[2601.19897] Self-Distillation Enables Continual Learning

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Computer Science > Machine Learning

arXiv:2601.19897 (cs)

[Submitted on 27 Jan 2026]

Title:Self-Distillation Enables Continual Learning

Authors:Idan Shenfeld, Mehul Damani, Jonas Hübotter, Pulkit Agrawal<br>View a PDF of the paper titled Self-Distillation Enables Continual Learning, by Idan Shenfeld and 2 other authors

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Abstract:Continual learning, enabling models to acquire new skills and knowledge without degrading existing capabilities, remains a fundamental challenge for foundation models. While on-policy reinforcement learning can reduce forgetting, it requires explicit reward functions that are often unavailable. Learning from expert demonstrations, the primary alternative, is dominated by supervised fine-tuning (SFT), which is inherently off-policy. We introduce Self-Distillation Fine-Tuning (SDFT), a simple method that enables on-policy learning directly from demonstrations. SDFT leverages in-context learning by using a demonstration-conditioned model as its own teacher, generating on-policy training signals that preserve prior capabilities while acquiring new skills. Across skill learning and knowledge acquisition tasks, SDFT consistently outperforms SFT, achieving higher new-task accuracy while substantially reducing catastrophic forgetting. In sequential learning experiments, SDFT enables a single model to accumulate multiple skills over time without performance regression, establishing on-policy distillation as a practical path to continual learning from demonstrations.

Subjects:

Machine Learning (cs.LG)

Cite as:<br>arXiv:2601.19897 [cs.LG]

(or<br>arXiv:2601.19897v1 [cs.LG] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.19897

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arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history<br>From: Idan Shenfeld [view email]<br>[v1]<br>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:59:08 UTC (1,240 KB)

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