Why Lift so Heavy? Slimming Large Language Models by Cutting Off the Layers

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate exceptional language understanding and generation capabilities by learning from context. Leveraging the strong in-context learning (ICL) abilities of LLMs, prompt-based fine-tuning has proven to be effective for enhancing the adaptability and alignment of LLMs, especially in low-data scenarios. However, the billions of parameters resulting from layer stacking in LLMs present significant computational challenges, limiting the practicality of fine-tuning. To tackle this problem, we explore the application of layer-wise model pruning in prompt-based fine-tuning of LLMs for few-shot learning scenarios. Our approach involves dropping certain model layers and fine-tuning the model with the remaining layers. Surprisingly, we observe that even with fewer layers, LLMs maintain similar or better performance levels, particularly in prompt-based fine-tuning for text classification tasks. Remarkably, in certain cases, models with a single layer outperform their fully layered counterparts. These findings offer valuable insights for future work aimed at mitigating the size constraints of LLMs while preserving their performance, thereby opening avenues for significantly more efficient use of LLMs.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IJCNN 2025 - Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
ISBN (electronic)9798331510428
Publication statusPublished - 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesProceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks
ISSN2161-4393

Conference

TitleInternational Joint Conference on Neural Networks 2025
SubtitleAll Neural Network roads lead to Rome
Abbreviated titleIJCNN 2025
Duration30 June - 5 July 2025
Website
Degree of recognitionInternational event
LocationPontificia Università Gregoriana
CityRome
CountryItaly

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-5458-8645/work/200631677

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Efficient Methods for NLP, Large Language Models, Layer Pruning