby if the corresponding neural networks enact similar high-level computational processes. DYNAMO takes as input a collection of pre-trained neural networks and outputs a meta-model that emulates the dynamics of the hidden states as well as the outputs of any model in the collection. The specific model to be emulated is determined by a model embedding vector that the meta-model takes as input; these model embedding vectors constitute a manifold corresponding to the given population of models. We apply DYNAMO to both RNNs and CNNs, and find that the resulting model embedding spaces enable novel applications: clustering of neural networks on the basis of their high-level computational processes in a manner that is less sensitive to reparameterization; model averaging of several neural networks trained on the same task to arrive at a new, operable neural network with similar task performance; and semi-supervised learning via optimization on the model embedding space. Using a fixed-point analysis of meta-models trained on populations of RNNs, we gain new insights into how similarities of the topology of RNN dynamics correspond to similarities of their high-level computational processes.