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arXiv · 2408.14332

One-layer transformers fail to solve the induction heads task

Clayton Sanford·Daniel Hsu·Matus Telgarsky
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Abstract

A simple communication complexity argument proves that no one-layer transformer can solve the induction heads task unless its size is exponentially larger than the size sufficient for a two-layer transformer.

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Clayton Sanford, Daniel Hsu, Matus Telgarsky. 2024-08-26. One-layer transformers fail to solve the induction heads task. https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14332

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