Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown that it is promising to utilize Process Reward Models (PRMs) as verifiers to enhance the performance of LLMs. However, current PRMs face three key challenges: (1) limited process supervision and generalization capabilities, (2) dependence on scalar value prediction without leveraging the generative abilities of LLMs, and (3) inability to scale the test-time compute of PRMs. In this work, we introduce GenPRM, a generative process reward model that performs explicit Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning with code verification before providing judgment for each reasoning step. To obtain high-quality process supervision labels and rationale data, we propose Relative Progress Estimation (RPE) and a rationale synthesis framework that incorporates code verification. Experimental results on ProcessBench and several mathematical reasoning tasks show that GenPRM significantly outperforms prior PRMs with only 23K training data from MATH dataset. Through test-time scaling, a 1.5B GenPRM outperforms GPT-4o, and a 7B GenPRM surpasses Qwen2.5-Math-PRM-72B on ProcessBench. Additionally, GenPRM demonstrates strong abilities to serve as a critic model for policy model refinement. This work establishes a new paradigm for process supervision that bridges the gap between PRMs and critic models in LLMs. Our code, model, and data will be available in https://ryanliu112.github.io/GenPRM.

With transformer-based models and the pretrain-finetune paradigm becoming mainstream, the high storage and deployment costs of individual finetuned models on multiple tasks pose critical challenges. Delta compression attempts to lower the costs by reducing the redundancy of delta parameters (i.e., the difference between the finetuned and pre-trained model weights). However, existing methods usually face problems including data accessibility and training requirements. To tackle this issue, we introduce Delta-DCT, the first data-free delta compression method inspired by classic JPEG image compression, leveraging the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). We first (a) group delta parameters within a layer into patches. Then we (b) assess the importance of each patch and allocate them with different quantization bit-widths. Afterwards, we (c) convert these patches to the DCT domain and conduct quantization to each patch based on the allocated bit-width. The proposed Delta-DCT does not require any training or data calibration, while achieving performance comparable to or even surpassing original finetuned models under 1-bit equivalent delta compression ratios on different kinds of models including: (1) recently-released LLMs of different sizes from 7B to 13B, (2) relatively smaller language models including RoBERTa and T5 models, (3) variants of vision transformer models, and (4) multi-modal BEiT-3 models.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has emerged to address the knowledge-intensive visual question answering (VQA) task. Current methods mainly employ separate retrieval and generation modules to acquire external knowledge and generate answers, respectively. We propose ReAuSE, an alternative to the previous RAG model for the knowledge-based VQA task, which seamlessly integrates knowledge retriever into the generative multi-modal large language model, serving as a built-in search engine. Specifically, our model functions both as a generative retriever and an accurate answer generator. It not only helps retrieve documents from the knowledge base by producing identifiers for each document, but it also answers visual questions based on the retrieved documents. Furthermore, we propose a reinforced retrieval calibration module from relevance feedback to improve retrieval performance and align with the preferences for accurate answer generation. Extensive experiments on two representative OKVQA and A-OKVQA datasets demonstrate significant improvements ranging from 2.9\% to 9.6\% across all evaluation metrics when compared to strong baselines.

Test-Time Scaling (TTS) is an important method for improving the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) by using additional computation during the inference phase. However, current studies do not systematically analyze how policy models, Process Reward Models (PRMs), and problem difficulty influence TTS. This lack of analysis limits the understanding and practical use of TTS methods. In this paper, we focus on two core questions: (1) What is the optimal approach to scale test-time computation across different policy models, PRMs, and problem difficulty levels? (2) To what extent can extended computation improve the performance of LLMs on complex tasks, and can smaller language models outperform larger ones through this approach? Through comprehensive experiments on MATH-500 and challenging AIME24 tasks, we have the following observations: (1) The compute-optimal TTS strategy is highly dependent on the choice of policy model, PRM, and problem difficulty. (2) With our compute-optimal TTS strategy, extremely small policy models can outperform larger models. For example, a 1B LLM can exceed a 405B LLM on MATH-500. Moreover, on both MATH-500 and AIME24, a 0.5B LLM outperforms GPT-4o, a 3B LLM surpasses a 405B LLM, and a 7B LLM beats o1 and DeepSeek-R1, while with higher inference efficiency. These findings show the significance of adapting TTS strategies to the specific characteristics of each task and model and indicate that TTS is a promising approach for enhancing the reasoning abilities of LLMs.

Extending the context length of Language Models (LMs) by improving Rotary Position Embedding (RoPE) has become a trend. While existing works mainly address RoPE's limitations within attention mechanism, this paper provides an analysis across nearly all parts of LMs, uncovering their adverse effects on length generalization for RoPE-based attention. Using Discrete Signal Processing theory, we show that RoPE enables periodic attention by implicitly achieving Non-Uniform Discrete Fourier Transform. However, this periodicity is undermined by the spectral damage caused by: 1) linear layers and activation functions outside of attention; 2) insufficiently trained frequency components brought by time-domain truncation. Building on our observations, we propose Fourier Position Embedding (FoPE), which enhances attention's frequency-domain properties to improve both its periodic extension and length generalization. FoPE constructs Fourier Series and zero-outs the destructive frequency components, increasing model robustness against the spectrum damage. Experiments across various model scales show that, within varying context windows, FoPE can maintain a more stable perplexity and a more consistent accuracy in a needle-in-haystack task compared to RoPE and ALiBi. Several analyses and ablations bring further support to our method and theoretical modeling.

Binary Neural Networks (BNNs) have garnered significant attention due to their immense potential for deployment on edge devices. However, the non-differentiability of the quantization function poses a challenge for the optimization of BNNs, as its derivative cannot be backpropagated. To address this issue, hypernetwork based methods, which utilize neural networks to learn the gradients of non-differentiable quantization functions, have emerged as a promising approach due to their adaptive learning capabilities to reduce estimation errors. However, existing hypernetwork based methods typically rely solely on current gradient information, neglecting the influence of historical gradients. This oversight can lead to accumulated gradient errors when calculating gradient momentum during optimization. To incorporate historical gradient information, we design a Historical Gradient Storage (HGS) module, which models the historical gradient sequence to generate the first-order momentum required for optimization. To further enhance gradient generation in hypernetworks, we propose a Fast and Slow Gradient Generation (FSG) method. Additionally, to produce more precise gradients, we introduce Layer Recognition Embeddings (LRE) into the hypernetwork, facilitating the generation of layer-specific fine gradients. Extensive comparative experiments on the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets demonstrate that our method achieves faster convergence and lower loss values, outperforming existing baselines.Code is available at http://github.com/two-tiger/FSG .

As multi-modal large language models (MLLMs) are increasingly applied to complex reasoning tasks, the diversity and quality of reasoning paths become crucial factors affecting their performance. Although current methods aim to enhance reasoning quality through path expansion, they often neglect the diversity of reasoning paths and effective information sharing, leading to local optima and inefficiency. To address these challenges, we propose Evolution of Thought (EoT), a multi-objective framework designed to improve reasoning by fostering both high-quality and diverse reasoning paths. Specifically, we introduce the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II for multi-objective optimization, utilizing crossover and mutation operators to promote greater diversity in reasoning solutions. Additionally, we propose a Condensation-Aggregation mechanism to cluster and eliminate redundant paths, facilitate improved information sharing among parent nodes, and ultimately enhance both the efficiency and quality of the reasoning process. Validation experiments on various vision-language and language reasoning tasks demonstrate that EoT achieves superior reasoning performance and efficiency compared to other competitive baselines. Our study provides a novel perspective on the design of heuristic reasoning frameworks for MLLMs.

As an effective approach to equip models with multi-task capabilities without additional training, model merging has garnered significant attention. However, existing methods face challenges of redundant parameter conflicts and the excessive storage burden of parameters. In this work, through controlled experiments, we reveal that for task vectors, only those parameters with magnitudes above a certain threshold contribute positively to the task, exhibiting a pulse-like characteristic. We then attempt leveraging this characteristic to binarize the task vectors and reduce storage overhead. Further controlled experiments show that the binarized task vectors incur almost no decrease in fine-tuning and merging performance, and even exhibit stronger performance improvements as the proportion of redundant parameters increases. Based on these insights, we propose Task Switch (T-Switch), which decomposes task vectors into three components: 1) an activation switch instantiated by a binarized mask vector, 2) a polarity switch instantiated by a binarized sign vector, and 3) a scaling knob instantiated by a scalar coefficient. By storing task vectors in a binarized form, T-Switch alleviates parameter conflicts while ensuring efficient task parameter storage. Furthermore, to enable automated switch combination in T-Switch, we further introduce Auto-Switch, which enables training-free switch combination via retrieval from a small query set. Experiments indicate that our methods achieve significant performance improvements over existing baselines, requiring only 1-3% of the storage space of full-precision parameters.

Incremental graph learning has gained significant attention for its ability to address the catastrophic forgetting problem in graph representation learning. However, traditional methods often rely on a large number of labels for node classification, which is impractical in real-world applications. This makes few-shot incremental learning on graphs a pressing need. Current methods typically require extensive training samples from meta-learning to build memory and perform intensive fine-tuning of GNN parameters, leading to high memory consumption and potential loss of previously learned knowledge. To tackle these challenges, we introduce Mecoin, an efficient method for building and maintaining memory. Mecoin employs Structured Memory Units to cache prototypes of learned categories, as well as Memory Construction Modules to update these prototypes for new categories through interactions between the nodes and the cached prototypes. Additionally, we have designed a Memory Representation Adaptation Module to store probabilities associated with each class prototype, reducing the need for parameter fine-tuning and lowering the forgetting rate. When a sample matches its corresponding class prototype, the relevant probabilities are retrieved from the MRaM. Knowledge is then distilled back into the GNN through a Graph Knowledge Distillation Module, preserving the model's memory. We analyze the effectiveness of Mecoin in terms of generalization error and explore the impact of different distillation strategies on model performance through experiments and VC-dimension analysis. Compared to other related works, Mecoin shows superior performance in accuracy and forgetting rate. Our code is publicly available on the https://github.com/Arvin0313/Mecoin-GFSCIL.git .

Long-term memory is significant for agents, in which insights play a crucial role. However, the emergence of irrelevant insight and the lack of general insight can greatly undermine the effectiveness of insight. To solve this problem, in this paper, we introduce Multi-Scale Insight Agent (MSI-Agent), an embodied agent designed to improve LLMs' planning and decision-making ability by summarizing and utilizing insight effectively across different scales. MSI achieves this through the experience selector, insight generator, and insight selector. Leveraging a three-part pipeline, MSI can generate task-specific and high-level insight, store it in a database, and then use relevant insight from it to aid in decision-making. Our experiments show that MSI outperforms another insight strategy when planning by GPT3.5. Moreover, We delve into the strategies for selecting seed experience and insight, aiming to provide LLM with more useful and relevant insight for better decision-making. Our observations also indicate that MSI exhibits better robustness when facing domain-shifting scenarios.