Junxing Hu

Ai Han, Junxing Hu, Pu Wei et al.

Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) has emerged as a prominent paradigm for increasingly complex tasks. However, joint evolution across heterogeneous agents remains challenging due to cooperative inefficiency and training instability. In this paper, we propose the joint evolution dynamics for MARL called JoyAgents-R1, which first applies Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) to the joint training of heterogeneous multi-agents. By iteratively refining agents' large language models (LLMs) and memories, the method achieves holistic equilibrium with optimal decision-making and memory capabilities. Specifically, JoyAgents-R1 first implements node-wise Monte Carlo sampling on the behavior of each agent across entire reasoning trajectories to enhance GRPO sampling efficiency while maintaining policy diversity. Then, our marginal benefit-driven selection strategy identifies top-$K$ sampling groups with maximal reward fluctuations, enabling targeted agent model updates that improve training stability and maximize joint benefits through cost-effective parameter adjustments. Meanwhile, JoyAgents-R1 introduces an adaptive memory evolution mechanism that repurposes GRPO rewards as cost-free supervisory signals to eliminate repetitive reasoning and accelerate convergence. Experiments across general and domain-specific scenarios demonstrate that JoyAgents-R1 achieves performance comparable to that of larger LLMs while built on smaller open-source models.

Zicheng Zhang, Haoran Li, Jiaxing Wang et al.

In Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA), the scaling factor $α$ is often treated as a mere complement to the learning rate, yet its role in optimization remains poorly understood. In this paper, we reveal that the scaling factor $α$ and the learning rate function differently, with $α$ emerging as the dominant driver of effective optimization, delivering gains that cannot be replicated by learning rate scaling alone. Through the synergy of extensive empirical analysis and a theoretical Signal-Drift framework, we uncover three findings into LoRA's scaling mechanism: First, LoRA's spectral suppression smooths the optimization landscape, rendering standard hyperparameters overly conservative and creating an optimization gap. Second, when leveraging this smoothness to accelerate convergence, $α$ outperforms the learning rate by amplifying the task signal without increasing the drift ratio. Third, the optimal scaling factor follows a sublinear relationship with the rank, well characterized by a square-root law with an unexpectedly large coefficient, revealing the insufficient scaling of existing rank-tied heuristics. Based on these insights, we propose LoRA-$α$, a minimalist framework that restores $α$ to its principled regime, making LoRA compatible with standard small learning rates. Extensive evaluations across diverse tasks demonstrate that LoRA-$α$ consistently improves performance while streamlining hyperparameter search, unleashing the learning potential of LoRA.

Zicheng Zhang, Haoran Li, Yifeng Zhang et al.

Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) offers a parameter-efficient paradigm for tuning large models. While recent spectral initialization methods improve convergence and performance over the naive "Noise & Zeros" scheme, their extra computational and storage overhead undermines efficiency. In this paper, we establish update magnitude as the fundamental driver of LoRA performance and propose LoRAM, a magnitude-driven "Basis & Basis" initialization scheme that matches spectral methods without their inefficiencies. Our key contributions are threefold: (i) Magnitude of weight updates determines convergence. We prove low-rank structures intrinsically bound update magnitudes, unifying hyperparameter tuning in learning rate, scaling factor, and initialization as mechanisms to optimize magnitude regulation. (ii) Spectral initialization succeeds via magnitude amplification. We demystify that the presumed knowledge-driven benefit of the spectral component essentially arises from the boost in the weight update magnitude. (iii) A novel and compact initialization strategy, LoRAM, scales deterministic orthogonal bases using pretrained weight magnitudes to simulate spectral gains. Extensive experiments show that LoRAM serves as a strong baseline, retaining the full efficiency of LoRA while matching or outperforming spectral initialization across benchmarks.