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Similarity of Neural Network Models: A Survey of Functional and Representational Measures

Max Klabunde, Tobias Schumacher, Markus Strohmaier, Florian Lemmerich

2025ACM Computing Surveys14 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Measuring similarity of neural networks to understand and improve their behavior has become an issue of great importance and research interest. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive overview of two complementary perspectives of measuring neural network similarity: (i) representational similarity, which considers how activations of intermediate layers differ, and (ii) functional similarity, which considers how models differ in their outputs . In addition to providing detailed descriptions of existing measures, we summarize and discuss results on the properties of and relationships between these measures, and point to open research problems. We hope our work lays a foundation for more systematic research on the properties and applicability of similarity measures for neural network models.

Topics & Concepts

Computer scienceSimilarity (geometry)Artificial intelligenceArtificial neural networkInformation retrievalNatural language processingMachine learningImage (mathematics)Neural Networks and ApplicationsTime Series Analysis and ForecastingStock Market Forecasting Methods