Adafactor

Author: Aolei Cao (ac3237), Ziyang Li (zl986), Junjia Liang (jl4439) (ChemE 6800 Fall 2024)

Stewards: Nathan Preuss, Wei-Han Chen, Tianqi Xiao, Guoqing Hu

Introduction

Adafactor is an efficient, adaptive learning rate optimization algorithm proposed by Noam Shazeer and Mitchell Stern in 2018. ¹

Unlike traditional Adam optimizers, Adafactor does not store complete second-order moment matrices. Instead, it employs a factorization approach that only maintains gradient statistics for the rows and columns of parameter matrices, significantly reducing memory usage. Moreover, Adafactor uses an adaptive learning rate, allowing it to dynamically adjust step sizes without the need for manually setting a global learning rate or relying heavily on hyperparameter tuning. Its design also defaults to not performing bias correction, yet it remains stable in scenarios involving large-batch training data.¹ This efficiency makes it an ideal choice for training ultra-large-scale models such as T5.²

Adafactor’s efficient memory usage and outstanding performance make it widely applicable in scenarios such as Natural Language Processing (NLP).² Compared to the Adam optimizer, Adafactor significantly reduces memory and computational resource requirements while maintaining comparable performance when training large-scale language models and vision models. ^3,6

Problem formulation

1. Objective

Minimize the loss function $f(x)$, where $x\in R^{n}$ and $x$ is the weight vector to be optimized.

2. Parameters

• Gradient:

$G_{t}=\nabla f(x_{t-1})$

• Second moment estimate:

${\hat {V}}_{t}={\hat {\beta }}_{2t}{\hat {V}}_{t-1}+(1-{\hat {\beta }}_{2t})(G_{t}^{2}+\epsilon _{1}1_{n})$

• Where:
  • ${\hat {V}}_{t}$ is the running average of the squared gradient.
  • ${\hat {\beta }}_{2t}$ is the corrected decay parameter.
  • $\epsilon _{1}$ is a regularization constant.

• Step size:

$\alpha _{t}=\max(\epsilon _{2},{\text{RMS}}(x_{t-1}))\rho _{t}$

• Where:
  • Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_t} is the relative step size.
  • Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_2} is a regularization constant.
  • Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \text{RMS}} is the root mean square, defined as:
    • Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle u_{xt} = \frac{-g_{xt}}{\sqrt{\hat{v}_{xt}}}}
    • Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \text{RMS}(U_t) = \text{RMS}_{x \in X}(u_{xt}) = \sqrt{\text{Mean}_{x \in X}\left(\frac{(g_{xt})^2}{\hat{v}_{xt}}\right)}}

3. Algorithms

Adafactor for Weighted Vectors

Inputs:

• Initial point: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_0 \in \mathbb{R}^n}
• Relative step sizes: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_t} for Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t = 1} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T}
• Second moment decay: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{2t}} for Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t = 1} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} , with Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{21} = 0}
• Regularization constants: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_1, \epsilon_2}
• Clipping threshold: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d}

Algorithm:

• For Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t = 1} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} :
  • Compute adaptive step size: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \alpha_t = \max(\epsilon_2, \text{RMS}(X_{t-1})) \rho_t}
  • Compute gradient: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_t = \nabla f_t(X_{t-1})}
  • Update second moment estimate: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V}_t = \hat{\beta}_{2t} \hat{V}_{t-1} + (1 - \hat{\beta}_{2t})(G_t^2 + \epsilon_1 1_n)}
  • Compute normalized gradient: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t = \frac{G_t}{\sqrt{\hat{V}_t}}}
  • Apply clipping: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U}_t = \frac{U_t}{\max(1, \text{RMS}(U_t) / d)}}
  • Update parameter: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_t = X_{t-1} - \alpha_t \hat{U}_t}
• End for

Adafactor for Weighted Matrices

Inputs:

• Initial point: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_0 \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times m}}
• Relative step sizes: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_t} for Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t = 1} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T}
• Second moment decay: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{2t}} for Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t = 1} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} , with Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{21} = 0}
• Regularization constants: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_1, \epsilon_2}
• Clipping threshold: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d}

Algorithm:

• For Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t = 1} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} :
  • Compute adaptive step size: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \alpha_t = \max(\epsilon_2, \text{RMS}(X_{t-1})) \rho_t}
  • Compute gradient: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_t = \nabla f_t(X_{t-1})}
  • Update row-wise second moment: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t = \hat{\beta}_{2t} R_{t-1} + (1 - \hat{\beta}_{2t})(G_t^2 + \epsilon_1 1_n 1_m^T) 1_m}
  • Update column-wise second moment: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t = \hat{\beta}_{2t} C_{t-1} + (1 - \hat{\beta}_{2t}) 1_n^T (G_t^2 + \epsilon_1 1_n 1_m^T)}
  • Update overall second moment estimate: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V}_t = \frac{R_t C_t}{1_n^T R_t}}
  • Compute normalized gradient: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t = \frac{G_t}{\sqrt{\hat{V}_t}}}
  • Apply clipping: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U}_t = \frac{U_t}{\max(1, \text{RMS}(U_t) / d)}}
  • Update parameter: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_t = X_{t-1} - \alpha_t \hat{U}_t}
• End for

Proposed Hyperparameters for Adafactor

• Regularization constant 1 (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_1} ): Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 10^{-30}}
  • Ensures numerical stability by preventing division by zero in the calculation of second-moment estimates. This value is set extremely low to avoid instability in calculations.

• Regularization constant 2 (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_2} ): Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 10^{-3}}
  • Helps stabilize parameter updates by controlling the scaling effect of second-moments in low-magnitude scenarios. This prevents instability caused by noise in small gradients.

• Clipping threshold (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d} ): Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 1}
  • A clipping threshold of 1 ensures stability by limiting large gradient values while maintaining sufficient learning efficiency. This avoids excessive suppression of large gradients, which could hinder learning.

• Relative step size (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_t} ): Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \min(10^{-2}, 1 / \sqrt{t})}
  • The Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \min(10^{-2}, ...)} term caps the learning rate at Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 10^{-2}} , an empirically determined upper bound.
  • The Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 1 / \sqrt{t}} term ensures convergence by reducing the step size over time, balancing exploration during early iterations with stability later in training.

• Second moment decay (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{2t}} ): Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 1 - t^{-0.8}}
  • The decay factor remains close to 1 initially to allow rapid adaptation.
  • The Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t^{-0.8}} power balances between rapid learning in early training and stability during later stages, ensuring smoother convergence.

5. Discussion

Why Clipping

Adafactor employs clipping to maintain numerical stability, especially since it is designed for use with very large models and often works with unscaled learning rates.

• Clipping prevents the update step from becoming very large, which would destabilize training
• Clipping mitigates the effects of very large gradients preventing numerical instability

Therefore, implementing clipping helps ensure stability and efficient training without requiring per-parameter scaling like Adam.

Why Adafactor is more memory efficient, compared to Adam

Row-wise and Column-wise Second Moment Updates

• Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t = \hat{\beta}_{2t} R_{t-1} + (1 - \hat{\beta}_{2t})(G_t^2 + \epsilon_1 1_n 1_m^T) 1_m}
• Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t = \hat{\beta}_{2t} C_{t-1} + (1 - \hat{\beta}_{2t}) 1_n^T (G_t^2 + \epsilon_1 1_n 1_m^T)}

Instead of storing the full Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_t^2} , Adafactor computes the row and column respectively, which reduces the memory requirements from Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle O(n\times m)} to Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle O(n + m)}

Factored Representation of the Second Moment

• Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V}_t = \frac{R_t C_t}{1_n^T R_t}}

This updates the second momentum based on the outer product Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t C_t} .

• However, this is not Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle O(n\times m)} since
  • The operation is performed element-wise, so it actually never materializes Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V_t}} as a Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle n\times n} matrix
  • It also only storing Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t} and Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t} instead of storage the full second-moment matrix

Numerical Examples

Step-by-step instructions for determining the result of the first iteration.

Problem setup

Initial weights (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_0} ​):

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_0 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.7 &-0.5& 0.9\\ -1.1 & 0.8& -1.6\\1.2&-0.7& 0.4 \end{bmatrix}}

Gradient for first iteration (​Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_1} ):

Gradient of the loss function with respect to X

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.3&-0.2&0.4\\ -0.5&0.6&-0.1\\0.2&-0.4 &0.3 \end{bmatrix}}

Hyperparameters setup

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_1 = 10^{-30}} (Minimum learning rate scaling factor))

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_2 = 10^{-3}} (Regularization constant)

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d = 1} (Clipping threshold)

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_t = \min(10^{-2}, 1/\sqrt{t})} (Relative step size)

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{2t} = 1 - t^{-0.8}} (Second moment decay)

Step 1: Learning Rate Scaling

Define the relative step size

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_1 = \min(10^{-2}, 1/\sqrt{1})= 10^{-2}}

Step 1.1: Root Mean Square(RMS) calculation for Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_0}

Root Mean Square(RMS) calculation for Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_0}

RMS formula

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle RMS(X_0) = \sqrt{\tfrac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n X_0[i]^2}}

Substitute the initial weights

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle RMS(X_0) = \sqrt{\tfrac{1}{9}(0.72^2+(-0.5)^2+0.9^2+(-1.1)^2+0.8^2+(-0.6)^2+1.2^2+(-0.7)^2+0.4^2)}}

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle RMS(X_0) = \sqrt{\frac{6.85}{9}}\approx 0.806}

Step 1.2: Find the Learning Rate Scaling (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \alpha_t} ​):

Learning rate formula

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \alpha_1 = max(\epsilon_2,RMS(X_0))\cdot p_1}

Substitute the RMS

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \alpha_1 = max(0.001,0.806)\cdot 0.01=0.00806}

Step 2: Compute Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G^{2}_t} ​ (Element-wise Square of Gradient)

Compute the squared value of each element in the gradient matrix Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_t} .

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G^{2}_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.3^2&(-0.2)^2&0.4^2\\ (-0.5)^2&0.6^2&(-0.1)^2\\0.2^2&(-0.4)^2 &0.3^2 \end{bmatrix}}

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G^{2}_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.09& 0.04&0.16\\ 0.25&0.36&0.01\\0.04&0.16&0.09\end{bmatrix}}

Step 3: Find the moment estimate

Compute the exponential moving average of squared gradients to capture the variance or scale of gradients.

Step 3.1: Compute row moments ($R_{t}$)

This equation computes the row-wise second moments (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t} ​) as an exponential moving average of past moments (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_{t-1}} ) and the current row-wise mean of squared gradients ( Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G^{2}_t} ​ ), with a balance controlled by (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{2t}} ).

For Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G^{2}_t=\mathbb{R}^{m\times n} }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t = \hat{\beta_{2t}} \cdot R_{t-1} + (1-\hat{\beta})\cdot (\tfrac{1}{m}\sum_{j=1}^m G^{2}_t[i,j]+\epsilon_1) }

Since Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{2t} = 1 - t^{-0.8}} , for first iteration: Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{\beta}_{21} = 0} . And because Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \epsilon_1 } is too small, we can ignore it. The update of Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t} is:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_{1} = \tfrac{1}{m}\textstyle \sum_{j=1}^m \displaystyle G^{2}_1[i,j] }

Row-wise mean (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t} ):

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_1 = \begin{bmatrix} \tfrac{0.09+0.04+0.16}{3} \\ \tfrac{0.25+0.36+0.01}{3}\\\tfrac{0.04+0.16+0.09}{3} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 0.0967\\ 0.2067\\0.0967\end{bmatrix} }

Step 3.2: Compute column moments (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t} )

The process is same as row moments.

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t = \hat{\beta}\cdot C_{{t-1}} + (1-\hat{\beta})\cdot (\tfrac{1}{n}\sum_{j=1}^n G^{2}_t[i,j]+\epsilon_1) }

Column-wise mean (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t} ):

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_1 = \begin{bmatrix} \tfrac{0.09+025+0.04}{3} \\ \tfrac{0.04+0.36+0.16}{3}\\\tfrac{0.16+0.01+0.09}{3} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 0.1267\\ 0.1867\\0.0867\end{bmatrix} }

Step 3.3: Second Moment Estimate (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V_t}} ​)

The Second Moment Estimate is calculated as the outer product of the row moments (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_t} ​) and column moments (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t} ​).

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V}_t = R_t \otimes C_t}

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V}_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.0967\\0.2067\\0.0967 \end{bmatrix} \otimes \begin{bmatrix} 0.1267&0.1867&0.0867\\ \end{bmatrix} }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V}_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.0122&0.0180&0.0084\\ 0.0262&0.0386&0.0179\\ 0.0122&0.0180&0.0084\end{bmatrix} }

Step 4: Update the vector (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t } )

Computed by scaling the gradient matrix Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle G_t} ​ element-wise with the inverse square root of the second moment estimate (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{V_t}} ​)

step 4.1: Find the vector value of Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t }

Formula of Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t = \frac{G_t}{\sqrt{\hat{V_t}+\epsilon_1}} }

Substitute Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle C_t} and Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle V_t}

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_1 = \frac{\begin{bmatrix}0.3&-0.2&0.4 \\ -0.5&0.6&-0.1\\0.2&-0.4&0.3 \end{bmatrix}}{\sqrt{\begin{bmatrix} 0.0122&0.0180&0.0084\\ 0.0262&0.0386&0.0179\\0.0122&0.0180&0.0084 \end{bmatrix}}} }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 2.711&-1.489&4.370\\-3.090&3.055&-0.747\\1.807&-2.978&3.278 \end{bmatrix} }

step 4.2: Clipped Update Vector Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U_t} }

Scale the update vector ( Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t } ​ ) to ensure its RMS value does not exceed a predefined clipping threshold (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d } ), maintaining stability in updates.

Formula of Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U_t} }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U_t} = \frac{U_t}{max(1,\tfrac{RMS(U_t)}{d}) } }

Compute RMS of Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle RMS(U_1) = \sqrt{\tfrac{1}{9} \sum_{i=1}^9 U_t[i]^2} \approx 3.303 }

Since RMS(Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t } ​)>d, scale Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle U_t } ​ by Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \tfrac{1}{3.303} }

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U_1} = \begin{bmatrix} 0.965&-0.53&1.556 \\-1.1&1.088&-0.266\\0.664&-1.06&1.167 \end{bmatrix} }

Step 5: Weight Update (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_1 } )

Adjust the weights (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_t } ) by subtracting the product of the learning rate (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \alpha_t } ) and the clipped update vector (Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat{U_t} } ).

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_1 = X_0 - \alpha \cdot \hat{U_t}}

The result for first iteration.

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X_1 = \begin{bmatrix} 0.7 &-0.5& 0.9\\ -1.1 & 0.8& -1.6\\1.2&-0.7& 0.4 \end{bmatrix} - 0.00806 \cdot \begin{bmatrix} 0.965&-0.53&1.556 \\-1.1&1.088&-0.266\\0.664&-1.06&1.167 \end{bmatrix} }

Failed to parse (Conversion error. Server ("https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_") reported: "Cannot get mml. Server problem."): {\displaystyle X_{1}={\begin{bmatrix}0.692&-0.496&0.887\\-1.091&0.791&-0.596\\1.195&-0.691&0.391\end{bmatrix}}}

Applications

Adafactor is an efficient adaptive optimizer designed specifically for large-scale deep learning tasks. Its unique memory-saving properties have made it widely used for training large-scale language models, image recognition models, and reinforcement learning policy networks. Compared to other optimizers (e.g., Adam), Adafactor delivers exceptional performance in large-scale computations while significantly reducing memory requirements. Below are several specific application scenarios of Adafactor:

1. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

In NLP tasks, Adafactor has been successfully applied to training ultra-large-scale language models, such as Google’s Transformer and T5 (Text-To-Text Transfer Transformer). By significantly reducing memory usage during the gradient update process, Adafactor enables efficient model training in resource-constrained environments. For example, the T5 model in Google’s research employed Adafactor to effectively train on large datasets through text-to-text conversion tasks.²

2. Training Large-Scale Language Models

Adafactor has been used to train large-scale language models like LLaMA, combining it with novel preconditioned diagonalization methods to significantly enhance training efficiency. Experiments showed that Adafactor achieved performance comparable to the Adam optimizer while consuming substantially less memory and computational resources.³

3. Humor Detection Tasks

Adafactor has been utilized to optimize ALBERT-based models for humor detection tasks. Configured as an adaptive learning rate optimizer and paired with a cross-entropy loss function, Adafactor was used to train models that achieved 99% accuracy and F1 scores. Moreover, training time was faster than with Adam, completing in approximately 43 minutes. Comparisons with Adam and AdaBound optimizers demonstrated that Adafactor excelled in terms of both time efficiency and performance, especially in accuracy, recall, and F1 scores for humor detection tasks .⁴

4. Multilingual Model Training

In training multilingual models, Adafactor improved scalability and efficiency, particularly by significantly reducing memory consumption when handling large-scale parameters.⁵

5. Pretraining Vision Models

When training ResNet50 and ViT on the ImageNet1k dataset, Adafactor successfully optimized these deep networks with its low memory requirements. Additionally, with new algorithms combining preconditioned diagonalization methods (e.g., AdafacDiag and AdafacDiag++), it outperformed the standard Adam optimizer in both convergence speed and final accuracy.⁶

Software Tools and Platforms

Adafactor has been integrated into the following mainstream deep learning frameworks, making it accessible to developers:

TensorFlow: Provides a built-in implementation of Adafactor.⁷

PyTorch: PyTorch provides the Adafactor optimizer through the torch.optim.AdaFactor class.⁸

JAX/Flax: JAX provides an optimizer library called Optax, which includes the Adafactor optimizer.⁹

Future Prospects

As the scale of deep learning models continues to grow, Adafactor’s memory-saving and computational efficiency advantages will become increasingly important. In the training of ultra-large-scale models (e.g., GPT and Vision Transformers), Adafactor is expected to become an indispensable optimization tool. Furthermore, by combining with other optimization strategies, such as mixed precision training, Adafactor may further enhance its applicability in both industrial and research settings.