OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
How Proficient Are Large Language Models in Formal Languages? An In-Depth Insight for Knowledge Base Question Answering
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Knowledge Base Question Answering (KBQA) aims to answer natural language questions based on facts in knowledge bases. A typical approach to KBQA is semantic parsing, which translates a question into an executable logical form in a formal language. Recent works leverage the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) for logical form generation to improve performance. However, although it is validated that LLMs are capable of solving some KBQA problems, there has been little discussion on the differences in LLMs' proficiency in formal languages used in semantic parsing. In this work, we propose to evaluate the understanding and generation ability of LLMs to deal with differently structured logical forms by examining the inter-conversion of natural and formal language through in-context learning of LLMs. Extensive experiments with models of different sizes show that state-of-the-art LLMs can understand formal languages as well as humans, but generating correct logical forms given a few examples remains a challenge. Most importantly, our results also indicate that LLMs exhibit considerable sensitivity. In general, the formal language with a lower formalization level, i.e., the more similar it is to natural language, is more friendly to LLMs.
What Else Would I Like? A User Simulator using Alternatives for Improved Evaluation of Fashion Conversational Recommendation Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2024
Year: 2024

In Conversational Recommendation Systems (CRS), a user can provide feedback on recommended items at each interaction turn, leading the CRS towards more desirable recommendations. Currently, different types of CRS offer various possibilities for feedback, i.e., natural language feedback, or answering clarifying questions. In most cases, a user simulator is employed for training as well as evaluating the CRS. Such user simulators typically critique the current retrieved items based on knowledge of a single target item. Still, evaluating systems in offline settings with simulators suffers from problems, such as focusing entirely on a single target item (not addressing the exploratory nature of a recommender system), and exhibiting extreme patience (consistent feedback over a large number of turns). To overcome these limitations, we obtain extra judgements for a selection of alternative items in common CRS datasets, namely Shoes and Fashion IQ Dresses. Going further, we propose improved user simulators that allow simulated users not only to express their preferences about alternative items to their original target, but also to change their mind and level of patience. In our experiments using the relative image captioning CRS setting and different CRS models, we find that using the knowledge of alternatives by the simulator can have a considerable impact on the evaluation of existing CRS models, specifically that the existing single-target evaluation underestimates their effectiveness, and when simulated users are allowed to instead consider alternatives, the system can rapidly respond to more quickly satisfy the user.
Youth WellTech: A Global Remote Co-Design Sprint for Youth Mental Health Technology
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

Mental health is a pressing concern in today's digital age, particularly among youth who are deeply intertwined with technology. Despite the influx of technology solutions addressing mental health issues, youth often remain sidelined during the design process. While co-design methods have been employed to improve participation by youth, many such initiatives are limited to design activities and lack training for youth to research and develop solutions for themselves. In this case study, we detail our 8-week remote, collaborative research initiative called Youth WellTech, designed to facilitate remote co-design sprints aimed at equipping youth with the tools and knowledge to envision and design tech futures for their own communities. We pilot this initiative with 12 student technology evangelists across 8 countries globally to foster the sharing of mental health challenges and diverse perspectives. We highlight insights from our experiences running this global program remotely, its structure, and recommendations for co-research.
Multivariate Extreme Value Theory Based Channel Modeling for Ultra-Reliable Communications
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Attaining ultra-reliable communication (URC) in fifth-generation (5G) and beyond networks requires deriving statistics of channel in ultra-reliable region by modeling the extreme events. Extreme value theory (EVT) has been previously adopted in channel modeling to characterize the lower tail of received powers in URC systems. In this paper, we propose a multivariate EVT (MEVT)-based channel modeling methodology for tail of the joint distribution of multi-channel by characterizing the multivariate extremes of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. The proposed approach derives lower tail statistics of received power of each channel by using the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD). Then, tail of the joint distribution is modeled as a function of estimated GPD parameters based on two approaches: logistic distribution, which utilizes logistic distribution to determine dependency factors among the Frechet transformed tail sequence and obtain a bi-variate extreme value model, and Poisson point process, which estimates probability measure function of the Pickands angular component to model bi-variate extreme values. Finally, validity of the proposed models is assessed by incorporating the mean constraint on probability measure function of Pichanks coordinates. Based on the data collected within the engine compartment of Fiat Linea, we demonstrate the superiority of proposed methodology compared to the conventional extrapolation-based methods in providing the best fit to the multivariate extremes.
Decoding AI's Nudge: A Unified Framework to Predict Human Behavior in AI-assisted Decision Making
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

With the rapid development of AI-based decision aids, different forms of AI assistance have been increasingly integrated into the human decision making processes. To best support humans in decision making, it is essential to quantitatively understand how diverse forms of AI assistance influence humans' decision making behavior. To this end, much of the current research focuses on the end-to-end prediction of human behavior using ``black-box'' models, often lacking interpretations of the nuanced ways in which AI assistance impacts the human decision making process. Meanwhile, methods that prioritize the interpretability of human behavior predictions are often tailored for one specific form of AI assistance, making adaptations to other forms of assistance difficult. In this paper, we propose a computational framework that can provide an interpretable characterization of the influence of different forms of AI assistance on decision makers in AI-assisted decision making. By conceptualizing AI assistance as the ``{\em nudge}'' in human decision making processes, our approach centers around modelling how different forms of AI assistance modify humans' strategy in weighing different information in making their decisions. Evaluations on behavior data collected from real human decision makers show that the proposed framework outperforms various baselines in accurately predicting human behavior in AI-assisted decision making. Based on the proposed framework, we further provide insights into how individuals with different cognitive styles are nudged by AI assistance differently.
Graph Reconstruction via MIS Queries
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2024
Year: 2024

In the Graph Reconstruction (GR) problem, a player initially only knows the vertex set $V$ of an input graph $G=(V, E)$ and is required to learn its set of edges $E$. To this end, the player submits queries to an oracle and must deduce $E$ from the oracle's answers. In this paper, we initiate the study of GR via Maximal Independent Set (MIS) queries, a more powerful variant of Independent Set (IS) queries. Given a query $U \subseteq V$, the oracle responds with any, potentially adversarially chosen, maximal independent set $I \subseteq U$ in the induced subgraph $G[U]$. We show that, for GR, MIS queries are strictly more powerful than IS queries when parametrized by the maximum degree $Δ$ of the input graph. We give tight (up to poly-logarithmic factors) upper and lower bounds for this problem: 1. We observe that the simple strategy of taking uniform independent random samples of $V$ and submitting those to the oracle yields a non-adaptive randomized algorithm that executes $O(Δ^2 \cdot \log n)$ queries and succeeds with high probability. Furthermore, combining the strategy of taking uniform random samples of $V$ with the probabilistic method, we show the existence of a deterministic non-adaptive algorithm that executes $O(Δ^3 \cdot \log(\frac{n}Δ))$ queries. 2. Regarding lower bounds, we prove that the additional $Δ$ factor when going from randomized non-adaptive algorithms to deterministic non-adaptive algorithms is necessary. We show that every non-adaptive deterministic algorithm requires $Ω(Δ^3 / \log^2 Δ)$ queries. For arbitrary randomized adaptive algorithms, we show that $Ω(Δ^2)$ queries are necessary in graphs of maximum degree $Δ$, and that $Ω(\log n)$ queries are necessary, even when the input graph is an $n$-vertex cycle.
Confidence-Based Curriculum Learning for Multi-Agent Path Finding
Venue: arXiv cs.MA 2024
Year: 2024

A wide range of real-world applications can be formulated as Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) problem, where the goal is to find collision-free paths for multiple agents with individual start and goal locations. State-of-the-art MAPF solvers are mainly centralized and depend on global information, which limits their scalability and flexibility regarding changes or new maps that would require expensive replanning. Multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) offers an alternative way by learning decentralized policies that can generalize over a variety of maps. While there exist some prior works that attempt to connect both areas, the proposed techniques are heavily engineered and very complex due to the integration of many mechanisms that limit generality and are expensive to use. We argue that much simpler and general approaches are needed to bring the areas of MARL and MAPF closer together with significantly lower costs. In this paper, we propose Confidence-based Auto-Curriculum for Team Update Stability (CACTUS) as a lightweight MARL approach to MAPF. CACTUS defines a simple reverse curriculum scheme, where the goal of each agent is randomly placed within an allocation radius around the agent's start location. The allocation radius increases gradually as all agents improve, which is assessed by a confidence-based measure. We evaluate CACTUS in various maps of different sizes, obstacle densities, and numbers of agents. Our experiments demonstrate better performance and generalization capabilities than state-of-the-art MARL approaches with less than 600,000 trainable parameters, which is less than 5% of the neural network size of current MARL approaches to MAPF.
Incorporation of Confidence Interval into Rate Selection Based on the Extreme Value Theory for Ultra-Reliable Communications
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Proper determination of the transmission rate in ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) needs to incorporate a confidence interval (CI) for the estimated parameters due to the large amount of data required for their accurate estimation. In this paper, we propose a framework based on the extreme value theory (EVT) for determining the transmission rate along with its corresponding CI for an ultra-reliable communication system. This framework consists of characterizing the statistics of extreme events by fitting the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) to the channel tail, deriving the GPD parameters and their associated CIs, and obtaining the transmission rate within a confidence interval. Based on the data collected within the engine compartment of Fiat Linea, we demonstrate the accuracy of the estimated rate obtained through the EVT-based framework considering the confidence interval for the GPD parameters. Additionally, we show that proper estimation of the transmission rate based on the proposed framework requires a lower number of samples compared to the traditional extrapolation-based approaches.
Recognition Complexity of Subgraphs of k-Connected Planar Cubic Graphs
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2024
Year: 2024

We study the recognition complexity of subgraphs of k-connected planar cubic graphs for k = 1, 2, 3. We present polynomial-time algorithms to recognize subgraphs of 1- and 2-connected planar cubic graphs, both in the variable and fixed embedding setting. The main tools involve the Generalized (Anti)factor-problem for the fixed embedding case, and SPQR-trees for the variable embedding case. Secondly, we prove NP-hardness of recognizing subgraphs of 3-connected planar cubic graphs in the variable embedding setting.
Binary Linear Tree Commitment-based Ownership Protection for Distributed Machine Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Distributed machine learning enables parallel training of extensive datasets by delegating computing tasks across multiple workers. Despite the cost reduction benefits of distributed machine learning, the dissemination of final model weights often leads to potential conflicts over model ownership as workers struggle to substantiate their involvement in the training computation. To address the above ownership issues and prevent accidental failures and malicious attacks, verifying the computational integrity and effectiveness of workers becomes particularly crucial in distributed machine learning. In this paper, we proposed a novel binary linear tree commitment-based ownership protection model to ensure computational integrity with limited overhead and concise proof. Due to the frequent updates of parameters during training, our commitment scheme introduces a maintainable tree structure to reduce the costs of updating proofs. Distinguished from SNARK-based verifiable computation, our model achieves efficient proof aggregation by leveraging inner product arguments. Furthermore, proofs of model weights are watermarked by worker identity keys to prevent commitments from being forged or duplicated. The performance analysis and comparison with SNARK-based hash commitments validate the efficacy of our model in preserving computational integrity within distributed machine learning.
Efficient Image Deblurring Networks based on Diffusion Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

This article presents a sliding window model for defocus deblurring, named Swintormer, which achieves the best performance to date with remarkably low memory usage. This method utilizes a diffusion model to generate latent prior features, aiding in the restoration of more detailed images. Additionally, by adapting the sliding window strategy, it incorporates specialized Transformer blocks to enhance inference efficiency. The adoption of this new approach has led to a substantial reduction in Multiply-Accumulate Operations (MACs) per iteration, drastically cutting down memory requirements. In comparison to the currently leading GRL method, our Swintormer model significantly reduces the computational load that must depend on memory capacity, from 140.35 GMACs to 8.02 GMACs, while improving the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) for defocus deblurring from 27.04 dB to 27.07 dB. This innovative technique enables the processing of higher resolution images on memory-limited devices, vastly broadening potential application scenarios. The article wraps up with an ablation study, offering a comprehensive examination of how each network module contributes to the final performance.The source code and model will be available at the following website: https://github.com/bnm6900030/swintormer.
Learning Segmented 3D Gaussians via Efficient Feature Unprojection for Zero-shot Neural Scene Segmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Zero-shot neural scene segmentation, which reconstructs 3D neural segmentation field without manual annotations, serves as an effective way for scene understanding. However, existing models, especially the efficient 3D Gaussian-based methods, struggle to produce compact segmentation results. This issue stems primarily from their redundant learnable attributes assigned on individual Gaussians, leading to a lack of robustness against the 3D-inconsistencies in zero-shot generated raw labels. To address this problem, our work, named Compact Segmented 3D Gaussians (CoSegGaussians), proposes the Feature Unprojection and Fusion module as the segmentation field, which utilizes a shallow decoder generalizable for all Gaussians based on high-level features. Specifically, leveraging the learned Gaussian geometric parameters, semantic-aware image-based features are introduced into the scene via our unprojection technique. The lifted features, together with spatial information, are fed into the multi-scale aggregation decoder to generate segmentation identities for all Gaussians. Furthermore, we design CoSeg Loss to boost model robustness against 3D-inconsistent noises. Experimental results show that our model surpasses baselines on zero-shot semantic segmentation task, improving by ~10% mIoU over the best baseline. Code and more results will be available at https://David-Dou.github.io/CoSegGaussians.
DREQ: Document Re-Ranking Using Entity-based Query Understanding
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2024
Year: 2024

While entity-oriented neural IR models have advanced significantly, they often overlook a key nuance: the varying degrees of influence individual entities within a document have on its overall relevance. Addressing this gap, we present DREQ, an entity-oriented dense document re-ranking model. Uniquely, we emphasize the query-relevant entities within a document's representation while simultaneously attenuating the less relevant ones, thus obtaining a query-specific entity-centric document representation. We then combine this entity-centric document representation with the text-centric representation of the document to obtain a "hybrid" representation of the document. We learn a relevance score for the document using this hybrid representation. Using four large-scale benchmarks, we show that DREQ outperforms state-of-the-art neural and non-neural re-ranking methods, highlighting the effectiveness of our entity-oriented representation approach.
SoK: Analysis techniques for WebAssembly
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

WebAssembly is a low-level bytecode language that allows high-level languages like C, C++, and Rust to be executed in the browser at near-native performance. In recent years, WebAssembly has gained widespread adoption is now natively supported by all modern browsers. However, vulnerabilities in memory-unsafe languages, like C and C++, can translate into vulnerabilities in WebAssembly binaries. Unfortunately, most WebAssembly binaries are compiled from such memory-unsafe languages, and these vulnerabilities have been shown to be practical in real-world scenarios. WebAssembly smart contracts have also been found to be vulnerable, causing significant financial loss. Additionally, WebAssembly has been used for malicious purposes like cryptojacking. To address these issues, several analysis techniques for WebAssembly binaries have been proposed. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of these techniques and categorize them based on their analysis strategy and objectives. Furthermore, we compare and evaluate the techniques using quantitative data, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, one of the main contributions of this paper is the identification of future research directions based on the thorough literature review conducted.
LLM-as-a-Coauthor: Can Mixed Human-Written and Machine-Generated Text Be Detected?
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

With the rapid development and widespread application of Large Language Models (LLMs), the use of Machine-Generated Text (MGT) has become increasingly common, bringing with it potential risks, especially in terms of quality and integrity in fields like news, education, and science. Current research mainly focuses on purely MGT detection without adequately addressing mixed scenarios, including AI-revised Human-Written Text (HWT) or human-revised MGT. To tackle this challenge, we define mixtext, a form of mixed text involving both AI and human-generated content. Then, we introduce MixSet, the first dataset dedicated to studying these mixtext scenarios. Leveraging MixSet, we executed comprehensive experiments to assess the efficacy of prevalent MGT detectors in handling mixtext situations, evaluating their performance in terms of effectiveness, robustness, and generalization. Our findings reveal that existing detectors struggle to identify mixtext, particularly in dealing with subtle modifications and style adaptability. This research underscores the urgent need for more fine-grain detectors tailored for mixtext, offering valuable insights for future research. Code and Models are available at https://github.com/Dongping-Chen/MixSet.
Spatial-Aware Deep Reinforcement Learning for the Traveling Officer Problem
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

The traveling officer problem (TOP) is a challenging stochastic optimization task. In this problem, a parking officer is guided through a city equipped with parking sensors to fine as many parking offenders as possible. A major challenge in TOP is the dynamic nature of parking offenses, which randomly appear and disappear after some time, regardless of whether they have been fined. Thus, solutions need to dynamically adjust to currently fineable parking offenses while also planning ahead to increase the likelihood that the officer arrives during the offense taking place. Though various solutions exist, these methods often struggle to take the implications of actions on the ability to fine future parking violations into account. This paper proposes SATOP, a novel spatial-aware deep reinforcement learning approach for TOP. Our novel state encoder creates a representation of each action, leveraging the spatial relationships between parking spots, the agent, and the action. Furthermore, we propose a novel message-passing module for learning future inter-action correlations in the given environment. Thus, the agent can estimate the potential to fine further parking violations after executing an action. We evaluate our method using an environment based on real-world data from Melbourne. Our results show that SATOP consistently outperforms state-of-the-art TOP agents and is able to fine up to 22% more parking offenses.
A Multi-Embedding Convergence Network on Siamese Architecture for Fake Reviews
Venue: arXiv cs.MM 2024
Year: 2024

In this new digital era, accessibility to real-world events is moving towards web-based modules. This is mostly visible on e-commerce websites where there is limited availability of physical verification. With this unforeseen development, we depend on the verification in the virtual world to influence our decisions. One of the decision making process is deeply based on review reading. Reviews play an important part in this transactional process. And seeking a real review can be very tenuous work for the user. On the other hand, fake review heavily impacts these transaction records of a product. The article presents an implementation of a Siamese network for detecting fake reviews. The fake reviews dataset, consisting of 40K reviews, preprocessed with different techniques. The cleaned data is passed through embeddings generated by MiniLM BERT for contextual relationship and Word2Vec for semantic relationship to form vectors. Further, the embeddings are trained in a Siamese network with LSTM layers connected to fuzzy logic for decision-making. The results show that fake reviews can be detected with high accuracy on a siamese network for prediction and verification.