OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
In-Context Distillation with Self-Consistency Cascades: A Simple, Training-Free Way to Reduce LLM Agent Costs
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2025
Year: 2025

The world currently has an abundance of ideas for how to use new LLM agents, and developers seek to rapidly prototype and test new agentic designs. However, executing agents at scale using high-capacity LLMs incurs high inference costs. We propose a simple method for reducing LLM agent inference costs without incurring the development friction costs associated with LLM fine-tuning (long training cycles, optimization hyperparameter tweaking loops) or manual prompt engineering (laborious trial and error). Most importantly, we introduce $\textit{in-context distillation}$, which adapts the idea of knowledge distillation (training a low cost-student model to mimic a high-cost teacher) to an in-context learning setting. Our approach retrieves relevant teacher demonstrations at each agent step and provides them to the student as in-context examples, enabling the student to imitate teacher behavior on-the-fly. We combine in-context distillation with the established idea of $\textit{self-consistency cascades}$ to know when the trust the student. This adaptive strategy realizes the cost benefits of model specialization while preserving the productivity of working with frozen models. On the multi-step embodied reasoning benchmark ALFWorld, our method matches teacher-level accuracy at $\textbf{2.5$\times$ lower cost}$, reducing per-episode costs from \$0.059 to \$0.024. The upfront demonstration cost amortizes after just 843 episodes, yielding cumulative savings exceeding \$34,900 at deployment scale (1M episodes). On AppWorld, a complex agent benchmark requiring multi-step API workflows, we shift the Pareto frontier by achieving a $\textbf{2$\times$ cost reduction}$ at iso-accuracy. By reducing operational costs while maintaining rapid experimentation cycles with frozen models, our approach makes advanced agentic systems economically viable for a broader range of applications.
A Human-centric Framework for Debating the Ethics of AI Consciousness Under Uncertainty
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2025
Year: 2025

As AI systems become increasingly sophisticated, questions about machine consciousness and its ethical implications have moved from fringe speculation to mainstream academic debate. Current ethical frameworks in this domain often implicitly rely on contested functionalist assumptions, prioritize speculative AI welfare over concrete human interests, and lack coherent theoretical foundations. We address these limitations through a structured three-level framework grounded in philosophical uncertainty. At the foundational level, we establish five factual determinations about AI consciousness alongside human-centralism as our meta-ethical stance. These foundations logically entail three operational principles: presumption of no consciousness (placing the burden of proof on consciousness claims), risk prudence (prioritizing human welfare under uncertainty), and transparent reasoning (enabling systematic evaluation and adaptation). At the application level, the third component of our framework, we derive default positions on pressing ethical questions through a transparent logical process where each position can be explicitly traced back to our foundational commitments. Our approach balances philosophical rigor with practical guidance, distinguishes consciousness from anthropomorphism, and creates pathways for responsible evolution as scientific understanding advances, providing a human-centric foundation for navigating these profound ethical challenges.
Solutions for Distributed Memory Access Mechanism on HPC Clusters
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2025
Year: 2025

Paper presents and evaluates various mechanisms for remote access to memory in distributed systems based on two distinct HPC clusters. We are comparing solutions based on the shared storage and MPI (over Infiniband and Slingshot) to the local memory access. This paper also mentions medical use-cases that would mostly benefit from the described solution. We have found out that results for remote access esp. backed by MPI are similar to local memory access.
Robotic capabilities framework: A boundary object and intermediate-level knowledge artifact for co-designing robotic processes
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2025
Year: 2025

As robots become more adaptable, responsive, and capable of interacting with humans, the design of effective human-robot collaboration becomes critical. Yet, this design process is typically led by monodisciplinary approaches, often overlooking interdisciplinary knowledge and the experiential knowledge of workers who will ultimately share tasks with these systems. To address this gap, we introduce the robotic capabilities framework, a vocabulary that enables transdisciplinary collaborations to meaningfully shape the future of work when robotic systems are integrated into the workplace. Rather than focusing on the internal workings of robots, the framework centers discussion on high-level capabilities, supporting dialogue around which elements of a task should remain human-led and which can be delegated to robots. We developed the framework through reflexive and iterative processes, and applied it in two distinct settings: by engaging roboticists in describing existing commercial robots using its vocabulary, and through a design activity with students working on robotics-related projects. The framework emerges as an intermediate-level knowledge artifact and a boundary object that bridges technical and experiential domains, guiding designers, empowering workers, and contributing to more just and collaborative futures of work.
ADORE: Autonomous Domain-Oriented Relevance Engine for E-commerce
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2025
Year: 2025

Relevance modeling in e-commerce search remains challenged by semantic gaps in term-matching methods (e.g., BM25) and neural models' reliance on the scarcity of domain-specific hard samples. We propose ADORE, a self-sustaining framework that synergizes three innovations: (1) A Rule-aware Relevance Discrimination module, where a Chain-of-Thought LLM generates intent-aligned training data, refined via Kahneman-Tversky Optimization (KTO) to align with user behavior; (2) An Error-type-aware Data Synthesis module that auto-generates adversarial examples to harden robustness; and (3) A Key-attribute-enhanced Knowledge Distillation module that injects domain-specific attribute hierarchies into a deployable student model. ADORE automates annotation, adversarial generation, and distillation, overcoming data scarcity while enhancing reasoning. Large-scale experiments and online A/B testing verify the effectiveness of ADORE. The framework establishes a new paradigm for resource-efficient, cognitively aligned relevance modeling in industrial applications.
Empathy Level Prediction in Multi-Modal Scenario with Supervisory Documentation Assistance
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Prevalent empathy prediction techniques primarily concentrate on a singular modality, typically textual, thus neglecting multi-modal processing capabilities. They also overlook the utilization of certain privileged information, which may encompass additional empathetic content. In response, we introduce an advanced multi-modal empathy prediction method integrating video, audio, and text information. The method comprises the Multi-Modal Empathy Prediction and Supervisory Documentation Assisted Training. We use pre-trained networks in the empathy prediction network to extract features from various modalities, followed by a cross-modal fusion. This process yields a multi-modal feature representation, which is employed to predict empathy labels. To enhance the extraction of text features, we incorporate supervisory documents as privileged information during the assisted training phase. Specifically, we apply the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model to identify potential topic distributions to constrain text features. These supervisory documents, created by supervisors, focus on the counseling topics and the counselor's display of empathy. Notably, this privileged information is only available during training and is not accessible during the prediction phase. Experimental results on the multi-modal and dialogue empathy datasets demonstrate that our approach is superior to the existing methods.
Co-speech Gesture Video Generation via Motion-Based Graph Retrieval
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

Synthesizing synchronized and natural co-speech gesture videos remains a formidable challenge. Recent approaches have leveraged motion graphs to harness the potential of existing video data. To retrieve an appropriate trajectory from the graph, previous methods either utilize the distance between features extracted from the input audio and those associated with the motions in the graph or embed both the input audio and motion into a shared feature space. However, these techniques may not be optimal due to the many-to-many mapping nature between audio and gestures, which cannot be adequately addressed by one-to-one mapping. To alleviate this limitation, we propose a novel framework that initially employs a diffusion model to generate gesture motions. The diffusion model implicitly learns the joint distribution of audio and motion, enabling the generation of contextually appropriate gestures from input audio sequences. Furthermore, our method extracts both low-level and high-level features from the input audio to enrich the training process of the diffusion model. Subsequently, a meticulously designed motion-based retrieval algorithm is applied to identify the most suitable path within the graph by assessing both global and local similarities in motion. Given that not all nodes in the retrieved path are sequentially continuous, the final step involves seamlessly stitching together these segments to produce a coherent video output. Experimental results substantiate the efficacy of our proposed method, demonstrating a significant improvement over prior approaches in terms of synchronization accuracy and naturalness of generated gestures.
Spoken Conversational Agents with Large Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2025
Year: 2025

Spoken conversational agents are converging toward voice-native LLMs. This tutorial distills the path from cascaded ASR/NLU to end-to-end, retrieval-and vision-grounded systems. We frame adaptation of text LLMs to audio, cross-modal alignment, and joint speech-text training; review datasets, metrics, and robustness across accents and compare design choices (cascaded vs. E2E, post-ASR correction, streaming). We link industrial assistants to current open-domain and task-oriented agents, highlight reproducible baselines, and outline open problems in privacy, safety, and evaluation. Attendees leave with practical recipes and a clear systems-level roadmap.
Investigating the Integrated Digital Interventions Delivered by a Therapeutic Companion Agent for Young Adults with Symptoms of Depression: A Proof-of-Concept Study
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2025
Year: 2025

Background: Despite the clinical effectiveness of digital interventions for young adults with depression, low engagement and adherence remain persistent challenges. Building a strong digital therapeutic alliance has been proposed to address these barriers. This study highlights the need for a conversational therapeutic companion agent (TCA)-based intervention design. Objective: This study aimed to develop a Wizard-of-Oz TCA-centered prototype integrating social-support-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA), ecological momentary intervention (EMI), behavioral activation, and gamification. We evaluated the six-week proof-of-concept efficacy of this intervention among young adults with depressive symptoms. Methods: Korean young adults aged 20--39 years with mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms (PHQ-9) were recruited online. The intervention group ($n = 29$) received a six-week TCA-based digital intervention, while the control group ($n = 29$), recruited four weeks later, continued their usual routines. The TCA guided four daily behavioral-activation tasks, three mood assessments, meditation, daily summaries, and weekly mission feedback. Both groups were assessed at baseline and at weeks 2, 4, and 6 using the BDI-II, GAD-7, and Q-LES-Q-SF. Results: Of 58 participants, 57 completed the study (one dropout in the intervention group). At week 6, the intervention group showed significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms and improvements in quality of life than controls. Adherence was 78\% for EMA, 51\% for EMI, and 65\% for daily routines. Conclusions: The TCA-based digital intervention improved depressive symptoms and quality of life with adherence levels comparable to previous digital health interventions. Future studies should refine the TCA design and conduct larger-scale evaluations.
Modeling and Inverse Identification of Interfacial Heat Conduction in Finite Layer and Semi-Infinite Substrate Systems via a Physics-Guided Neural Framework
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2025
Year: 2025

Heat transfer in semiconductor devices is dominated by chip and substrate assemblies, where heat generated within a finite chip layer dissipates into a semi-infinite substrate with much higher thermophysical properties. This mismatch produces steep interfacial temperature gradients, making the transient thermal response highly sensitive to the interface. Conventional numerical solvers require excessive discretization to resolve these dynamics, while physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) often exhibit unstable convergence and loss of physical consistency near the material interface. To address these challenges, we introduce HeatTransFormer, a physics-guided Transformer architecture for interface-dominated diffusion problems. The framework integrates physically informed spatiotemporal sampling, a Laplace-based activation emulating analytical diffusion solutions, and a mask-free attention mechanism supporting bidirectional spatiotemporal coupling. These components enable the model to resolve steep gradients, maintain physical consistency, and remain stable where PINNs typically fail. HeatTransFormer produces coherent temperature fields across the interface when applied to a finite layer and semi-infinite substrate configuration. Coupled with a physics-constrained inverse strategy, it further enables reliable identification of three unknown thermal properties simultaneously using only external measurements. Overall, this work demonstrates that physics-guided Transformer architectures provide a unified framework for forward and inverse modeling in interface-dominated thermal systems.
RULER-Bench: Probing Rule-based Reasoning Abilities of Next-level Video Generation Models for Vision Foundation Intelligence
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

Recent advances in video generation have enabled the synthesis of videos with strong temporal consistency and impressive visual quality, marking a crucial step toward vision foundation models. To evaluate these video generation models, existing benchmarks primarily focus on factors related to visual perception and understanding, like visual aesthetics, instruction adherence, and temporal coherence. However, the rule-based reasoning capabilities of video generation models remain largely unexplored. Although recent studies have carried out preliminary explorations into whether video models can serve as zero-shot learners, they still lack a fine-grained decomposition of reasoning capabilities and a comprehensive evaluation protocol. To address this gap, we introduce RULER-Bench, a benchmark designed to evaluate the reasoning ability of video generation models from the perspective of cognitive rules. Built upon two fundamental paradigms: text-to-video and image-to-video, RULER-Bench covers 40 representative tasks spanning six rule categories with 622 high-quality annotated instances. For the evaluation of each generated video, we construct a checklist covering four metrics and leverage GPT-o3 to assign scores to each question, achieving 85% alignment with human judgements. Extensive experiments show that the state-of-the-art model achieves only 48.87% on the rule coherence metric, highlighting significant room for improvement in the reasoning capability of next-level video models. We expect that the insight obtained from RULER-Bench will facilitate further development of reasoning-aware video generation, advancing video generation models toward vision foundation intelligence.
SAND Challenge: Four Approaches for Dysartria Severity Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2025
Year: 2025

This paper presents a unified study of four distinct modeling approaches for classifying dysarthria severity in the Speech Analysis for Neurodegenerative Diseases (SAND) challenge. All models tackle the same five class classification task using a common dataset of speech recordings. We investigate: (1) a ViT-OF method leveraging a Vision Transformer on spectrogram images, (2) a 1D-CNN approach using eight 1-D CNN's with majority-vote fusion, (3) a BiLSTM-OF approach using nine BiLSTM models with majority vote fusion, and (4) a Hierarchical XGBoost ensemble that combines glottal and formant features through a two stage learning framework. Each method is described, and their performances on a validation set of 53 speakers are compared. Results show that while the feature-engineered XGBoost ensemble achieves the highest macro-F1 (0.86), the deep learning models (ViT, CNN, BiLSTM) attain competitive F1-scores (0.70) and offer complementary insights into the problem.
Exploring Depth Generalization in Large Language Models for Solving Recursive Logic Tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Large language models have demonstrated remarkable capabilities across many tasks, yet face significant challenges when dealing with recursive reasoning problems, those requiring the resolution of nested hierarchical structures. While prior research has extensively studied length generalization (a model's ability to handle longer sequences than seen during training), we investigate a distinct and underexplored limitation: depth generalization. Here, depth refers to the number of nested levels in a hierarchical problem, such as the layers of parentheses in a mathematical expression or the nesting of logical clauses in a Boolean formula. Our work reveals that standard transformer architectures struggle with problems involving deeper recursion than encountered during training, even when they perform well on longer but non-nested sequences. This limitation stems from their inability to maintain stack-like behavior, the capacity to track and resolve multiple levels of nested dependencies. Through systematic analysis, we demonstrate how this architectural constraint leads to rapid performance decay as the depth of the recursion increases. To address this challenge, we develop a novel looped locate-and-replace pipeline that decomposes recursive problems into manageable subcomponents. The approach employs two specialized models: a locator that identifies solvable subexpressions and a replacer that evaluates these components while preserving the overall structure. We evaluated this method in three carefully designed domains: Boolean algebra, recursive arithmetic, and propositional logic, each with a controllable depth of recursion. We show that our method effectively alleviates the performance decay when tested on out-of-distribution recursion depth.
Monotone Near-Zero-Sum Games: A Generalization of Convex-Concave Minimax
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2025
Year: 2025

Zero-sum and non-zero-sum (aka general-sum) games are relevant in a wide range of applications. While general non-zero-sum games are computationally hard, researchers focus on the special class of monotone games for gradient-based algorithms. However, there is a substantial gap between the gradient complexity of monotone zero-sum and monotone general-sum games. Moreover, in many practical scenarios of games the zero-sum assumption needs to be relaxed. To address these issues, we define a new intermediate class of monotone near-zero-sum games that contains monotone zero-sum games as a special case. Then, we present a novel algorithm that transforms the near-zero-sum games into a sequence of zero-sum subproblems, improving the gradient-based complexity for the class. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of this new class to model practical scenarios of games motivated from the literature.
Embedding networks with the random walk first return time distribution
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2025
Year: 2025

We propose the first return time distribution (FRTD) of a random walk as an interpretable and mathematically grounded node embedding. The FRTD assigns a probability mass function to each node, allowing us to define a distance between any pair of nodes using standard metrics for discrete distributions. We present several arguments to motivate the FRTD embedding. First, we show that FRTDs are strictly more informative than eigenvalue spectra, yet insufficient for complete graph identification, thus placing FRTD equivalence between cospectrality and isomorphism. Second, we argue that FRTD equivalence between nodes captures structural similarity. Third, we empirically demonstrate that the FRTD embedding outperforms manually designed graph metrics in network alignment tasks. Finally, we show that random networks that approximately match the FRTD of a desired target also preserve other salient features. Together these results demonstrate the FRTD as a simple and mathematically principled embedding for complex networks.
Menta: A Small Language Model for On-Device Mental Health Prediction
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Mental health conditions affect hundreds of millions globally, yet early detection remains limited. While large language models (LLMs) have shown promise in mental health applications, their size and computational demands hinder practical deployment. Small language models (SLMs) offer a lightweight alternative, but their use for social media--based mental health prediction remains largely underexplored. In this study, we introduce Menta, the first optimized SLM fine-tuned specifically for multi-task mental health prediction from social media data. Menta is jointly trained across six classification tasks using a LoRA-based framework, a cross-dataset strategy, and a balanced accuracy--oriented loss. Evaluated against nine state-of-the-art SLM baselines, Menta achieves an average improvement of 15.2\% across tasks covering depression, stress, and suicidality compared with the best-performing non--fine-tuned SLMs. It also achieves higher accuracy on depression and stress classification tasks compared to 13B-parameter LLMs, while being approximately 3.25x smaller. Moreover, we demonstrate real-time, on-device deployment of Menta on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, requiring only approximately 3GB RAM. Supported by a comprehensive benchmark against existing SLMs and LLMs, Menta highlights the potential for scalable, privacy-preserving mental health monitoring. Code is available at: https://hong-labs.github.io/menta-project/