From Shortcut Learning to Discrete Neural Insertion Sort
Neural algorithmic reasoning aims to train neural networks to follow known algorithms and generalize beyond the input sizes seen during training. However, correct final outputs and intermediate supervision do not necessarily show that a model follows the intended execution. We study this problem using insertion sort. Our analysis of the CLRS30 baseline NAR shows that the hint objective is weakly optimized and that hint accuracy remains low. Moreover, many intermediate representations can already be decoded into sorted sequences before the reference insertion-sort execution terminates, suggesting that the model learns a shortcut to the final output. Motivated by these findings, we introduc...
| Authors | Konstantinos Mylonas, Thrasyvoulos Spyropoulos |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.LG |
| Published | 25 September 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 25 September 2026 |
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