Exploring Novel Perspectives on Model Compression Techniques and Their Impact on Adversarial Robustness in Deep Learning: A Comprehensive Review and Analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive review of model compression and adversarial robustness, two critical facets of deep learning that enhance the efficiency and security of neural networks, particularly in resource-constrained environments or when security concerns are paramount. The core novelty of this work lies in its exploration of how various model compression techniques—pruning, quantization, and knowledge distillation—affect adversarial robustness. We specifically investigate whether compressing neural networks compromises their robustness or, under certain conditions, enhances it. Our review rigorously evaluates these compression methods, analyzing their effectiveness across standard testing setups and discussing the trade-offs they impose. Additionally, we introduce a general benchmarking pipeline that assesses the robustness of compressed models against a range of adversarial attacks, factoring in compression rate and model complexity. Through a comparative analysis, we examine the performance of different compression strategies, providing the first comprehensive study of their interaction with adversarial robustness. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to systematically explore and compare all three major model compression techniques within this context.

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