mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Forget-It-All: Multi-Concept Machine Unlearning via Concept-Aware Neuron Masking

arXiv 2601.06163 ↗First posted 7 Jan 2026cs.CV cs.LGcited by 4

On the map: Diffusion models → Robustness, privacy and adversarial aspects

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

The widespread adoption of text-to-image (T2I) diffusion models has raised concerns about their potential to generate copyrighted, inappropriate, or sensitive imagery. As a practical solution, machine unlearning aims to erase unwanted concepts without retraining from scratch. While most existing methods are effective for single-concept unlearning, they often struggle when removing multiple concepts, causing significant challenges in unlearning effectiveness, generation quality, and sensitivity to hyperparameters and datasets. We take a unique perspective on multi-concept unlearning by leveraging model sparsity and propose the Forget It All (FIA) framework. FIA first introduces Contrastive Concept Saliency to quantify each weight connection's contribution to a target concept. It then identifies Concept Sensitive Neurons by combining temporal and spatial information, ensuring that only neurons consistently responsive to the target concept are selected. Finally, FIA constructs masks from the identified neurons and fuses them into a unified multi-concept mask, where Concept Agnostic Neurons that broadly support general content generation are preserved while concept-specific neurons are pruned to remove the targets. FIA is training-free and requires minimal hyperparameter tuning for new tasks, enabling plug-and-play use. Extensive experiments across three distinct unlearning tasks demonstrate that FIA achieves more reliable multi-concept unlearning, improving forgetting effectiveness while maintaining generation fidelity and quality. Code is available at https://github.com/kaiyuan02415/Forget-It-All

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Robustness, privacy and adversarial aspects, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 46 of its 50 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Jan 2026.

Builds on

46 of 50 references.

Closest ancestors · 15

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026Forget Many, Forget Right: Scalable and Precise Concept Unlearning in Diffusion Models6 Jan
  2. 2026Mass Concept Erasure in Diffusion Models with Concept Hierarchy6 Jan
  3. 2025Sculpting Memory: Multi-Concept Forgetting in Diffusion Models via Dynamic Mask and Concept-Aware Optimization12 Apr
  4. 2025SPEED: Scalable, Precise, and Efficient Concept Erasure for Diffusion Models10 Mar
  5. 2024STEREO: A Two-Stage Framework for Adversarially Robust Concept Erasing from Text-to-Image Diffusion Models29 Aug
  6. 2024ConceptPrune: Concept Editing in Diffusion Models via Skilled Neuron Pruning29 May
  7. 2024MACE: Mass Concept Erasure in Diffusion Models10 Mar
  8. 2024Separable Multi-Concept Erasure from Diffusion Models3 Feb
  9. 2023One-Dimensional Adapter to Rule Them All: Concepts, Diffusion Models and Erasing Applications26 Dec
  10. 2023SalUn: Empowering Machine Unlearning via Gradient-based Weight Saliency in Both Image Classification and Generation19 Oct
  11. 2023Unified Concept Editing in Diffusion Models25 Aug
  12. 2023Forget-Me-Not: Learning to Forget in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models30 Mar
3 more
  1. 2023Ablating Concepts in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models23 Mar
  2. 2023Erasing Concepts from Diffusion Models13 Mar
  3. 2022Safe Latent Diffusion: Mitigating Inappropriate Degeneration in Diffusion Models9 Nov

Other references · 31

  1. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 52,096
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
  3. 2014Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Contextcited by 17,608
  4. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,355
  5. 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,356
  6. 2021GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 3,614
  7. 2019Machine Unlearningcited by 1,061
  8. 2021Ethical and social risks of harm from Language Modelscited by 966
  9. 2018SNIP: Single-shot Network Pruning based on Connection Sensitivitycited by 812
  10. 2024SiT: Exploring Flow and Diffusion-based Generative Models with Scalable Interpolant Transformerscited by 737
  11. 2019Certified Data Removal from Machine Learning Modelscited by 535
  12. 2020Picking Winning Tickets Before Training by Preserving Gradient Flowcited by 471
19 more
  1. 2022Knowledge Unlearning for Mitigating Privacy Risks in Language Modelscited by 437
  2. 2020Amnesiac Machine Learningcited by 319
  3. 2022A Survey of Machine Unlearningcited by 312
  4. 2022CogView2: Faster and Better Text-to-Image Generation via Hierarchical Transformerscited by 307
  5. 2020DeepFakes and Beyond: A Survey of Face Manipulation and Fake Detectioncited by 233
  6. 2023Model Sparsity Can Simplify Machine Unlearningcited by 214
  7. 2023A Survey on Video Diffusion Modelscited by 206
  8. 2021Process for Adapting Language Models to Society (PALMS) with Values-Targeted Datasetscited by 181
  9. 2023Selective Amnesia: A Continual Learning Approach to Forgetting in Deep Generative Modelscited by 177
  10. 2018The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigationcited by 165
  11. 2021LAFITE: Towards Language-Free Training for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 128
  12. 2023Machine Unlearning: Solutions and Challengescited by 93
  13. 2024Machine Unlearning in Generative AI: A Surveycited by 49
  14. 2024A Review on Machine Unlearningcited by 32
  15. 2023The Evolution of Distributed Systems for Graph Neural Networks and their Origin in Graph Processing and Deep Learning: A Surveycited by 14
  16. 2025Position: Bridge the Gaps between Machine Unlearning and AI Regulationcited by 7
  17. 2025The Right to be Forgotten in Pruning: Unveil Machine Unlearning on Sparse Modelscited by 7
  18. 2025Efficient Knowledge Graph Unlearning with Zeroth-order Informationcited by 3
  19. 2025LightCache: Memory-Efficient, Training-Free Acceleration for Video Generationcited by 2

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026ICED: Concept-level Machine Unlearning via Interpretable Concept Decomposition
  2. 2024Unlearning Concepts in Diffusion Model via Concept Domain Correction and Concept Preserving Gradient
  3. 2026No Concept Escapes the Audit: Auditing-Aware Unlearning for Verifiable Concept Erasure in Diffusion Models
  4. 2026Gradient Concentration, Not Weight Saliency, Explains Representation-Level Class Unlearning
  5. 2025SAEmnesia: Erasing Concepts in Diffusion Models with Supervised Sparse Autoencoders
  6. 2026Forgetting is Competition: Rethinking Unlearning as Representation Interference in Diffusion Models
  7. 2026A Concept is More Than a Word: Diversified Unlearning in Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
  8. 2026Projected Gradient Unlearning for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models: Defending Against Concept Revival Attacks