On-Chip Learning via Transformer In-Context Learning

Autoregressive decoder-only transformers have become key components for scalable sequence processing and generation models. However, the transformer’s self-attention mechanism requires transferring prior token projections from the main memory at each time step (token), thus severely limiting their performance on conventional processors. Self-attention can be viewed as a dynamic feed-forward layer whose matrix is input sequence-dependent, similar to the result of local synaptic plasticity. Using this insight, we present a neuromorphic decoder-only transformer model that utilizes an on-chip plasticity processor to compute self-attention. Interestingly, the training of transformers enables them to "learn" the input context during inference. We demonstrate this in-context learning ability of transformers on the Loihi 2 processor by solving a few-shot classification problem. With this, we emphasize the importance of pretrained models, especially their ability to find simple, local, backpropagation-free learning rules enabling on-chip learning and adaptation in a hardware-friendly manner.