Evaluating Adaptive Activation Functions in Language Models

Abstract

The rapid expansion of large language models (LLMs) driven by the transformer architecture has raised concerns about the lack of high-quality train ing data. This study investigates the role of acti vation functions in smaller-scale language models, specifically those with approximately 10M param eters, to ensure sustained progress in LLM devel opment despite data limitations. Activation func tions, crucial for neural network performance, have evolved significantly, but comprehensive compar isons under consistent conditions remain scarce, especially for smaller parameter count models. This research systematically evaluates traditional and novel activation functions, including learnable variants, and introduces the Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) to language modeling. Using Hugging Face implementations of GPT-Neo and RoBERTa models, performance impacts were as sessed through the BabyLM evaluation pipeline. The results indicate that activation functions do not significantly impact the performance of these models. Additionally, the model with the KAN network underperformed compared to models with traditional architectures in the context of this study. These findings suggest that optimizing activation functions may not be crucial for smaller language models, emphasizing the need for further research to explore other architectural improvements.