Parameter-Efficient Variational AutoEncoder for Multimodal Multi-Interest Recommendation

Learning user preferences in recommendation systems is enriched by multimodal features, such as textual and visual content, and amplified by multi-interest modeling with Variational AutoEncoders (VAEs). However, prior efforts are limited by single modality focus and cumbersome, parameter-heavy architecture designs. To address these limitations, we introduce an innovative solution that blends the semantic richness of multimodal data with the representational power of multi-representation VAEs. Drawing inspiration from Mixture of Experts (MoE), we cast each VAE as an expert tailored to a specific modality, then fuse them via a novel parameter-merging function into a lean, unified model. This approach efficiently captures diverse user preferences behind multimodal data with minimal complexity. Rigorous experiments on real-world benchmarks show our method outshines state-of-the-art baselines while slashing parameter counts. Our work sets a new, streamlined standard for multimodal, multi-interest recommendation systems.