2026
The Geometry of Narrow Fine-Tuning Degradation: Trajectory Lock-in and Spectral Bifurcation
ICML 2026poster
Magnitude-based stability proxies such as parameter drift are widely used in narrow-task fine-tuning, yet they do not reliably indicate degradation of broad capabilities. We identify trajectory lock-in: under fixed training conditions for narrow adaptation, the joint evolution of task loss and broad…