Abstract: One or more computer processors obtain an initial subnetwork at a target sparsity and an initial pruning mask from a pre-trained self-supervised learning (SSL) speech model. The one or more computer processors finetune the initial subnetwork, comprising: the one or more computer processors zero out one or more masked weights in the initial subnetwork specified by the initial pruning mask; the one or more computer processors train a new subnetwork from the zeroed out subnetwork; the one or more computer processors prune one or more weights of lowest magnitude in the new subnetwork regardless of network structure to satisfy the target sparsity. The one or more computer processors classify an audio segment with the finetuned subnetwork.

Abstract: One or more computer processors obtain an initial subnetwork at a target sparsity and an initial pruning mask from a pre-trained self-supervised learning (SSL) speech model. The one or more computer processors finetune the initial subnetwork, comprising: the one or more computer processors zero out one or more masked weights in the initial subnetwork specified by the initial pruning mask; the one or more computer processors train a new subnetwork from the zeroed out subnetwork; the one or more computer processors prune one or more weights of lowest magnitude in the new subnetwork regardless of network structure to satisfy the target sparsity. The one or more computer processors classify an audio segment with the finetuned subnetwork.