Dynamic Layer Tying for Parameter-Efficient Transformers
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Abstract (arXiv)
In the pursuit of reducing the number of trainable parameters in deep transformer networks, we employ Reinforcement Learning to dynamically select layers during training and tie them together. Every few iterations, the RL agent is asked whether to train each layer i independently or to copy the weights of a previous layer j<i. This facilitates weight sharing, reduces the number of trainable parameters, and also serves as an effective regularization technique. Experimental evaluations validate that our model modestly outperforms the baseline transformer model with regard to perplexity and drastically reduces the number of trainable parameters. In particular, the memory consumption during training is up to one order of magnitude less than the conventional training method.
Key facts. Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 49 of its 57 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 23 Jan 2024.
Builds on
49 of 57 references.
References · 49
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37 more
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 8; 2026: 1.
10 papers.
- 2024Basis Sharing: Cross-Layer Parameter Sharing for Large Language Model Compressioncited by 34
- 2025Encode, Think, Decode: Scaling test-time reasoning with recursive latent thoughtscited by 23
- 2026SpiralFormer: Looped Transformers Can Learn Hierarchical Dependencies via Multi-Resolution Recursioncited by 9
- 2025MeSH: Memory-as-State-Highways for Recursive Transformerscited by 8
- 2025Efficient Parallel Samplers for Recurrent-Depth Models and Their Connection to Diffusion Language Modelscited by 7
- 2025Layer-wise dynamic rank for compressing large language modelscited by 6
- 2025Beyond Parameters: Exploring Virtual Logic Depth for Scaling Lawscited by 2
- 2025Merging Feed-Forward Sublayers for Compressed Transformerscited by 1
- 2025Rethinking Parameter Sharing as Graph Coloring for Structured Compressioncited by 1
- 2025KernelDNA: Dynamic Kernel Sharing via Decoupled Naive Adapterscited by 0
- 2026SpiralFormer: Looped Transformers Can Learn Hierarchical Dependencies via Multi-Resolution Recursion12 Feb 2026
- 2025Rethinking Parameter Sharing as Graph Coloring for Structured Compression10 Nov 2025
- 2025Efficient Parallel Samplers for Recurrent-Depth Models and Their Connection to Diffusion Language Models16 Oct 2025
- 2025MeSH: Memory-as-State-Highways for Recursive Transformers9 Oct 2025
- 2025Encode, Think, Decode: Scaling test-time reasoning with recursive latent thoughts8 Oct 2025
- 2025Layer-wise dynamic rank for compressing large language models30 Sep 2025
- 2025Beyond Parameters: Exploring Virtual Logic Depth for Scaling Laws23 Jun 2025
- 2025KernelDNA: Dynamic Kernel Sharing via Decoupled Naive Adapters30 Mar 2025
- 2025Merging Feed-Forward Sublayers for Compressed Transformers10 Jan 2025
- 2024Basis Sharing: Cross-Layer Parameter Sharing for Large Language Model Compression2 Oct 2024