KAN: Kolmogorov–Arnold Networks

ICLR 2025 Conference Submission5796 Authors

Keywords: Kolmogorov-Arnold networks, Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem, learnable activation functions, interpretability, AI + Science

TL;DR: Inspired by the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem, we propose Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KANs) as promising alternatives to Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs).

Abstract: Inspired by the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem, we propose Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KANs) as promising alternatives to Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs). While MLPs have fixed activation functions on nodes ("neurons''), KANs have learnable activation functions on edges ("weights''). KANs have no linear weights at all -- every weight parameter is replaced by a univariate function parametrized as a spline. We show that this seemingly simple change makes KANs outperform MLPs in terms of accuracy and interpretability, on small-scale AI + Science tasks. For accuracy, smaller KANs can achieve comparable or better accuracy than larger MLPs in function fitting tasks. Theoretically and empirically, KANs possess faster neural scaling laws than MLPs. For interpretability, KANs can be intuitively visualized and can easily interact with human users. Through two examples in mathematics and physics, KANs are shown to be useful ``collaborators'' helping scientists (re)discover mathematical and physical laws. In summary, KANs are promising alternatives for MLPs. Despite the slow training of KANs, their improved accuracy and interpretability show the potential to improve today's deep learning models which rely heavily on MLPs. More research is necessary to make KANs' training more efficient.

Primary Area: applications to physical sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.)

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Submission Number: 5796