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.
All2,430In brief3More (on-topic)455Not relevant1,957Not assessed6Older27Could not confirm6Blogs with no paper16All blogs19
| Paper | Topic | Relevance | Feedback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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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