Mutual Enhancement of Large and Small Language Models with Cross-Silo Knowledge Transfer
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Abstract (arXiv)
While large language models (LLMs) are empowered with broad knowledge, their task-specific performance is often suboptimal. It necessitates fine-tuning LLMs with task-specific data, but such data may be inaccessible due to privacy concerns. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to enhance LLMs with smaller language models (SLMs) that are trained on clients using their private task-specific data. To enable mutual enhancement between LLMs and SLMs, we propose CrossLM, where the SLMs promote the LLM to generate task-specific high-quality data, and both the LLM and SLMs are enhanced with the generated data. We evaluate CrossLM using publicly accessible language models across a range of benchmark tasks. The results demonstrate that CrossLM significantly enhances the task-specific performance of SLMs on clients and the LLM on the cloud server simultaneously while preserving the LLM's generalization capability.
Key facts. Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 29 of its 38 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Dec 2023.
Builds on
29 of 38 references.
References · 29
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Citing papers per year: 2024: 6; 2025: 6; 2026: 1.
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- 2024FuseGen: PLM Fusion for Data-generation based Zero-shot Learningcited by 4
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- 2025FedMMKT:Co-Enhancing a Server Text-to-Image Model and Client Task Models in Multi-Modal Federated Learningcited by 0
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