Every paper checked — nothing hidden

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

PaperTopicRelevanceFeedback
PAIR: Memory-Efficient and Fast Inference with Reading--Reasoning Fusion
PAIR splits context processing and answer reasoning between two different-sized models, fusing predictions at the logit level for efficient inference.
Ranked #121New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Decouples reading and reasoning across different model sizes to cut KV memory and boost throughput.
Does System One Transfer? Calibrated Typed-Decision Models, Label Budgets, and Translation for Indonesian Regional Languages
The paper evaluates the cross-lingual transfer, calibration, and translation sensitivity of fast typed-decision models on regional Indonesian languages.
Ranked #122Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Explores cheap, efficient calibrated decision models and confidence-gated routing to cut LLM costs.
ReplaySSM: Cache SSM Inputs, Not State
Replaces frequent state memory updates in state-space models by caching inputs and periodically checkpointing state during decoding.
Ranked #123New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Accelerates decoding and cuts memory traffic for state-space models during inference serving.
DualQuant: Dual-scale Calibration-free Weight-and-Activation Quantization for LLMs
Proposes a calibration-free post-training quantization method that jointly optimizes weight and activation scaling for 4-bit model inference.
Ranked #124New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Presents a calibration-free 4-bit weight-and-activation quantization method for efficient LLM serving.
A Privileged Teacher That Only Scores Cannot Search: Critique-Conditioned On-Policy Self-Distillation for Reasoning
Examines error localization and credit assignment failures in critique-conditioned on-policy self-distillation for mathematical reasoning.
Ranked #125Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Examines on-policy self-distillation techniques to train and improve reasoning models.
Does Learning Recurrent Networks Matter in Partially Observable RL?
Investigates whether frozen recurrent networks can provide sufficient memory for partially observable reinforcement learning without end-to-end training.
Ranked #126Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Demonstrates frozen recurrent networks halve trainable parameter requirements while retaining performance.
The Gradient That Top-k Distillation Never Computes
The paper analyzes gradient dynamics in top-k distillation, showing that renormalization prevents optimization along directions controlling tail token probabilities.
Ranked #127Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Examines top-k distillation mechanics for training smaller student models.
The Fragility and Dynamics of LLM Pruning-Recovery Steps
The paper analyzes how pruning and subsequent recovery stages interact, finding instruction-following collapses earlier than domain knowledge during model compression.
Ranked #128New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Analyzes the dynamics and data composition of structural pruning and recovery.
Kronecker Product Attention: Memory-Efficient KV Compression via Structured Factorization
Introduces a key-value cache compression method representing attention activations as sums of compact Kronecker products.
Ranked #129New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Proposes Kronecker Product Attention to compress KV cache memory and improve inference efficiency.
When Should Agents Think? Adaptive Reasoning via Cross-Turn Estimation
Proposes a training method to adaptively skip turn-by-turn agent reasoning when previous thoughts remain sufficient for future actions.
Ranked #130New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Eliminates unnecessary reasoning turns to reduce inference computation in multi-turn agent systems.
zip2zip++: Towards Inference-Time Token Compression with Minimal Quality Loss
The paper proposes compression-layer modifications to reduce accuracy loss when using dynamic LZW vocabularies during language model inference.
Ranked #131Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Introduces inference-time token compression via dynamic vocabularies to improve serving efficiency.
VFold: Symmetry-Aware Cross-Layer Value Cache Compression
Presents a symmetry-aware value cache merging method to compress key-value memory during long-context decoding without architectural changes.
Ranked #132New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Proposes value cache merging and compression to reduce memory during LLM inference.
TokenRouter: Efficient Serving System for Token-Level LLM Routing
Designs an inference serving system optimized for dynamic, token-level routing across multiple language models.
Ranked #133New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Presents an efficient serving and batching system for token-level LLM routing.
DiffuPlex: Accelerating Full-Duplex Spoken Dialog Models via Rolling Masked Diffusion
Presents a rolling masked diffusion method that accelerates full-duplex spoken dialog models by forecasting multiple future interaction frames.
Ranked #134New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Accelerates full-duplex dialog model inference to achieve wall-clock speedups.
Project Greenhouse: Progress Toward Fully Open and Sovereign Agentic Search
The paper describes training a competitive decoder-only search reranker from scratch using modest computational resources and common datasets.
Ranked #135New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Demonstrates efficient pre-training and fine-tuning from scratch with modest compute on few GPUs.
Easy to anticipate, hard to compute: boundary dependence finds the computed outputs that entropy patching misses
The paper demonstrates that entropy-based byte patching misses predictable calculation points and proposes a boundary-dependence signal to fix it.
Ranked #136Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 12 Oct, 16:28
On-topic
Optimizes patch allocation to improve computational efficiency and performance in byte transformers.
Reward-Aligned Distillation
This paper presents a bilevel distillation method that weights teacher supervision tokens based on their predicted impact on student reward.
Ranked #137New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Introduces a reward-aligned distillation framework to train smaller student models.
Carve VFM: Carving Specialists out of Generalists, Automatic Task-Specific Compression of Vision Foundation Models
The paper proposes a structured pruning method to compress vision foundation models into compact task-specific models under parameter budgets.
Ranked #138New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes structured pruning and compression methods to make vision foundation models smaller and cheaper to run.
GPU Goldmines: Tunable WebGPU Kernels for Edge LLM Inference
The authors present an autotuning framework for WebGPU kernels to improve cross-platform inference speeds for language models on edge devices.
Ranked #139Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Optimizes WebGPU kernels for attention and matrix multiplication to accelerate edge and on-device LLM inference.
FunDM: Cheap & Label-Free Decision Models from Frozen Language Models
This paper presents a label-free decision head for frozen language models that preserves multiple-choice accuracy with reduced layers and memory.
Ranked #140Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Enables cheaper inference and lower memory by attaching small decision heads to fewer transformer layers.
Prorsa: Unleashing the Potential of Prefill-Decode Disaggregation in Agentic Reinforcement Learning
The paper explores prefill-decode disaggregation architectures to speed up rollout generation during agentic reinforcement learning training.
Ranked #141New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Optimizes serving and rollout efficiency via prefill-decode disaggregation for LLMs.
Resample the Answer: Where to Spend Test-Time Compute in Recursive Reasoning
The paper shows that resampling the decoded answer state improves recursive reasoning recovery more efficiently than perturbing latent states.
Ranked #142Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Studies efficient test-time compute allocation and resampling strategies for compact recursive reasoning models.
FORGE: Procedural Weight Generation for Sparse MoE Inference
The paper introduces FORGE, an on-chip datapath that regenerates sparse mixture-of-experts weights from compact seeds during inference.
Ranked #143New way to see a problemPeer-reviewed6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes on-the-fly weight generation to optimize memory and throughput in MoE models.
Efficient Resource-Shiftable RL Post-training with Generative Rewards
The paper presents PivotRL, a system that dynamically shifts GPU resources among rollout, reward modeling, and training during post-training.
Ranked #144New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Improves GPU resource efficiency during RL post-training for large language models.
Context-Aware Precision Scheduling for Small Language Models
The paper proposes a context-aware mixed-precision scheduling method to balance execution latency and accuracy for small language models.
Ranked #145New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Presents a context-aware mixed-precision scheduling method to improve efficiency for small language models.
The Price of Precision: A Calibrated Cost Model for Mixed-Precision LLM Serving
The paper presents a hardware-calibrated cost model to optimize mixed-precision serving configurations across varying batch sizes and context lengths.
Ranked #146New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Introduces a cost model for mixed-precision large language model serving to optimize inference efficiency.
Fast and Accurate: Improving Personalized LLM Performance by Semantic Concentration Inspired Workload Split between RAG and Fine-Tuning
This paper splits personalized language model workloads between parameter-efficient fine-tuning and retrieval based on historical data semantic concentration.
Ranked #147New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes splitting workloads between PEFT and RAG to lower inference latency.
BARTER: Compact Dynamic Sparse Training with Standard Dense Kernels
This paper presents a dynamic sparse training method that reduces compute overhead by maintaining compact tensors with standard dense kernels.
Ranked #148New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Introduces dynamic sparse training using standard dense kernels to reduce model compute and cost.
SelectTTRL: Representation-Guided Data Selection for Efficient Test-Time Reinforcement Learning
This paper presents a method using internal representation similarity to identify which test problems benefit from test-time reinforcement learning.
Ranked #149New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes a data selection method to make test-time reinforcement learning inference and adaptation more efficient.
Swarm Telepathy: Prefill-Free KV-Cache Transfer Across Families
Enables prefill-free multi-agent communication across different language model families using cross-model key-value cache transfer.
Ranked #150New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Enables prefill-free cross-family KV-cache transfer to speed up multi-model inference.
Representation Drift in Continual Learning: LoRA versus N-gram Memory
Measures representation drift across continual learning methods, finding n-gram memory updates cause less internal drift than LoRA.
Ranked #151Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Investigates parameter-efficient continual learning comparing N-gram memory against LoRA adapters.
EdgeLLM-Nano: Auditing Polar-Guided Key-Cache Compression and Consistency-Anchored Pruning on a 33.6 MB On-Device Language Model
This paper audits key-cache compression and weight pruning techniques on a small edge-deployed language model testbed.
Ranked #152Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Audits KV-cache compression and pruning on an ultra-compact on-device model.
ObsSpec: Accelerating Agentic Reinforcement Learning with Observation Speculation
This paper introduces an observation speculation framework using small world models to accelerate reinforcement learning rollouts for tool-using agents.
Ranked #153New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Uses speculative execution with a small world model to speed up agentic model rollouts.
Beyond Adjacent Layers: Graph-Guided Layer Fusion for Compressing Large Language Models
This paper introduces a graph-guided layer fusion method that identifies and merges functionally redundant non-adjacent layers to compress language models.
Ranked #154Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Presents a non-adjacent layer fusion method to compress LLMs for efficiency.
Adaptive-Depth Is a Finishing Stage
The paper proposes training looped transformers at variable depths only during a short finishing stage to reduce compute costs.
Ranked #155Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Reduces training compute and enables adaptive-depth inference compute control in looped transformers.
From Transfer Probes to Expert Grouping: Evidence from LoRA Post-Training
The paper examines using transfer probes to group business tasks when sharing Low-Rank Adaptation experts under fixed parameter budgets.
Ranked #156Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Evaluates resource-constrained LoRA expert grouping strategies for efficient multi-line model serving.
When More Memory Fails: Hidden Feasibility Holes in Dynamic Tensor Rematerialization
The paper investigates dynamic tensor rematerialization, identifying cases where increasing memory budgets causes training to unexpectedly run out of memory.
Ranked #157Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Analyzes memory-budget eviction anomalies in Dynamic Tensor Rematerialization for efficient model training.
Demystifying On-Policy Distillation: Where Does the Teacher's Advantage Live?
The paper examines teacher interventions along student generation paths to identify how teacher guidance drives performance gains in on-policy distillation.
Ranked #158Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 15:06
On-topic
Analyzes on-policy distillation mechanisms to understand how student models effectively absorb teacher knowledge.
Task-Phase-Conditioned Expert Routing Is Not a Reliable Proxy for Quantization Sensitivity in MoE FFN Tensors
This paper shows that routing statistics across task phases fail to provide an effective guide for mixed-precision quantization in mixture-of-experts models.
Ranked #159Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 17 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Studies mixed-precision quantization strategies for Mixture-of-Experts language models.
Teach Me After You Learn It: Lookahead Self-Distillation for RLVR
This paper proposes Lookahead Self-Distillation, providing cross-instance token-level supervision to improve reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards for language models.
Ranked #160New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Investigates on-policy self-distillation techniques to train language models more effectively.
Efficiently Learning To Reason or Not to Reason: Root-token Policy Optimization for Adaptive Thinking
This paper presents an optimization method that trains models to decide when to invoke reasoning tokens, reducing unnecessary thinking overhead.
Ranked #161Surprising resultPeer-reviewed6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Reduces training compute and VRAM overhead by adaptively skipping unnecessary reasoning traces.
DRanker: A Transformer-Based Multi-Task Ranking Model for the Disney+ Homepage
The paper presents an encoder-only transformer ranking model deployed at Disney+ that uses lightweight debiasing to improve recommendations.
Ranked #162Surprising resultPeer-reviewed6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Details an efficient transformer architecture and lightweight inference stack for production ranking.
Dissecting the Carbon-SLO Tension in Geo-Distributed LLM Serving
The paper evaluates carbon-aware scheduling for geographically distributed language model serving under strict latency service-level objectives using an empirical simulator.
Ranked #163New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Investigates latency and scheduling optimizations for efficient geo-distributed LLM serving.
ChunkAct: Action Chunking for Agentic Robotics
The paper introduces action chunking for agentic robotics to execute pre-planned primitive routines without redundant model reasoning at each step.
Ranked #164New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Reduces LLM calls and reasoning costs during multi-step robotic agent execution.
Lightweight but Linguistically Fair? Quantisation Robustness across Bavarian, German, and English
The authors evaluate how 8-bit and 4-bit quantization methods affect model accuracy across Bavarian, Standard German, and English benchmarks.
Ranked #165Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Evaluates the impact of 8-bit and 4-bit quantization methods across dialects.
LoOPSD: On-Policy Self-Distillation with Looped Teachers
This paper introduces a self-distillation method that searches over repeated layer execution orders to create stronger teacher guidance.
Ranked #166New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Uses self-distillation across looped layers to improve small model reasoning efficiency.
PaceReasoner: Label-Free Learning to Answer Briefly from Long Reasoning
Introduces PaceReasoner, using long reasoning outputs during test-time reinforcement learning to boost the accuracy of brief, low-latency model answers.
Ranked #167New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Improves short-form reasoning accuracy while drastically reducing token overhead and inference latency.
RT-J: Large-Scale Pretraining of Relational Transformers for Context-Efficient Predictions
Presents RT-J, a relational transformer pretrained on diverse databases to achieve strong in-context table predictions with few sample examples.
Ranked #168New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Develops a small 85M relational model that achieves high accuracy with few in-context examples.
LatentRemedy: Efficient Remedy For Non-Prefix KV Cache Reuse in Multi-Agent Systems
LatentRemedy uses task-conditioned latent tokens to allow safe key-value cache reuse across conflicting tasks in multi-agent systems.
Ranked #169New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Improves inference efficiency by enabling non-prefix KV cache reuse across agents.
BELT : BEhavior-Aligned Low-Rank KV Cache Compression with Learned Top-k Rank Allocation
BELT compresses key-value caches using attention-distribution alignment and learned global rank allocation across model heads.
Ranked #170New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Introduces low-rank KV cache compression to improve inference throughput and memory efficiency.
Understanding Personalization Gains in Whisper
The paper studies low-rank adaptation in Whisper to evaluate whether transcription gains require group-specific adapters rather than pooled fine-tuning.
Ranked #171Surprising resultPeer-reviewed6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Analyzes lightweight LoRA parameter-efficient adaptation strategies for Whisper models.
SuPER-Mamba: Surprisal Prioritization for Extended-Context Routing in Mamba
Improves long-context handling in Mamba state space models without retraining by using surprisal scores to guide state routing.
Ranked #172New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Provides a training-free state routing framework for efficient long-context processing in Mamba.
LLM-based User-Product Relevance Evaluation for Dynamic Product Advertising
The paper introduces a large language model-based metric for offline evaluation of user-product relevance in dynamic product advertising retrieval.
Ranked #173New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Distills teacher LLM relevance judgments into an efficient student model for deployment.
Growing and Transferring Pathways for LLM Reinforcement Learning
Proposes structural growth pathways to preserve pretrained weights during reinforcement learning and enable transfer across language models.
Ranked #174New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Enables efficient parameter reuse and transfer across LLMs by freezing backbones and training compact pathways.
REVEAL: Reverse Engineering Agentic Latents from Frontier-Model Traces
Extracts reusable local control signals from frontier model traces to guide smaller language model agents without extra target-model training.
Ranked #175New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Enables transferring high-capability frontier agent behaviors to smaller, frozen open-source models.
ELECT: Settling Identity Before Rendering for Scalable Story Visualization
The paper proposes a training-free method establishing entity identity before final rendering to maintain visual consistency across long storyboards.
Ranked #176New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Reduces story generation memory footprint and rendering inference costs.
Recurrent In-Context Learning for Tabular Foundation Models
This paper introduces parameter-tied recurrent blocks to reduce model size in tabular foundation models without sacrificing performance.
Ranked #177New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:17
On-topic
Shares layer parameters to reduce model size by 62% while enabling flexible inference compute.
AlignPred: Error-Controlled KV Cache Compression via Alignment and Predictive Coding
This paper presents an error-controlled compression codec for key-value caches using coordinate alignment and predictive coding.
Ranked #178New way to see a problemPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes an error-controlled KV cache compression and predictive coding scheme to optimize serving memory and speed.
How Low Can You Go: Fine-Tuning LLMs with Bayesian Optimization (LlMBO)
This paper proposes LlMBO, applying Bayesian optimization to ultra-low-dimensional fine-tuning as an alternative to gradient-based policy optimization.
Ranked #179Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Proposes an ultra-low parameter, sample-efficient Bayesian optimization method to fine-tune LLMs with minimal compute.
FastEEP: Fast Intra-Instance Elastic Scaling for Expert-Parallel MoE Serving
This paper presents FastEEP, a system that speeds up intra-instance elastic scaling for Mixture-of-Experts serving by reusing runtime state.
Ranked #180Surprising resultPreprint6/10 suggested
Small and efficient models
via arxiv · 15 Oct, 06:18
On-topic
Introduces elastic intra-instance scaling to make large MoE LLM serving and inference faster and more resource-efficient.
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