GenAI4ELab/papercli-papers huggingface dataset:
FRAG: Frequency Adapting Group for Diffusion Video Editing
Authors: Sunjae Yoon; Gwanhyeong Koo; Geonwoo Kim; Chang D. Yoo
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: In video editing, the hallmark of a quality edit lies in its consistent and unobtrusive adjustment. Modification, when integrated, must be smooth and subtle, preserving the natural flow and aligning seamlessly with the original vision. Therefore, our primary focus is on overcoming the current challenges in high quality edit to ensure that each edit enhances the final product without disrupting its intended essence. However, quality deterioration such as blurring and flickering is routinely observed in recent diffusion video editing systems. We confirm that this deterioration often stems from high-frequency leak: the diffusion model fails to accurately synthesize high-frequency components during denoising process. To this end, we devise Frequency Adapting Group (FRAG) which enhances the video quality in terms of consistency and fidelity by introducing a novel receptive field branch to preserve high-frequency components during the denoising process. FRAG is performed in a model-agnostic manner without additional training and validates the effectiveness on video editing benchmarks (i.e., TGVE, DAVIS).
CasCast: Skillful High-resolution Precipitation Nowcasting via Cascaded Modelling
Authors: Junchao Gong; LEI BAI; Peng Ye; Wanghan Xu; Na Liu; Jianhua Dai; Xiaokang Yang; Wanli Ouyang
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Precipitation nowcasting based on radar data plays a crucial role in extreme weather prediction and has broad implications for disaster management. Despite progresses have been made based on deep learning, two key challenges of precipitation nowcasting are not well-solved: (i) the modeling of complex precipitation system evolutions with different scales, and (ii) accurate forecasts for extreme precipitation. In this work, we propose CasCast, a cascaded framework composed of a deterministic and a probabilistic part to decouple the predictions for mesoscale precipitation distributions and small-scale patterns. Then, we explore training the cascaded framework at the high resolution and conducting the probabilistic modeling in a low dimensional latent space with a frame-wise-guided diffusion transformer for enhancing the optimization of extreme events while reducing computational costs. Extensive experiments on three benchmark radar precipitation datasets show that CasCast achieves competitive performance. Especially, CasCast significantly surpasses the baseline (up to +91.8%) for regional extreme-precipitation nowcasting.
Trustless Audits without Revealing Data or Models
Authors: Suppakit Waiwitlikhit; Ion Stoica; Yi Sun; Tatsunori Hashimoto; Daniel Kang
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: There is an increasing conflict between business incentives to hide models and data as trade secrets, and the societal need for algorithmic transparency. For example, a rightsholder who currently wishes to know whether their copyrighted works have been used during training must convince the model provider to allow a third party to audit the model and data. Finding a mutually agreeable third party is difficult, and the associated costs often make this approach impractical. In this work, we show that it is possible to simultaneously allow model providers to keep their models and data secret while allowing other parties to trustlessly audit properties of the model and data. We do this by designing a protocol called ZkAudit in which model providers publish cryptographic commitments of datasets and model weights, alongside a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) certifying that published commitments are derived from training the model. Model providers can then respond to audit requests by privately computing any function F of the dataset (or model) and releasing the output of F alongside another ZKP certifying the correct execution of F. To enable ZkAudit, we develop new methods of computing ZKPs for SGD on modern neural nets for recommender systems and image classification models capable of high accuracies on ImageNet. Empirically, we show it is possible to provide trustless audits of DNNs, including copyright, censorship, and counterfactual audits with little to no loss in accuracy.
Generalized Neural Collapse for a Large Number of Classes
Authors: Jiachen Jiang; Jinxin Zhou; Peng Wang; Qing Qu; Dustin G. Mixon; Chong You; Zhihui Zhu
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Neural collapse provides an elegant mathematical characterization of learned last layer representations (a.k.a. features) and classifier weights in deep classification models. Such results not only provide insights but also motivate new techniques for improving practical deep models. However, most of the existing empirical and theoretical studies in neural collapse focus on the case that the number of classes is small relative to the dimension of the feature space. This paper extends neural collapse to cases where the number of classes are much larger than the dimension of feature space, which broadly occur for language models, retrieval systems, and face recognition applications. We show that the features and classifier exhibit a generalized neural collapse phenomenon, where the minimum one-vs-rest margins is maximized. We provide empirical study to verify the occurrence of generalized neural collapse in practical deep neural networks. Moreover, we provide theoretical study to show that the generalized neural collapse provably occurs under unconstrained feature model with spherical constraint, under certain technical conditions on feature dimension and number of classes.
Posterior Sampling-Based Bayesian Optimization with Tighter Bayesian Regret Bounds
Authors: Shion Takeno; Yu Inatsu; Masayuki Karasuyama; Ichiro Takeuchi
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Among various acquisition functions (AFs) in Bayesian optimization (BO), Gaussian process upper confidence bound (GP-UCB) and Thompson sampling (TS) are well-known options with established theoretical properties regarding Bayesian cumulative regret (BCR). Recently, it has been shown that a randomized variant of GP-UCB achieves a tighter BCR bound compared with GP-UCB, which we call the tighter BCR bound for brevity. Inspired by this study, this paper first shows that TS achieves the tighter BCR bound. On the other hand, GP-UCB and TS often practically suffer from manual hyperparameter tuning and over-exploration issues, respectively. Therefore, we analyze yet another AF called a probability of improvement from the maximum of a sample path (PIMS). We show that PIMS achieves the tighter BCR bound and avoids the hyperparameter tuning, unlike GP-UCB. Furthermore, we demonstrate a wide range of experiments, focusing on the effectiveness of PIMS that mitigates the practical issues of GP-UCB and TS.
Do Topological Characteristics Help in Knowledge Distillation?
Authors: Jungeun Kim; Junwon You; Dongjin Lee; Ha Young Kim; Jae-Hun Jung
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Knowledge distillation (KD) aims to transfer knowledge from larger (teacher) to smaller (student) networks. Previous studies focus on point-to-point or pairwise relationships in embedding features as knowledge and struggle to efficiently transfer relationships of complex latent spaces. To tackle this issue, we propose a novel KD method called TopKD, which considers the global topology of the latent spaces. We define *global topology knowledge* using the persistence diagram (PD) that captures comprehensive geometric structures such as shape of distribution, multiscale structure and connectivity, and the *topology distillation loss* for teaching this knowledge. To make the PD transferable within reasonable computational time, we employ approximated persistence images of PDs. Through experiments, we support the benefits of using global topology as knowledge and demonstrate the potential of TopKD. Code is available at https://github.com/jekim5418/TopKD
Compositional Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning
Authors: Yixiong Zou; Shanghang Zhang; haichen zhou; Yuhua Li; Ruixuan Li
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Few-shot class-incremental learning (FSCIL) is proposed to continually learn from novel classes with only a few samples after the (pre-)training on base classes with sufficient data. However, this remains a challenge. In contrast, humans can easily recognize novel classes with a few samples. Cognitive science demonstrates that an important component of such human capability is compositional learning. This involves identifying visual primitives from learned knowledge and then composing new concepts using these transferred primitives, making incremental learning both effective and interpretable. To imitate human compositional learning, we propose a cognitive-inspired method for the FSCIL task. We define and build a compositional model based on set similarities, and then equip it with a primitive composition module and a primitive reuse module. In the primitive composition module, we propose to utilize the Centered Kernel Alignment (CKA) similarity to approximate the similarity between primitive sets, allowing the training and evaluation based on primitive compositions. In the primitive reuse module, we enhance primitive reusability by classifying inputs based on primitives replaced with the closest primitives from other classes. Experiments on three datasets validate our method, showing it outperforms current state-of-the-art methods with improved interpretability. Our code is available at https://github.com/Zoilsen/Comp-FSCIL.
SSL4Q: Semi-Supervised Learning of Quantum Data with Application to Quantum State Classification
Authors: Yehui Tang; Nianzu Yang; Mabiao Long; Junchi Yan
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: The accurate classification of quantum states is crucial for advancing quantum computing, as it allows for the effective analysis and correct functioning of quantum devices by analyzing the statistics of the data from quantum measurements. Traditional supervised methods, which rely on extensive labeled measurement outcomes, are used to categorize unknown quantum states with different properties. However, the labeling process demands computational and memory resources that increase exponentially with the number of qubits. We propose SSL4Q, manage to achieve (for the first time) semi-supervised learning specifically designed for quantum state classification. SSL4Q's architecture is tailored to ensure permutation invariance for unordered quantum measurements and maintain robustness in the face of measurement uncertainties. Our empirical studies encompass simulations on two types of quantum systems: the Heisenberg Model and the Variational Quantum Circuit (VQC) Model, with system size reaching up to 50 qubits. The numerical results demonstrate SSL4Q's superiority over traditional supervised models in scenarios with limited labels, highlighting its potential in efficiently classifying quantum states with reduced computational and resource overhead.
Using Left and Right Brains Together: Towards Vision and Language Planning
Authors: Jun CEN; Chenfei Wu; Xiao Liu; Shengming Yin; Yixuan Pei; Jinglong Yang; Qifeng Chen; Nan Duan; Jianguo Zhang
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) and Large Multi-modality Models (LMMs) have demonstrated remarkable decision masking capabilities on a variety of tasks. However, they inherently operate planning within the language space, lacking the vision and spatial imagination ability. In contrast, humans utilize both left and right hemispheres of the brain for language and visual planning during the thinking process. Therefore, we introduce a novel vision-language planning framework in this work to perform concurrent visual and language planning for tasks with inputs of any form. Our framework incorporates visual planning to capture intricate environmental details, while language planning enhances the logical coherence of the overall system. We evaluate the effectiveness of our framework across vision-language tasks, vision-only tasks, and language-only tasks. The results demonstrate the superior performance of our approach, indicating that the integration of visual and language planning yields better contextually aware task execution.
Understanding the Learning Dynamics of Alignment with Human Feedback
Authors: Shawn Im; Yixuan Li
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Aligning large language models (LLMs) with human intentions has become a critical task for safely deploying models in real-world systems. While existing alignment approaches have seen empirical success, theoretically understanding how these methods affect model behavior remains an open question. Our work provides an initial attempt to theoretically analyze the learning dynamics of human preference alignment. We formally show how the distribution of preference datasets influences the rate of model updates and provide rigorous guarantees on the training accuracy. Our theory also reveals an intricate phenomenon where the optimization is prone to prioritizing certain behaviors with higher preference distinguishability. We empirically validate our findings on contemporary LLMs and alignment tasks, reinforcing our theoretical insights and shedding light on considerations for future alignment approaches. Disclaimer: This paper contains potentially offensive text; reader discretion is advised.
HarmoDT: Harmony Multi-Task Decision Transformer for Offline Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Shengchao Hu; Ziqing Fan; Li Shen; Ya Zhang; Yanfeng Wang; Dacheng Tao
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: The purpose of offline multi-task reinforcement learning (MTRL) is to develop a unified policy applicable to diverse tasks without the need for online environmental interaction. Recent advancements approach this through sequence modeling, leveraging the Transformer architecture's scalability and the benefits of parameter sharing to exploit task similarities. However, variations in task content and complexity pose significant challenges in policy formulation, necessitating judicious parameter sharing and management of conflicting gradients for optimal policy performance. In this work, we introduce the Harmony Multi-Task Decision Transformer (HarmoDT), a novel solution designed to identify an optimal harmony subspace of parameters for each task. We approach this as a bi-level optimization problem, employing a meta-learning framework that leverages gradient-based techniques. The upper level of this framework is dedicated to learning a task-specific mask that delineates the harmony subspace, while the inner level focuses on updating parameters to enhance the overall performance of the unified policy. Empirical evaluations on a series of benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of HarmoDT, verifying the effectiveness of our approach.
Convex and Bilevel Optimization for Neural-Symbolic Inference and Learning
Authors: Charles Andrew Dickens; Changyu Gao; Connor Pryor; Stephen Wright; Lise Getoor
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: We leverage convex and bilevel optimization techniques to develop a general gradient-based parameter learning framework for neural-symbolic (NeSy) systems. We demonstrate our framework with NeuPSL, a state-of-the-art NeSy architecture. To achieve this, we propose a smooth primal and dual formulation of NeuPSL inference and show learning gradients are functions of the optimal dual variables. Additionally, we develop a dual block coordinate descent algorithm for the new formulation that naturally exploits warm-starts. This leads to over $100 \times$ learning runtime improvements over the current best NeuPSL inference method. Finally, we provide extensive empirical evaluations across $8$ datasets covering a range of tasks and demonstrate our learning framework achieves up to a $16$% point prediction performance improvement over alternative learning methods.
Conformal Prediction Sets Improve Human Decision Making
Authors: Jesse C. Cresswell; Yi Sui; Bhargava Kumar; Noël Vouitsis
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: In response to everyday queries, humans explicitly signal uncertainty and offer alternative answers when they are unsure. Machine learning models that output calibrated prediction sets through conformal prediction mimic this human behaviour; larger sets signal greater uncertainty while providing alternatives. In this work, we study the usefulness of conformal prediction sets as an aid for human decision making by conducting a pre-registered randomized controlled trial with conformal prediction sets provided to human subjects. With statistical significance, we find that when humans are given conformal prediction sets their accuracy on tasks improves compared to fixed-size prediction sets with the same coverage guarantee. The results show that quantifying model uncertainty with conformal prediction is helpful for human-in-the-loop decision making and human-AI teams.
Leverage Class-Specific Accuracy to Guide Data Generation for Improving Image Classification
Authors: Jay Gala; Pengtao Xie
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: In many image classification applications, the number of labeled training images is limited, which leads to model overfitting. To mitigate the lack of training data, deep generative models have been leveraged to generate synthetic training data. However, existing methods generate data for individual classes based on how much training data they have without considering their actual data needs. To address this limitation, we propose needs-aware image generation, which automatically identifies the different data needs of individual classes based on their classification performance and divides a limited data generation budget into these classes according to their needs. We propose a multi-level optimization based framework which performs four learning stages in an end-to-end manner. Experiments on both imbalanced and balanced classification datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Image Clustering with External Guidance
Authors: Yunfan Li; Peng Hu; Dezhong Peng; Jiancheng Lv; Jianping Fan; Xi Peng
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Oral)

Abstract: The core of clustering lies in incorporating prior knowledge to construct supervision signals. From classic k-means based on data compactness to recent contrastive clustering guided by self-supervision, the evolution of clustering methods intrinsically corresponds to the progression of supervision signals. At present, substantial efforts have been devoted to mining internal supervision signals from data. Nevertheless, the abundant external knowledge such as semantic descriptions, which naturally conduces to clustering, is regrettably overlooked. In this work, we propose leveraging external knowledge as a new supervision signal to guide clustering. To implement and validate our idea, we design an externally guided clustering method (Text-Aided Clustering, TAC), which leverages the textual semantics of WordNet to facilitate image clustering. Specifically, TAC first selects and retrieves WordNet nouns that best distinguish images to enhance the feature discriminability. Then, TAC collaborates text and image modalities by mutually distilling cross-modal neighborhood information. Experiments demonstrate that TAC achieves state-of-the-art performance on five widely used and three more challenging image clustering benchmarks, including the full ImageNet-1K dataset. The code can be accessed at https://github.com/XLearning-SCU/2024-ICML-TAC.
On Positivity Condition for Causal Inference
Authors: Inwoo Hwang; Yesong Choe; Yeahoon Kwon; Sanghack Lee
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Identifying and estimating a causal effect is a fundamental task when researchers want to infer a causal effect using an observational study without experiments. A conventional assumption is the strict positivity of the given distribution, or so called positivity (or overlap) under the unconfounded assumption that the probabilities of treatments are positive. However, there exist many environments where neither observational data exhibits strict positivity nor unconfounded assumption holds. Against this background, we examine the graphical counterpart of the conventional positivity condition so as to license the use of identification formula without strict positivity. In particular, we explore various approaches, including analysis in a post-hoc manner, do-calculus, $Q$-decomposition, and algorithmic, to yielding a positivity condition for an identification formula, where we relate them, providing a comprehensive view. We further discuss the design of a positivity-aware identification algorithm based on the theoretical characterization of identification formulas.
Controlled Decoding from Language Models
Authors: Sidharth Mudgal; Jong Lee; Harish Ganapathy; YaGuang Li; Tao Wang; Yanping Huang; Zhifeng Chen; Heng-Tze Cheng; Michael Collins; Trevor Strohman; Jilin Chen; Alex Beutel; Ahmad Beirami
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: KL-regularized reinforcement learning (RL) is a popular alignment framework to control the language model responses towards high reward outcomes. We pose a tokenwise RL objective and propose a modular solver for it, called *controlled decoding (CD)*. CD exerts control through a separate *prefix scorer* module, which is trained to learn a value function for the reward. The prefix scorer is used at inference time to control the generation from a frozen base model, provably sampling from a solution to the RL objective. We empirically demonstrate that CD is effective as a control mechanism on popular benchmarks. We also show that prefix scorers for multiple rewards may be combined at inference time, effectively solving a multi-objective RL problem with no additional training. We show that the benefits of applying CD transfer to an unseen base model with no further tuning as well. Finally, we show that CD can be applied in a blockwise decoding fashion at inference-time, essentially bridging the gap between the popular best-of-$K$ strategy and tokenwise control through reinforcement learning. This makes CD a promising approach for alignment of language models.
Patchscopes: A Unifying Framework for Inspecting Hidden Representations of Language Models
Authors: Asma Ghandeharioun; Avi Caciularu; Adam Pearce; Lucas Dixon; Mor Geva
Venue: ICML 2024 (ICML 2024 Poster)

Abstract: Understanding the internal representations of large language models (LLMs) can help explain models' behavior and verify their alignment with human values. Given the capabilities of LLMs in generating human-understandable text, we propose leveraging the model itself to explain its internal representations in natural language. We introduce a framework called Patchscopes and show how it can be used to answer a wide range of questions about an LLM's computation. We show that many prior interpretability methods based on projecting representations into the vocabulary space and intervening on the LLM computation can be viewed as instances of this framework. Moreover, several of their shortcomings such as failure in inspecting early layers or lack of expressivity can be mitigated by Patchscopes. Beyond unifying prior inspection techniques, Patchscopes also opens up *new* possibilities such as using a more capable model to explain the representations of a smaller model, and multihop reasoning error correction.