Drift-Aware Incremental Token Adaptation with Collaborative Semantics for Generative Recommendation
Abstract
Generative recommendation commonly adopts a two-stage pipeline in which a learnable tokenizer maps items to discrete token sequences (i.e., identifiers) and an autoregressive generative recommender model (GRM) performs prediction based on these identifiers. Recent tokenizers further incorporate collaborative signals so that items with similar user-behavior patterns receive similar codes, substantially improving recommendation quality. However, real-world environments evolve continuously: new items cause identifier collision and shifts, while new interactions induce collaborative drift in existing items (e.g., changing co-occurrence patterns and popularity). Fully retraining both tokenizer and GRM is often prohibitively expensive, yet naively fine-tuning the tokenizer can alter token sequences for the majority of existing items, undermining the GRM's learned token–embedding alignment. To balance plasticity and stability for collaborative tokenizers, we propose DACT, a Drift-Aware Continual Tokenization framework with two stages: (i) tokenizer fine-tuning, augmented with a jointly trained Collaborative Drift Identification Module (CDIM) that outputs item-level drift confidence and enables differentiated optimization for drifting and stationary items; and (ii) hierarchical code reassignment using a relaxed-to-strict strategy to update token sequences while limiting unnecessary changes. Experiments on three real-world datasets with two representative GRMs show that DACT consistently achieves better performance than baselines, demonstrating effective adaptation to collaborative evolution with reduced disruption to prior knowledge. Our implementation is publicly available at https://github.com/HomesAmaranta/DACT for reproducibility.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yang Zhang 0072 | 61 | 70 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 70 IGD: Token Decisiveness Modeling via Information Gain in LLMs for Personalized Recommendation (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 70 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 2 | Yupeng Hou | 58 | 77 ActionPiece: Contextually Tokenizing Action Sequences for Generative Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 72 Learning Vector-Quantized Item Representation for Transferable Sequential Recommenders (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 71 Towards Large Generative Recommendation: A Tokenization Perspective (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 3 | Ed H. Chi | 52 | 89 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 76 Recommender Systems with Generative Retrieval (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 71 Better Generalization with Semantic IDs: A Case Study in Ranking for Recommendations (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Xiaoyi Zeng | 48 |
Area-chair candidates (3)
| Xiaoyi Zeng assigned | 48 | 11 papers | |
| Maolin Wang 0001 | 48 | 15 papers | |
| Pengyue Jia | 47 | 10 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yang Zhang 0072 assigned | 61 | 3 | 70 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 70 IGD: Token Decisiveness Modeling via Information Gain in LLMs for Personalized Recommendation (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 2 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 | 59 | 3 | 70 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 63 Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommender (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 3 | Jizhi Zhang | 58 | 3 | 90 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 70 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 4 | Yupeng Hou assigned | 58 | 3 | 77 ActionPiece: Contextually Tokenizing Action Sequences for Generative Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 72 Learning Vector-Quantized Item Representation for Transferable Sequential Recommenders (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 5 | Jieming Zhu | 58 | 3 | 71 CoST: Contrastive Quantization based Semantic Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 71 Learning Multi-aspect Item Palette: A Semantic Tokenization Framework for Generative Recommendation (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 6 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 57 | 3 | 72 Bridging Textual-Collaborative Gap through Semantic Codes for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 63 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 7 | Bo Chen 0023 | 55 | 3 | 62 Large language models make sample-efficient recommender systems (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 62 How Can Recommender Systems Benefit from Large Language Models: A Survey (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 8 | Ed H. Chi assigned | 52 | 3 | 89 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 76 Recommender Systems with Generative Retrieval (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 9 | Hao Deng 0011 | 51 | 3 | 65 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 62 MMQ: Multimodal Mixture-of-Quantization Tokenization for Semantic ID Generation and User Behavioral Adaptation (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 10 | Qijiong Liu | 51 | 3 | 71 CoST: Contrastive Quantization based Semantic Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 71 Learning Multi-aspect Item Palette: A Semantic Tokenization Framework for Generative Recommendation (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 11 | Yongqi Li 0001 | 51 | 3 | 78 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 73 Bridging Items and Language: A Transition Paradigm for Large Language Model-Based Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 12 | Chongming Gao | 51 | 3 | 67 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 67 MGFRec: Towards Reinforced Reasoning Recommendation with Multiple Groundings and Feedback (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 13 | Lichan Hong | 50 | 3 | 79 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 71 Better Generalization with Semantic IDs: A Case Study in Ranking for Recommendations (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 14 | Han Li 0005 | 50 | 3 | 76 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 62 LEARN: Knowledge Adaptation from Large Language Model to Recommendation for Practical Industrial Application (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 15 | Junjie Zhang 0009 | 50 | 3 | 63 Tapping the Potential of Large Language Models as Recommender Systems: A Comprehensive Framework and Empirical Analysis (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 63 Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Rankers for Recommender Systems (2024) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 16 | Bo Peng 0009 | 50 | 3 | 63 eCeLLM: Generalizing Large Language Models for E-commerce from Large-scale, High-quality Instruction Data (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 52 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation |
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| 17 | Lantao Hu | 49 | 3 | 76 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 75 Distinguished Quantized Guidance for Diffusion-based Sequence Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 18 | Huifeng Guo | 49 | 3 | 77 LLMTreeRec: Unleashing the Power of Large Language Models for Cold-Start Recommendations (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 57 Prompt Tuning as User Inherent Profile Inference Machine (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 19 | Jiancan Wu | 49 | 3 | 71 Towards Large Generative Recommendation: A Tokenization Perspective (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 52 Larger or Smaller Reward Margins to Select Preferences for LLM Alignment? (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 20 | Junwei Pan | 48 | 3 | 100 Incremental Learning for LLM-based Tokenization and Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 65 Empowering Large Language Model for Sequential Recommendation via Multimodal Embeddings and Semantic IDs (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 21 | Julian J. McAuley | 48 | 3 | 77 Towards Large Generative Recommendation: A Tokenization Perspective (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 72 Learning Vector-Quantized Item Representation for Transferable Sequential Recommenders (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 22 | Yongxin Ni | 48 | 3 | 53 Where to Go Next for Recommender Systems? ID- vs. Modality-based Recommender Models Revisited (2023) Multimodal Generative Recommendation 53 Efficient and Effective Adaptation of Multimodal Foundation Models in Sequential Recommendation (2025) Multimodal Generative Recommendation |
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| 23 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 48 | 3 | 64 OneLoc: Geo-Aware Generative Recommender Systems for Local Life Service (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 64 DiffGRM: Diffusion-based Generative Recommendation Model (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 25 | Jianling Wang | 48 | 3 | 62 Fresh Content Recommendation at Scale: A Multi-funnel Solution and the Potential of LLMs (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 54 Balancing Fine-tuning and RAG: A Hybrid Strategy for Dynamic LLM Recommendation Updates (2025) RAG for Domain Applications |
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| 27 | Yu Zhang 0206 | 47 | 3 | 78 MMQ: Multimodal Mixture-of-Quantization Tokenization for Semantic ID Generation and User Behavioral Adaptation (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 75 HeterRec: Heterogeneous Information Transformer for Scalable Sequential Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 28 | Hao Liu 0078 | 47 | 3 | 61 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 47 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 29 | Jinxin Hu | 47 | 3 | 72 HeterRec: Heterogeneous Information Transformer for Scalable Sequential Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 65 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 30 | Shuchang Liu 0001 | 47 | 3 | 63 Distinguished Quantized Guidance for Diffusion-based Sequence Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 62 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 31 | Xuanhua Yang | 47 | 3 | 61 GenRec: A Preference-Oriented Generative Framework for Large-Scale Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 60 Breaking the Relevance-Diversity Seesaw: Hierarchical LLM Reasoning with RL for Industrial Novelty Recommendation (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 33 | Jie Jiang 0015 | 47 | 3 | 100 Incremental Learning for LLM-based Tokenization and Recommendation (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 77 Empowering Large Language Model for Sequential Recommendation via Multimodal Embeddings and Semantic IDs (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |