Machine unlearning is vital for model optimization and privacy preservation, particularly when erasing entire data classes within classification frameworks. Nonetheless, current approaches frequently suffer from excessive computational overhead, such as calculating the inverse Hessian, or necessitate availability of the primary training set, which restricts their real-world utility. To address these limitations, we present Scrub-and-Learn, a category-aware weight adjusting framework engineered for the efficient removal of class-level information. Formulating unlearning as a sequential learning objective, our approach utilizes re-encoded labels from target class samples to steer parameter adjustments, successfully purging targeted information while maintaining the network's remaining capabilities. Empirical evaluations across several benchmarks show that our technique successfully wipes out designated categories—limiting the identification rate to under 5%—while maintaining the accuracy of the kept classes within a 4% variance compared to the baseline model.
Transparent Intelligence Publishing