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Universality of Gradient Descent Neural Network Training

A new paper on arXiv (2007.13664) proves a universality result for neural network training: if any algorithm can find good weights for a classification task, then an extension of the network can reproduce those weights and outputs via gradient descent alone. The authors state the construction is not intended for practical use but offers insight into meta-learning possibilities.

read2 min views5 publishedAug 20, 2026
Universality of Gradient Descent Neural Network Training
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[Submitted on 27 Jul 2020]


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Abstract:It has been observed that design choices of neural networks are often crucial for their successful optimization. In this article, we therefore discuss the question if it is always possible to redesign a neural network so that it trains well with gradient descent. This yields the following universality result: If, for a given network, there is any algorithm that can find good network weights for a classification task, then there exists an extension of this network that reproduces these weights and the corresponding forward output by mere gradient descent training. The construction is not intended for practical computations, but it provides some orientation on the possibilities of meta-learning and related approaches.

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