google-research / google-research/t5x

Clarification: no attention scores normalization when using Adafactor?

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Description

_the natural scale for adafactor LR is markedly different from Adam, one doesn't use the 1/sqrt(hidden) correction for this optimizer with attention-based models._
https://github.com/google-research/t5x/blob/540a65958a1d4d60cb779771247e7312069f56b3/t5x/adafactor.py#L219

Does this mean that we should not normalize attention scores (before the softmax) when using Adafactor? If so, could you please explain why?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with t5x/adafactor.py at the cited line and review how the optimizer's learning-rate scale relates to attention-based models. Determine whether the issue calls for a documentation clarification, and consider the question resolved when the normalization behavior and its rationale are clearly explained.

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Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
machine-learning
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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