In this work, we propose GPT-FL, a generative pre-trained model-assisted federated learning (FL) framework. At its core, GPT-FL leverages generative pre-trained models to generate diversified synthetic data. These generated data are used to train a downstream model on the server, which is then fine-tuned with private client data under the standard FL framework. We show that GPT-FL consistently outperforms state-of-the-art FL methods in terms of model test accuracy, communication efficiency, and client sampling efficiency. Through comprehensive ablation analysis, we discover that the downstream model generated by synthetic data plays a crucial role in controlling the direction of gradient diversity during FL training, which enhances convergence speed and contributes to the notable accuracy boost observed with GPT-FL. Also, regardless of whether the target data falls within or outside the domain of the pre-trained generative model, GPT-FL consistently achieves significant performance gains, surpassing the results obtained by models trained solely with FL or synthetic data.

翻译：本文提出GPT-FL，一种生成式预训练模型辅助的联邦学习框架。其核心思想是利用生成式预训练模型生成多样化的合成数据，这些数据用于在服务器端训练下游模型，随后在标准联邦学习框架下使用私有客户端数据进行微调。我们证明，GPT-FL在模型测试精度、通信效率和客户端采样效率方面始终优于最先进的联邦学习方法。通过全面的消融分析发现，合成数据生成的下游模型在联邦学习训练过程中对梯度多样性的方向控制起关键作用，从而加速收敛并显著提升GPT-FL的准确率。此外，无论目标数据是否属于预训练生成模型的领域范围，GPT-FL均能实现显著的性能提升，超越仅使用联邦学习或仅使用合成数据训练的模型所得结果。