Fine-tuning vs. In-context Learning in Large Language Models: A Formal Language Learning Perspective (2026.acl-long)
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Bishwamittra Ghosh, Soumi Das, Till Speicher, Qinyuan Wu, Mohammad Aflah Khan, Deepak Garg, Krishna P. Gummadi, Evimaria Terzi
| Challenge: | Prior studies comparing FT and ICL have yielded mixed and inconclusive results due to inconsistent experimental setups. |
| Approach: | They propose a formal language learning task with precise language boundaries, controlled string sampling, and no data contamination to enable a rigorous comparison. |
| Outcome: | The proposed task offers precise language boundaries, controlled string sampling, and no data contamination. |
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