CAST: Closed-form Analytic Semantic Transfer for Zero-Shot Classifier Extension

Abstract

Large pre-trained models have become foundational components of modern machine learning systems. Yet adapting these models to novel categories typically requires examples from the target distribution. In many domains, however, such data are unavailable. Zero-shot learning (ZSL) permits recognition under these limitations through relying on auxiliary semantic information such as textual descriptions. We introduce CAST (Closed-form Analytic Semantic Transfer), a training-free, image-free framework for extending a pre-trained classifier to previously unseen classes through weight injection. We provide a theoretical foundation for CAST and derive a finite-sample error decomposition that identifies the \emph{semantic extrapolation residual} $ρ_u$. The residual is a computable, model-agnostic measure and provides a principled criterion for dataset curation and benchmark design. Experiments on standard zero-shot learning benchmarks demonstrate that CAST matches or exceeds existing image-free approaches and approaches the performance of few-shot adaptation methods, while requiring neither iterative optimization nor examples from the target distribution.