How to create a Dense layer with no bias?

In PyTorch I can write:
nn.Linear(emb, emb * heads, bias=False)
Any idea how to do this in S4TF?
Thank you

It looks like currently their Dense layer and other types of layers like convolutional always incorporate a bias. Perhaps, they may change this in a later version. You could take their Dense layer and create your own version without bias like this:

public struct DenseNoBias<Scalar: TensorFlowFloatingPoint>: Layer {
    /// The weight matrix.
    public var weight: Tensor<Scalar>
    /// The element-wise activation function.
    @noDerivative public let activation: Activation
    /// Indicates whether this is a batched dense layer.
    @noDerivative internal let batched: Bool

    /// The element-wise activation function type.
    public typealias Activation = @differentiable (Tensor<Scalar>) -> Tensor<Scalar>

    public init(
        weight: Tensor<Scalar>,
        activation: @escaping Activation
    ) {
        precondition(weight.rank <= 3, "The rank of the 'weight' tensor must be less than 4.")
        self.weight = weight
        self.activation = activation
        self.batched = weight.rank == 3
    }

    /// Returns the output obtained from applying the layer to the given input.
    ///
    /// - Parameter input: The input to the layer.
    /// - Returns: The output.
    @differentiable
    public func callAsFunction(_ input: Tensor<Scalar>) -> Tensor<Scalar> {
        if batched {
            let hidden = matmul(input.expandingShape(at: 1), weight)
            return activation(hidden.squeezingShape(at: 1))
        }
        return activation(matmul(input, weight))
    }
}

public extension DenseNoBias {
    /// Creates a `Dense` layer with the specified input size, output size, and element-wise
    /// activation function. The weight matrix is created with shape `[inputSize, outputSize]` and
    /// the bias vector is created with shape `[outputSize]`.
    ///
    /// - Parameters:
    ///   - inputSize: The dimensionality of the input space.
    ///   - outputSize: The dimensionality of the output space.
    ///   - activation: The activation function to use. The default value is `identity(_:)`.
    ///   - weightInitializer: Initializer to use for `weight`.
    init(
        inputSize: Int,
        outputSize: Int,
        activation: @escaping Activation = identity,
        weightInitializer: ParameterInitializer<Scalar> = glorotUniform()
    ) {
        self.init(
            weight: weightInitializer([inputSize, outputSize]),
            activation: activation)
    }
}
1 Like

Thank you. This is very helpful.
I tried to implement this as a special case of Dense, but that didn’t work, because things like
public var bias: Tensor<Scalar>?
are not differentiable.

If you want a general one, you could do it this way:

public struct Dense<Scalar: TensorFlowFloatingPoint>: Layer {
    /// The weight matrix.
    public var weight: Tensor<Scalar>
    /// The bias vector.
    public var bias: Tensor<Scalar>
    /// The element-wise activation function.
    @noDerivative public let activation: Activation
    /// Indicates whether this is a batched dense layer.
    @noDerivative internal let batched: Bool
    /// Indicates whether to use bias or not.
    @noDerivative public let useBias: Bool

    /// The element-wise activation function type.
    public typealias Activation = @differentiable (Tensor<Scalar>) -> Tensor<Scalar>

    public init(
        weight: Tensor<Scalar>,
        bias: Tensor<Scalar>,
        activation: @escaping Activation,
        useBias: Bool = true
    ) {
        precondition(weight.rank <= 3, "The rank of the 'weight' tensor must be less than 4.")
        precondition(bias.rank <= 2, "The rank of the 'bias' tensor must be less than 3.")
        self.weight = weight
        self.bias = bias
        self.activation = activation
        self.batched = weight.rank == 3
        self.useBias = useBias
    }

    /// Returns the output obtained from applying the layer to the given input.
    ///
    /// - Parameter input: The input to the layer.
    /// - Returns: The output.
    @differentiable
    public func callAsFunction(_ input: Tensor<Scalar>) -> Tensor<Scalar> {
        var hidden: Tensor<Scalar>
        if batched {
            hidden = matmul(input.expandingShape(at: 1), weight)
                                 .squeezingShape(at: 1)
        } else {
            hidden = matmul(input, weight)
        }
        if useBias {
            hidden = hidden + bias
        }
        return activation(hidden)
    }
}

public extension Dense {
    /// Creates a `Dense` layer with the specified input size, output size, and element-wise
    /// activation function. The weight matrix is created with shape `[inputSize, outputSize]` and
    /// the bias vector is created with shape `[outputSize]`.
    ///
    /// - Parameters:
    ///   - inputSize: The dimensionality of the input space.
    ///   - outputSize: The dimensionality of the output space.
    ///   - activation: The activation function to use. The default value is `identity(_:)`.
    ///   - weightInitializer: Initializer to use for `weight`.
    ///   - biasInitializer: Initializer to use for `bias`.
    init(
        inputSize: Int,
        outputSize: Int,
        activation: @escaping Activation = identity,
        weightInitializer: ParameterInitializer<Scalar> = glorotUniform(),
        biasInitializer: ParameterInitializer<Scalar> = zeros(),
        useBias: Bool = true
    ) {
        self.init(
            weight: weightInitializer([inputSize, outputSize]),
            bias: biasInitializer([outputSize]),
            activation: activation,
            useBias: useBias)
    }
}
1 Like

Yes, but this still allocates a tensor for the bias when useBias = false.

public extension Dense {                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
      init(                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
          inputSize: Int,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
          outputSize: Int,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
          activation: @escaping Activation = identity,                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
          weightInitializer: ParameterInitializer<Scalar> = glorotUniform(),                                                                                                                                                                                                       
          biasInitializer: ParameterInitializer<Scalar> = zeros(),                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
          useBias: Bool = true                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
      ) {                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
          let bias = useBias ? biasInitializer([outputSize]) : biasInitializer([1])                                                                                                                                                                       
          self.init(                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
              weight: weightInitializer([inputSize, outputSize]),                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
              bias: bias,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
              activation: activation,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
              useBias: useBias)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
      }                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  }                                            

Above snippet is maybe be a workaround. Not sure if it’s possible to create an empty tensor in TF.

1 Like

let bias = useBias ? biasInitializer([outputSize]) : Tensor<Scalar>(shape: [0], repeating: Scalar(0))

1 Like

Excellent, thank you

1 Like