Every paper checked — nothing hidden

All papers

Every paper checked in the week of 12–18 Oct 2026 · Small and efficient models — nothing is hidden. Brief papers first.

PaperTopicRelevanceFeedback
New Model, Old Habits: Behavior Transfer under Model Swapping in Multi-Session LLM Agents
The paper analyzes model swapping in multi-session agents and proposes a history summarization method to preserve strong reasoning behaviors.
Ranked #61Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Explores model swapping to balance inference cost and performance across agent sessions.
Manacá-1B-Instruct-2: Reproducible Safety Alignment for a Native Brazilian-Portuguese LLM. Negative DPO Results, a Controlled Composition Scan, and a Silent Failure Mode of the LLM Judge
Documents safety alignment methods, negative preference tuning outcomes, and automated judge limitations for a Portuguese language model.
Ranked #62Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Presents training and alignment findings for Manacá-1B, a 1.72B parameter small language model.
Embedding Geometry Shapes LLM Routing: Tracing Failure Modes and Improving Generalization
The paper uses intermediate transformer hidden states instead of semantic embeddings to improve classifier-based prompt routing across unseen tasks.
Ranked #63Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Improves LLM routing techniques to optimize multi-model selection and inference efficiency.
Why Generate a Click? Plug-in Decision Heads for Web Agents
This paper introduces plug-in decision heads that read action choices directly from visual agent hidden states rather than generating text tokens.
Ranked #64Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Reduces decoding latency and compute for web agents via plug-in decision heads.
To Reason but Not to Stop: Understanding and Recovering Pruned Large Reasoning Models
The paper shows pruned reasoning models fail by looping, proposing an activation steering method to restore proper termination.
Ranked #65Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Studies and recovers termination failure in pruned large reasoning models using activation steering.
Beyond State Capacity: Why Retrieval Breaks in Mamba
The paper analyzes retrieval failures in Mamba architectures under query-first settings and explores token representations and selection gates.
Ranked #66Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Analyzes internal limitations of Mamba, a key efficient linear-attention architecture candidate.
Energy Consumption Analysis of Discrete Diffusion and Autoregressive Language Models
Benchmarks the inference energy efficiency of diffusion language models compared to standard autoregressive architectures.
Ranked #67Surprising resultPeer-reviewed7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Compares inference energy efficiency and Joules-per-token across diffusion and autoregressive LLMs.
RoleQ: Role-Aligned Scales for Converting Language Models to Ternary
Proposes a structural scaling method based on transformer unit roles to convert language models to ternary weights effectively.
Ranked #68Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Introduces a method to quantize language models to ternary weights for efficient deployment.
TRACER: Trajectory-Aware Tool Retrieval for LLM Agents
Proposes a trajectory-aware retrieval method that indexes tool sequences in a trie to cut token costs and improve selection accuracy.
Ranked #69New way to see a problemPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Significantly reduces prompt token overhead and inference compute for large tool registries.
System1-Arena: Which Decisions Can Be Left to System 1?
Introduces a benchmark evaluating single-forward-pass discrete decision models versus generative reasoning models across diverse closed-loop tasks.
Ranked #70New testPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Evaluates low-latency, lower-cost single-forward-pass alternatives to expensive reasoning models.
LEV: Thinking Fast and Deep with Looped Decision Models
The paper presents a decision model that performs deeper reasoning by looping its layers instead of generating output tokens.
Ranked #71Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Focuses on efficient inference using looped layers and dynamic early stopping to save compute.
Verdict: Encode Once, Decide Many
The paper introduces an encoder architecture that processes input once to answer multiple structured classification queries simultaneously.
Ranked #72New way to see a problemPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Presents an encoder architecture that reduces compute by encoding state once for multiple questions.
Prune the Summary, Not the History: Source-Judged Compaction for Long-Horizon Agents
Introduces a method to filter unsupported compressor inferences from long-horizon agent summaries to avoid compounding execution errors.
Ranked #73New way to see a problemPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Prunes agent context summaries to reduce context size and compute overhead.
REKI: Registering Knowledge in VLAs
The paper introduces a compact vision-language-action model using register tokens as persistent memory to reduce control oscillations in robotics.
Ranked #74New way to see a problemPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Designs a compact 2.4B vision-language-action model setting an efficient size-performance frontier.
Do As I Do, Not As I Say: On-Policy Distillation Inherits the Teacher in Vision-Language Models
Evaluates on-policy distillation versus supervised fine-tuning in vision-language models, analyzing how teacher reliability impacts student behavior.
Ranked #75Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Studies on-policy distillation methods for training efficient student vision-language models.
Architecting for Hardware Diversity: Meta's End-to-End Co-Design for High-Performance AI Training on AMD GPUs
Shares hardware-model co-design techniques and analytical kernel selection for training large recommendation models on AMD GPUs.
Ranked #76New way to see a problemPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Describes hardware-model co-design and kernel optimization for efficient training on AMD GPUs.
Close Enough is Nowhere Near: Fidelity-Consumability Decoupling in KV Caches
This paper investigates direct key-value cache substitution between frozen language models and finds geometric similarity fails to ensure consumability.
Ranked #77Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Studies KV cache sharing and cross-attention mechanisms to eliminate redundant model computation.
Can Capability Enhancement be Localized?
The study investigates whether removing small subsets of attention heads can improve language model performance on specific tasks.
Ranked #78Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Studies whether targeted attention head pruning can enhance performance and model efficiency.
Long-Context Drafting Does Not Require Long-Context Drafters
This paper demonstrates that frozen short-context drafting models can effectively serve ultra-long context speculative decoding without fine-tuning on long sequences.
Ranked #79Surprising resultPreprint7/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Enables efficient long-context speculative decoding using frozen short-context drafter models without extra training.
Waypoint-OPD: Transferring RL-Induced Policy Shifts via Gated On-Policy Distillation
Gates reinforcement learning policy-shift distillation using intermediate checkpoints to ensure student models only learn consistent teacher shifts.
Ranked #80New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Distills RL-induced reasoning capabilities into smaller student models efficiently.
Recovering Reliable Supervision via Critique-Guided On-Policy Distillation
Uses teacher critiques on incorrect student rollouts to improve on-policy distillation and recover supervision during mathematical reasoning tasks.
Ranked #81New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Presents an on-policy distillation technique to train student reasoning models.
Many Right Answers, One Training Example: Removing Responder Noise from GRPO for LLM Recommenders
The paper proposes ReMaRk, a reinforcement learning method that trains recommender models using all available reader replies simultaneously to reduce variance.
Ranked #82New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Reduces RL training steps and GPU hours for LLM recommenders by optimizing reward calculation across multi-response data.
LatentLoop: Scaling Looped MoE Models with Asymmetric Compute Allocation
Allocates computation unevenly across passes in looped mixture-of-experts models to improve efficiency without losing performance.
Ranked #83New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Designs looped MoE models with asymmetric compute allocation to improve parameter efficiency.
APEX: Asynchronous Prefix Denoising for Extreme Compression
Introduces an asynchronous prefix denoising framework for extreme latent compression in diffusion models.
Ranked #84New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Develops an asynchronous latent prefix denoising method for extreme compression and efficiency.
Continually Post-training Small Models via Synthetic Self-distillation
Proposes a synthetic self-distillation method using a slightly larger aligner to enable continual post-training in small language models.
Ranked #85New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Investigates self-distillation to enable continual post-training specifically for small, on-device models.
Self-Distillation with Verbal Regularization
This paper proposes verbal regularization prompts for on-policy self-distillation to prevent teacher models from taking shortcut reasoning paths.
Ranked #86New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Studies distillation techniques to improve model learning and reasoning efficiency.
Simplifying and Improving On-Policy Distillation for Few-Step Diffusion
Proposes Simplified Matching Distillation, a regression-based on-policy method that enables four-step generation for diffusion models.
Ranked #87New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Introduces an efficient distillation technique to drastically reduce diffusion model sampling steps and cost.
Contextual Correction of Parallel Draftsfor Speculative Decoding
Introduces a lightweight correction mechanism to restore token dependencies during parallel draft generation in speculative decoding.
Ranked #88Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Develops a contextual correction technique for speculative decoding to accelerate LLM inference throughput.
Hybrid Reasoning Agents
The paper proposes an agent architecture that dynamically switches between latent reasoning and text interaction while maintaining external tool access.
Ranked #89New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Explores latent reasoning to make agent deliberation more token-efficient than text CoT.
Surfing the Activation Wave: Analyzing the Information and Geometry of LLM Hidden States for Speculative Decoding
Proposes matrix-entropy and kernel alignment criteria to select optimal layer subsets of hidden states for speculative decoding.
Ranked #90New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Proposes multi-layer selection to optimize speculative decoding for efficient model inference.
Rethinking Relative Policy Differences Transfer of On-Policy Distillation
Formulates relative policy difference transfer as an implicit reward in KL-regularized optimization for flexible on-policy knowledge distillation.
Ranked #91Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:29
On-topic
Analyzes on-policy distillation to effectively transfer capabilities from teacher models to smaller targets.
One Model to Loop Them All: Elastic Latent Recurrence for Language Models
Presents a training method for latent recurrent language models that avoids performance penalties at single loops while scaling with compute.
Ranked #92Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Proposes Elastic Latent Recurrence to dynamically trade inference compute for accuracy without latency penalties.
Joint Subspace Sparse Attention for Efficient Long-Context Decoding
The paper introduces a token-level sparse attention method using a learned query-key subspace and an indexed kernel to accelerate long-context decoding.
Ranked #93New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Presents a sparse attention method and kernel to improve long-context decoding efficiency.
Spectral-Driven Adaptive-Rank Optimizer for Large Language Model Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards
This paper investigates gradient spectral properties during reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards to design an adaptive-rank optimizer for reasoning models.
Ranked #94New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Introduces an adaptive low-rank optimizer that exploits low-dimensional gradient structure during training.
FlashMask-3: Efficient and Expressive Mask-Aware Distributed Attention
The paper presents an expressive and distributed attention kernel that compresses structured attention masks to enable efficient context parallelism on Hopper GPUs.
Ranked #95New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Designs an efficient mask-aware distributed attention kernel to accelerate long-context training and serving.
The COUNT: Counting N-grams Unlocks Scaling on Host Memory and Training-Free Adaptation
This paper introduces COUNT, scaling language model memory without training parameters by storing precomputed n-gram counts directly in host memory.
Ranked #96Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Enables memory-efficient LM scaling by storing precomputed n-gram embeddings in host memory.
Latent Compaction with Test-Time Training
Compresses long-context key-value caches using test-time training on generic document prompts without task-specific labels.
Ranked #97New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Compresses KV caches through test-time training, substantially improving memory and inference efficiency.
Memory as Weights: Internalizing Long-Term History for Streaming Videos
The paper compresses video history into evolving lightweight model weights instead of competing for limited input context length.
Ranked #98New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Reduces context overhead in streaming video inference using lightweight recurrent LoRA updates.
Unlocking Structured Pruning for Reasoning Language Models via Attention-Preserving MLP Trimming
The paper proposes a training-free structured pruning method that trims multilayer perceptron layers while preserving attention mechanisms for reasoning tasks.
Ranked #99Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Introduces a structured pruning method to reduce inference latency and memory in language models.
DoubtLess: Training-Free Contrastive Decoding for Efficient Reasoning
The paper introduces a training-free contrastive decoding method where a small model guides a larger model toward shorter reasoning chains.
Ranked #100Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Proposes training-free contrastive decoding to reduce token usage and improve inference efficiency.
Scaling Repeated-Data Pretraining: Batch Size, Regularization, and GPU-Time Tradeoffs
This paper investigates batch size, regularization methods, and runtime tradeoffs when pretraining language models on repeated finite data.
Ranked #101Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Explores trade-offs between batch size, regularization, and GPU compute efficiency during pretraining.
ShellElastic: Scalable Elastic Pretraining with Simultaneous Maximal Updates and Hyperparameter Transfer
Introduces an elastic transformer pretraining architecture enabling simultaneous hyperparameter transfer and subnetwork execution within a single model.
Ranked #102New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Introduces elastic supernet architectures enabling variable-budget sub-networks for efficient inference.
CoTranslator: Reverse to Forward Chain-of-Thought Translator for Reasoning Distillation
The paper proposes a method to translate reverse reasoning paths into verified forward chains of thought for distillation.
Ranked #103New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Presents a method to distill reasoning capabilities into smaller student models.
Agentic-TTT: Training test-time policy for test-time training
Proposes a policy mechanism enabling language models to decide when, how, and which test-time training procedures to execute.
Ranked #104New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Learns a policy to dynamically trade off test-time compute against utility improvements.
Specialists Learn Faster: Knowledge Organization in Pre-training Shapes Knowledge Update Efficiency
Examines how chronological versus shuffled pre-training knowledge sequencing influences the sample efficiency of subsequent model knowledge updates.
Ranked #105Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:29
On-topic
Studies efficient knowledge update strategies during training to minimize update steps and compute cost.
Compile the Table: Query-Calibrated Operator Compression for Tabular In-Context Learning
Compresses tabular in-context learning key-value caches into query-calibrated prototypes to improve throughput without sacrificing accuracy.
Ranked #106New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:29
On-topic
Focuses on KV cache compression and efficient inference throughput for tabular in-context learning.
Spectral Weight Decay: Inducing Low-Rank Structure in Neural Network Weights
Introduces a spectral weight decay update inducing low-rank weight matrices to improve SVD-based post-training model compression.
Ranked #107Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:29
On-topic
Induces low-rank weight structure directly enabling post-training SVD compression and faster GPU inference for LLMs.
MultiAlloc: Budget-Aware Precision Allocation for KV Cache Quantization
The paper presents a profiling-guided framework to allocate precision budgets adaptively across layers and tokens during KV cache quantization.
Ranked #108Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes budget-aware precision allocation for KV cache quantization to improve LLM inference efficiency.
Seeing at the Edge: Energy Characterization of Vision-Language Model Inference on Edge Platforms
The paper measures the energy consumption, latency, and thermal behavior of running vision-language models on edge hardware accelerators.
Ranked #109Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Profiles latency and energy consumption of multimodal models on edge accelerators.
EV-JEPA: Elastic V-JEPA for Any Device and Cross-Device Inference
The paper presents an elastic vision architecture that dynamically reconfigures width and supports partitionable inference across heterogeneous edge devices.
Ranked #110New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Develops reconfigurable width elasticity and cross-device partitioning for edge inference.
One Block, Multiple Depths: Recurrent Vision Transformers with Depth-Programmed Experts
Designs a vision transformer using a single recurrent block with depth-programmed experts to reduce stored parameters without accuracy loss.
Ranked #111New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Reduces parameters by 70% using parameter sharing and dynamic experts for efficient vision inference.
RUBATO: Decoupled Clocks Allow Full-Duplex Models to Think as Fast as They Can
The authors propose decoupled positional encodings enabling full-duplex speech models to run internal thinking streams at hardware-adaptive speeds.
Ranked #112New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Enables adaptive decoding speeds for efficient inference on varying hardware.
Rethinking Activation Functions: Reducing Bias Can Improve Learning
The paper examines positive activation bias in neural networks, showing that reducing this bias slows initial training but improves final model performance.
Ranked #113Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Investigates activation function design to improve training efficiency and model loss.
DisaggKD: Efficient Knowledge Distillation through Teacher-Student Disaggregation and a Fused Loss
The paper proposes disaggregating teacher and student models across separate nodes with a fused loss to accelerate knowledge distillation.
Ranked #114New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Proposes memory-efficient knowledge distillation by splitting teacher and student across nodes.
MLAfication: Efficiently Enabling High-Fidelity MLA for Modern LLMs
The paper introduces an attention conversion method enabling multi-head latent attention on modern architectures with reduced memory footprints.
Ranked #115New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Compresses KV cache using Multi-Head Latent Attention and quantization to boost serving throughput.
Test-Time Compute for Tabular Foundation Models: Mechanisms, Gains, and Limits
Analyzes test-time compute strategies, including parameter adaptation and prediction aggregation, to improve predictions in tabular foundation models.
Ranked #116Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:29
On-topic
Studies parameter-efficient adaptation and compute trade-offs for foundation models.
Full-duplex Spoken Language Modeling with Discrete Diffusion
The paper presents Diffuplex, a full-duplex spoken language model that separates speech timing from content generation using discrete diffusion.
Ranked #117New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Designs discrete diffusion decoding that parallelizes speech generation to achieve high token throughput and low latency.
Intent-Triggered Anchoring for Multi-Token Format Units in Parallel Decoding of Diffusion Language Models
This paper introduces a training-free decoding rule that anchors multi-token format units to ensure parseable parallel generation in diffusion language models.
Ranked #118Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Improves parallel decoding in diffusion language models to maintain structured output formatting efficiently.
RIFT: Token Influence Follows the Path of Least Resistance
This paper proposes RIFT, a method using electrical resistance analogies to trace token influence through transformer attention graphs.
Ranked #119New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes a fast, training-free method to compute token influence on a single CPU thread.
Hashrope: A Persistent Data Structure for Mechanisms of LLM Context Management
This paper presents Hashrope, a unified persistent data structure supporting incremental edits, branching, and cache reuse for language model serving.
Ranked #120Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Introduces an efficient data structure for prefix reuse, KV-cache management, and faster serving.
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