GenAI4ELab/papercli-papers huggingface dataset:
HYBOOD: A Hybrid Generative Model for Out-of-Distribution Detection with Corruption Estimation
Authors: Giwoong Lee; Jiseung Ahn; Jeongyeol Choe
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: We propose HYBOOD, a hybrid out-of-distribution model based on normalizing flow followed by a simple linear classification model. In real-world settings, it is known that data corruption has a strong influence on model degradation; for example image quality like noise, blur and image geometry like translation, scaling, rotation. MNIST-C, CIFAR10-C are the general synthesized datasets to measure model performance and corruption difficulty in terms of covariate and semantic shifts. 
HYBOOD shows that the separability between in-distribution, covariate shift, and semantic shift can be represented by distribution distance and log-scale density. We also find out the attributes of covariate shifts are ordered by corruption difficulty ranking (CDR) for the datasets. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method to measure data corruption difficulty with generative models using Wasserstein Distance, Mutual Information and Minimal Description Length. In this paper, we pose interesting experimental results that the MNIST-C trained generative model is most deteriorated by fog, impulse noise and stripe corruption types. This can be interpreted that those attributes are challenging corruptions to the generative model in uncertainty and complexity. By training in-distribution data only, HYBOOD achieves out-of-distribution detection performance for distinguishable covariate and semantic shifts, and quantifying covariate shift ranking.
Fourier Guided Adaptive Adversarial Augmentation for Generalization in Visual Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Jeong Woon Lee; Hyoseok Hwang
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Visual Reinforcement Learning (RL) facilitates learning directly from raw images; however, the domain gap between training and testing environments frequently leads to a decline in performance within unseen environments. In this paper, we propose Fourier Guided Adaptive Adversarial Augmentation (FGA3), a novel augmentation method that maintains semantic consistency. We focus on style augmentation in the frequency domain by keeping the phase and altering the amplitude to preserve the state of the original data. For adaptive adversarial perturbation, we reformulate the worst-case problem to RL by employing adversarial example training, which leverages value loss and cosine similarity within a semantic space. Moreover, our findings illustrate that cosine similarity is effective in quantifying feature distances within a semantic space. Extensive experiments on DMControl-GB and Procgen have shown that FGA3 is compatible with a wide range of visual RL algorithms, both off-policy and on-policy, and significantly improves the robustness of the agent in unseen environments.
DomCLP: Domain-wise Contrastive Learning with Prototype Mixup for Unsupervised Domain Generalization
Authors: Jin-Seop Lee; Noo-ri Kim; Jee-Hyong Lee
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Self-supervised learning (SSL) methods based on the instance discrimination tasks with InfoNCE have achieved remarkable success. Despite their success, SSL models often struggle to generate effective representations for unseen-domain data. To address this issue, research on unsupervised domain generalization (UDG), which aims to develop SSL models that can generate domain-irrelevant features, has been conducted. Most UDG approaches utilize contrastive learning with InfoNCE to generate representations, and perform feature alignment based on strong assumptions to generalize domain-irrelevant common features from multi-source domains. However, existing methods that rely on instance discrimination tasks are not effective at extracting domain-irrelevant common features. This leads to the suppression of domain-irrelevant common features and the amplification of domain-relevant features, thereby hindering domain generalization. Furthermore, strong assumptions underlying feature alignment can lead to biased feature learning, reducing the diversity of common features. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, DomCLP, Domain-wise Contrastive Learning with Prototype Mixup. We explore how InfoNCE suppresses domain-irrelevant common features and amplifies domain-relevant features. Based on this analysis, we propose Domain-wise Contrastive Learning (DCon) to enhance domain-irrelevant common features. We also propose Prototype Mixup Learning (PMix) to generalize domain-irrelevant common features across multiple domains without relying on strong assumptions. The proposed method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods on the PACS and DomainNet datasets across various label fractions, showing significant improvements.
DiffIM: Differentiable Influence Minimization with Surrogate Modeling and Continuous Relaxation
Authors: Junghun Lee; Hyunju Kim; Fanchen Bu; Jihoon Ko; Kijung Shin
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: In social networks, people influence each other through social links, which can be represented as propagation among nodes in graphs. Influence minimization (IMIN) is the problem of manipulating the structures of an input graph (e.g., removing edges) to reduce the propagation among nodes. IMIN can represent time-critical real-world applications, such as rumor blocking, but IMIN is theoretically difficult and computationally expensive. Moreover, the discrete nature of IMIN hinders the usage of powerful machine learning techniques, which requires differentiable computation. In this work, we propose DiffIM, a novel method for IMIN with two differentiable schemes for acceleration: (1) surrogate modeling for efficient influence estimation, which avoids time-consuming simulations (e.g., Monte Carlo), and (2) the continuous relaxation of decisions, which avoids the evaluation of individual discrete decisions (e.g., removing an edge). We further propose a third accelerating scheme, gradient-driven selection, that chooses edges instantly based on gradients without optimization (spec., gradient descent iterations) on each test instance. Through extensive experiments on real-world graphs, we show that each proposed scheme significantly improves speed with little (or even no) IMIN performance degradation. Our method is Pareto-optimal (i.e., no baseline is faster and more effective than it) and typically several orders of magnitude (spec., up to 15,160X) faster than the most effective baseline, while being more effective.
Q-MAML: Quantum Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Variational Quantum Algorithms
Authors: Junyong Lee; Jeihee Cho; Shiho Kim
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: In the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era, using variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) to solve optimization problems has become a key application. However, these algorithms face significant challenges, such as choosing an effective initial set of parameters and the limited quantum processing time that restricts the number of optimization iterations.
In this study, we introduce a new framework for optimizing parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) that employs a classical optimizer, inspired by Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) technique. This approach aim to achieve better parameter initialization that ensures fast convergence.
Our framework features a classical neural network, called Learner, which interacts with a PQC using the output of Learner as an initial parameter. During the pre-training phase, Learner is trained with the meta objective function. In the adaptation phase, the framework requires only a few PQC updates to converge to a more accurate value, while the learner remains unchanged. 
This method is highly adaptable and is effectively extended to various Hamiltonian optimization problems. We validate our approach through experiments, including distribution function mapping and optimization of the Heisenberg XYZ Hamiltonian. 
The result implies that the Learner successfully estimates initial parameters that generalize across the problem space, enabling fast adaptation.
CG-TGAN: Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks with Graph Neural Networks for Tabular Data Synthesizing
Authors: Seungcheol Lee; Moohong Min
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Data sharing is necessary for AI to be widely used, but sharing sensitive data with others with privacy is risky.
To solve these problems, it is necessary to synthesize realistic tabular data.
In many cases, tabular data contains a mixture of continuous, mixed, categorical columns.
Moreover, columns of the same type may have multimodal distribution or be highly imbalanced.
These issues make it challenging to synthesize tabular data.
The synthesized tabular data should reflect the relational meaning between columns of tabular data, so modeling the probability distribution of tabular data is a non-trivial task.
Traditional tabular data synthesizing models are based on GAN or diffusion models and are built using fully connected or convolutional layers.
However, fully connected layers have the disadvantage of low inductive bias, and convolutional layers are not invariant to the column order of tabular data.
Therefore, we assume that converting tabular data into graph-structured data and using a graph neural network would produce better synthetic data than using fully connected layers or convolutional layers.
Our study aims to show that GANs constructed with graph neural networks can outperform existing GAN models using fully connected layers or convolutional layers.
We propose CG-TGAN, a conditional GAN built using graph neural networks. To learn how to synthesize realistic data, the graph neural networks in the discriminator and generator learn graph-level tasks and node-level tasks together.
The discriminator of CG-TGAN learns a graph-level task to distinguish between real and synthetic data and node-level tasks to predict the value of the target node.
CG-TGAN’s generator learns a graph-level task to synthesize an overall graph similar to real data and node-level tasks to learn how to synthesize a fake graph with the proper relation between nodes.
In this paper, we show that CG-TGAN outperforms GAN-based models and is comparable to diffusion-based models.
Maximizing the Position Embedding for Vision Transformers with Global Average Pooling
Authors: Wonjun Lee; Bumsub Ham; Suhyun Kim
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: In vision transformers, position embedding (PE) plays a crucial role in capturing the order of tokens. However, in vision transformer structures, there is a limitation in the expressiveness of PE due to the structure where position embedding is simply added to the token embedding. A layer-wise method that delivers PE to each layer and applies independent LNs for token embedding and PE has been adopted to overcome this limitation. In this paper, we identify the conflicting result that occurs in a layer-wise structure when using the global average pooling (GAP) method instead of the class token. To overcome this problem, we propose MPVG, which maximizes the effectiveness of PE in a layer-wise structure with GAP. Specifically, we identify that PE counterbalances token embedding values at each layer in a layer-wise structure. Furthermore, we recognize that the counterbalancing role of PE is insufficient in the layer-wise structure, and we address this by maximizing the effectiveness of PE through MPVG. Through experiments, we demonstrate that PE performs a counterbalancing role and that maintaining this counterbalancing directionality significantly impacts vision transformers. As a result, the experimental results show that MPVG outperforms existing methods across vision transformers on various tasks.
Learning Strategy Representation for Imitation Learning in Multi-Agent Games
Authors: Shiqi Lei; Kanghoon Lee; Linjing Li; Jinkyoo Park
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: The offline datasets for imitation learning (IL) in multi-agent games typically contain player trajectories exhibiting diverse strategies, which necessitate measures to prevent learning algorithms from acquiring undesirable behaviors. Learning representations for these trajectories is an effective approach to depicting the strategies employed by each demonstrator. However, existing learning strategies often require player identification or rely on strong assumptions, which are not appropriate for multi-agent games. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the Strategy Representation for Imitation Learning (STRIL) framework, which (1) effectively learns strategy representations in multi-agent games, (2) estimates proposed indicators based on these representations, and (3) filters out sub-optimal data using the indicators. STRIL is a plug-in method that can be integrated into existing IL algorithms. We demonstrate the effectiveness of STRIL across competitive multi-agent scenarios, including Two-player Pong, Limit Texas Hold'em, and Connect Four. Our approach successfully acquires strategy representations and indicators, thereby identifying dominant trajectories and significantly enhancing existing IL performance across these environments.
MGDA: Model-based Goal Data Augmentation for Offline Goal-conditioned Weighted Supervised Learning
Authors: Xing Lei; Xuetao Zhang; Donglin Wang
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Recently, a state-of-the-art series of algorithms—Goal-Conditioned Weighted Supervised Learning (GCWSL) methods—has been introduced to address the challenges inherent in offline goal-conditioned reinforcement learning (RL). GCWSL optimizes a lower bound on the goal-conditioned RL objective and has demonstrated exceptional performance across a range of goal-reaching tasks, offering a simple, effective, and stable solution. Nonetheless, researches has revealed a critical limitation in GCWSL: the absence of trajectory stitching capabilities. In response, goal data augmentation strategies have been proposed to enhance these methods. However, existing techniques often fail to effectively sample appropriate augmented goals for GCWSL. In this paper, we establish unified principles for goal data augmentation, emphasizing goal diversity, action optimality, and goal reachability. Building on these principles, we propose a Model-based Goal Data Augmentation (MGDA) approach, which leverages a dynamics model to sample more appropriate augmented goals. MGDA uniquely incorporates the local Lipschitz continuity assumption within the learned model to mitigate the effects of compounding errors. Empirical results demonstrate that MGDA significantly improves the performance of GCWSL methods on both state-based and vision-based maze datasets, outperforming previous goal data augmentation techniques in their ability to enhancing stitching capabilities.
Mining In-distribution Attributes in Outliers for Out-of-distribution Detection
Authors: Yutian Lei; Luping Ji; Pei Liu
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Out-of-distribution (OOD) detection is indispensable for deploying reliable machine learning systems in real-world scenarios. Recent works, using auxiliary outliers in training, have shown good potential. However, they seldom concern the intrinsic correlations between in-distribution (ID) and OOD data. In this work, we discover an obvious correlation that OOD data usually possesses significant ID attributes. These attributes should be factored into the training process, rather than blindly suppressed as in previous approaches. Based on this insight, we propose a structured multi-view-based out-of-distribution detection learning (MVOL) framework, which facilitates rational handling of the intrinsic in-distribution attributes in outliers. We provide theoretical insights on the effectiveness of MVOL for OOD detection. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our framework to others. MVOL effectively utilizes both auxiliary OOD datasets and even wild datasets with noisy ID data.
Real-Time Recurrent Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Julian Lemmel; Radu Grosu
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: We introduce a biologically plausible RL framework for solving tasks in partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). 
The proposed algorithm combines three integral parts: (1) A Meta-RL architecture, resembling the mammalian basal ganglia; (2) A biologically plausible reinforcement learning algorithm, exploiting temporal difference learning and eligibility traces to train the policy and the value-function; (3) An online automatic differentiation algorithm for computing the gradients with respect to parameters of a shared recurrent network backbone. Our experimental results show that the method is capable of solving a diverse set of partially observable reinforcement learning tasks. The algorithm we call real-time recurrent reinforcement learning (RTRRL) serves as a model of learning in biological neural networks, mimicking reward pathways in the basal ganglia.
Towards Trustable SHAP Scores
Authors: Olivier Létoffé; Xuanxiang Huang; Joao Marques-Silva
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: SHAP scores represent the proposed use of the well-known Shapley values in eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). Recent work has shown that the exact computation of SHAP scores can produce unsatisfactory results. Concretely, for some ML models, SHAP scores will mislead with respect to relative feature influence. To address these limitations, recently proposed alternatives exploit different axiomatic aggregations, all of which are defined in terms of abductive explanations. However, the proposed axiomatic aggregations are not Shapley values. This paper investigates how SHAP scores can be modified so as to extend axiomatic aggregations to the case of Shapley values in XAI. More importantly, the proposed new definition of SHAP scores avoids all the known cases where unsatisfactory results have been identified. The paper also characterizes the complexity of computing the novel definition of SHAP scores, highlighting families of classifiers for which computing these scores is tractable. Furthermore, the paper proposes modifications to the existing implementations of SHAP scores. These modifications eliminate some of the known limitations of SHAP scores, and have negligible impact in terms of performance.
Distributionally Robust Policy Evaluation and Learning for Continuous Treatment with Observational Data
Authors: Cheuk Hang Leung; Yiyan Huang; Yijun Li; Qi Wu
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Using offline observational data for policy evaluation and learning allows decision-makers to evaluate and learn a policy that connects characteristics and interventions. Most existing literature has focused on either discrete treatment spaces or assumed no difference in the distributions between the policy-learning and policy-deployed environments. These restrict applications in many real-world scenarios where distribution shifts are present with continuous treatment. To overcome these challenges, this paper focuses on developing a distributionally robust policy under a continuous treatment setting. The proposed distributionally robust estimators are established using the Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) method extended from the discrete one for policy evaluation and learning under continuous treatments. Specifically, we introduce a kernel function into the proposed IPW estimator to mitigate the exclusion of observations that can occur in the standard IPW method to continuous treatments. We then provide finite-sample analysis that guarantees the convergence of the proposed distributionally robust policy evaluation and learning estimators. The comprehensive experiments further verify the effectiveness of our approach when distribution shifts are present.
Frame Order Matters: A Temporal Sequence-Aware Model for Few-Shot Action Recognition
Authors: Bozheng Li; Mushui Liu; Gaoang Wang; Yunlong Yu
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel Temporal Sequence-Aware-Model (TSAM) for few-shot action recognition (FSAR), which incorporates a sequential perceiver adapter into the pre-training framework, to integrate both the spatial information and the sequential temporal dynamics into the feature embeddings. Different from the existing fine-tuning approaches that capture temporal information by exploring the relationships among all the frames, our perceiver-based adapter recurrently captures the sequential dynamics alongside the timeline, which could perceive the frame order change. To obtain the discriminative representations for each class, we extend a textual corpus for each class derived from the large language models (LLMs) and enrich the visual prototypes by integrating the contextual semantic information. Besides, We introduce an unbalanced optimal transport strategy for feature matching that mitigates the impact of class-unrelated features, thereby facilitating more effective decision-making. Experimental results on five FSAR datasets demonstrate that our method establishes a new benchmark, outperforming the second-best competitors.
Unlocking Better Closed-Set Alignment Based on Neural Collapse for Open-Set Recognition
Authors: Chaohua Li; Enhao  Zhang; Chuanxing Geng; Songcan Chen
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: In recent Open-set Recognition (OSR) community, a prevailing belief is that enhancing the discriminative boundaries of closed-set classes can improve the robustness of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) against open data during testing. Typical studies validate this *implicitly* by empirical evidence, without a formalized understanding of *how DNNs help the closed-set features obtain more discriminative boundaries?* For this, we provide an answer from the Neural Collapse (NC) perspective: DNNs align the closed-set with a *Simplex Equiangular Tight Frame* (ETF) structure that has geometric and mathematical interpretability. Regrettably, although NC naturally occurs in DNNs, we discover that typical studies cannot guarantee the features being learned to strictly align with the ETF. Thus, we introduce a novel concept, Fixed ETF Template (FiT), which holds an ideal structure associated with closed-set classes. To force class means and classifier vectors to align with FiT, we further design a Dual ETF (DEF) loss involving two components. Specifically, *F*-DEF loss is designed to align class means with FiT strictly, yielding optimal inter-class separability. Meanwhile, we extend a dual form to classifier vectors, termed *C*-DEF loss, which guides class means and classifier vectors to satisfy self-duality. Our theoretical analysis proves the validity of the proposed approach, and extensive experiments demonstrate that DEF achieves comparable or superior results with reduced computational resources on standard OSR benchmarks.
Tilted Quantile Gradient Updates for Quantile-Constrained Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Chenglin Li; Guangchun Ruan; Hua Geng
Venue: AAAI 2025 (main)

Abstract: Safe reinforcement learning (RL) is a popular and versatile paradigm to learn reward-maximizing policies with safety guarantees. Previous works tend to express the safety constraints in an expectation form due to the ease of implementation, but this turns out to be ineffective in maintaining safety constraints with high probability. To this end, we move to the quantile-constrained RL that enables a higher level of safety without any expectation-form approximations. We directly estimate the quantile gradients through sampling and provide the theoretical proofs of convergence. Then a tilted update strategy for quantile gradients is implemented to compensate the asymmetric distributional density, with a direct benefit of return performance. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed model fully meets safety requirements (quantile constraints) while outperforming the state-of-the-art benchmarks with higher return.