4 papers · 1 filter
Counting Like Transformers: Compiling Temporal Counting Logic Into Softmax Transformers
Andy Yang, David Chiang
Deriving formal bounds on the expressivity of transformers, as well as studying transformers that are constructed to implement known algorithms, are both effective methods for bett…
Transformers as Transducers
Lena Strobl, Dana Angluin, David Chiang +2
We study the sequence-to-sequence mapping capacity of transformers by relating them to finite transducers, and find that they can express surprisingly large classes of transduction…
Masked Hard-Attention Transformers Recognize Exactly the Star-Free Languages
Andy Yang, David Chiang, Dana Angluin
The expressive power of transformers over inputs of unbounded size can be studied through their ability to recognize classes of formal languages. In this paper, we establish exact…
What Formal Languages Can Transformers Express? A Survey
Lena Strobl, William Merrill, Gail Weiss +2
As transformers have gained prominence in natural language processing, some researchers have investigated theoretically what problems they can and cannot solve, by treating problem…