Paper

Program-as-Weights: A Programming Paradigm for Fuzzy Functions

Wentao Zhang, Liliana Hotsko, Woojeong Kim, Pengyu Nie, Stuart Shieber, Yuntian Deng

First arXiv submission: · NeurIPS 2026 (accepted)

Proposes fuzzy-function programming: compile a natural-language function specification into a neural program, then reuse it locally.

What it does

Develops the compiler–interpreter abstraction and programs that combine text with learned parameters. Introduces the 10M-example FuzzyBench dataset, local execution interfaces, and image-conditioned compilation. Prefix tuning and LoRA are two implementations.

Conditioning
A function specification, optionally with examples. The image extension also accepts visual information.
Program form
A discrete pseudo-program and a compiler-generated parameter-efficient module.
Execution
A frozen lightweight interpreter loads the program and runs new inputs locally.

Related work

Compile by Training builds on this programming abstraction. It keeps the same interface and refines the fast compiler’s prediction using synthesized examples.

Read the discussion ↗

Limitations

Each compiler produces programs for a specific interpreter. Compiled parameters are opaque, and FuzzyBench uses synthetic data.

Related terms: Program-as-Weights, ProgramAsWeights, PAW, fuzzy-function programming, neural compiler, neural interpreter, FuzzyBench.

Related methods

From generated adapters to reusable functions

Hypter, HINT, HyperTuning, and Text-to-LoRA generate adaptations from descriptions or examples. PAW uses generated parameters as part of a program that can be saved, called from ordinary code, and reused by a fixed interpreter.

Code and neural programs

ALCHEmist generates symbolic labeling programs. PAW compiles fuzzy functions into text and learned parameters. Both build an artifact once and reuse it; one runs as code, the other on a neural interpreter.

What gets reused?

Gisting caches a few instruction activations. Generative Adapter stores context in parameter updates. PAW saves a function as a program containing text and a neural module.

Program form and compiler

LoRA represents adaptation as low-rank weight updates; prefix tuning uses continuous activations. Their original methods learn these parameters from examples. PAW generates both forms from specifications.

Fast prediction and training

PAW’s fast compiler predicts a program. Compile by Training starts from that prediction, generates examples, and trains an adapter. Both use the same runtime interface; the extra training improves semantic accuracy on FuzzyBench-Hard at a higher compilation cost.

Cite this paper

ArXiv preprint

arXiv:2607.02512, initial submission 2026-07-02.

Preprint BibTeX · Preprint CSL-JSON

Downloads

JSON record · Markdown · Find in the full list