OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Towards Interpretable Reinforcement Learning with Constrained Normalizing Flow Policies
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Reinforcement learning policies are typically represented by black-box neural networks, which are non-interpretable and not well-suited for safety-critical domains. To address both of these issues, we propose constrained normalizing flow policies as interpretable and safe-by-construction policy models. We achieve safety for reinforcement learning problems with instantaneous safety constraints, for which we can exploit domain knowledge by analytically constructing a normalizing flow that ensures constraint satisfaction. The normalizing flow corresponds to an interpretable sequence of transformations on action samples, each ensuring alignment with respect to a particular constraint. Our experiments reveal benefits beyond interpretability in an easier learning objective and maintained constraint satisfaction throughout the entire learning process. Our approach leverages constraints over reward engineering while offering enhanced interpretability, safety, and direct means of providing domain knowledge to the agent without relying on complex reward functions.
A Survey on Semantic Communication Networks: Architecture, Security, and Privacy
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2024
Year: 2024

With the rapid advancement and deployment of intelligent agents and artificial general intelligence (AGI), a fundamental challenge for future networks is enabling efficient communications among agents. Unlike traditional human-centric, data-driven communication networks, the primary goal of agent-based communication is to facilitate coordination among agents. Therefore, task comprehension and collaboration become the key objectives of communications, rather than data synchronization. Semantic communication (SemCom) aims to align information and knowledge among agents to expedite task comprehension. While significant research has been conducted on SemCom for two-agent systems, the development of semantic communication networks (SemComNet) for multi-agent systems remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of SemComNet, focusing on their fundamentals, security, and privacy aspects. We introduce a novel three-layer architecture for multi-agent interaction, comprising the control layer, semantic transmission layer, and cognitive sensing layer. We explore working modes and enabling technologies, and present a taxonomy of security and privacy threats, along with state-of-the-art defense mechanisms. Finally, we outline future research directions, paving the way toward intelligent, robust, and energy-efficient SemComNet. This survey represents the first comprehensive analysis of SemComNet, offering detailed insights into its core principles as well as associated security and privacy challenges.
Identification of Entailment and Contradiction Relations between Natural Language Sentences: A Neurosymbolic Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Natural language inference (NLI), also known as Recognizing Textual Entailment (RTE), is an important aspect of natural language understanding. Most research now uses machine learning and deep learning to perform this task on specific datasets, meaning their solution is not explainable nor explicit. To address the need for an explainable approach to RTE, we propose a novel pipeline that is based on translating text into an Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) graph. For this we use a pre-trained AMR parser. We then translate the AMR graph into propositional logic and use a SAT solver for automated reasoning. In text, often commonsense suggests that an entailment (or contradiction) relationship holds between a premise and a claim, but because different wordings are used, this is not identified from their logical representations. To address this, we introduce relaxation methods to allow replacement or forgetting of some propositions. Our experimental results show this pipeline performs well on four RTE datasets.
Towards Optimising EEG Decoding using Post-hoc Explanations and Domain Knowledge
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

Decoding EEG during motor imagery is pivotal for the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system, influencing its overall performance significantly. As end-to-end data-driven learning methods advance, the challenge lies in balancing model complexity with the need for human interpretability and trust. Despite strides in EEG-based BCIs, challenges like artefacts and low signal-to-noise ratio emphasise the ongoing importance of model transparency. This work proposes using post-hoc explanations to interpret model outcomes and validate them against domain knowledge. Leveraging the GradCAM post-hoc explanation technique on the motor imagery dataset, this work demonstrates that relying solely on accuracy metrics may be inadequate to ensure BCI performance and acceptability. A model trained using all EEG channels of the dataset achieves 72.60% accuracy, while a model trained with motor-imagery/movement-relevant channel data has a statistically insignificant decrease of 1.75%. However, the relevant features for both are very different based on neurophysiological facts. This work demonstrates that integrating domain-specific knowledge with XAI techniques emerges as a promising paradigm for validating the neurophysiological basis of model outcomes in BCIs. Our results reveal the significance of neurophysiological validation in evaluating BCI performance, highlighting the potential risks of exclusively relying on performance metrics when selecting models for dependable and transparent BCIs.
The Importance of Model Inspection for Better Understanding Performance Characteristics of Graph Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

This study highlights the importance of conducting comprehensive model inspection as part of comparative performance analyses. Here, we investigate the effect of modelling choices on the feature learning characteristics of graph neural networks applied to a brain shape classification task. Specifically, we analyse the effect of using parameter-efficient, shared graph convolutional submodels compared to structure-specific, non-shared submodels. Further, we assess the effect of mesh registration as part of the data harmonisation pipeline. We find substantial differences in the feature embeddings at different layers of the models. Our results highlight that test accuracy alone is insufficient to identify important model characteristics such as encoded biases related to data source or potentially non-discriminative features learned in submodels. Our model inspection framework offers a valuable tool for practitioners to better understand performance characteristics of deep learning models in medical imaging.
Overcoming LLM Challenges using RAG-Driven Precision in Coffee Leaf Disease Remediation
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2024
Year: 2024

This research introduces an innovative AI-driven precision agriculture system, leveraging YOLOv8 for disease identification and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for context-aware diagnosis. Focused on addressing the challenges of diseases affecting the coffee production sector in Karnataka, The system integrates sophisticated object detection techniques with language models to address the inherent constraints associated with Large Language Models (LLMs). Our methodology not only tackles the issue of hallucinations in LLMs, but also introduces dynamic disease identification and remediation strategies. Real-time monitoring, collaborative dataset expansion, and organizational involvement ensure the system's adaptability in diverse agricultural settings. The effect of the suggested system extends beyond automation, aiming to secure food supplies, protect livelihoods, and promote eco-friendly farming practices. By facilitating precise disease identification, the system contributes to sustainable and environmentally conscious agriculture, reducing reliance on pesticides. Looking to the future, the project envisions continuous development in RAG-integrated object detection systems, emphasizing scalability, reliability, and usability. This research strives to be a beacon for positive change in agriculture, aligning with global efforts toward sustainable and technologically enhanced food production.
Dynamic Online Ensembles of Basis Expansions
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Practical Bayesian learning often requires (1) online inference, (2) dynamic models, and (3) ensembling over multiple different models. Recent advances have shown how to use random feature approximations to achieve scalable, online ensembling of Gaussian processes with desirable theoretical properties and fruitful applications. One key to these methods' success is the inclusion of a random walk on the model parameters, which makes models dynamic. We show that these methods can be generalized easily to any basis expansion model and that using alternative basis expansions, such as Hilbert space Gaussian processes, often results in better performance. To simplify the process of choosing a specific basis expansion, our method's generality also allows the ensembling of several entirely different models, for example, a Gaussian process and polynomial regression. Finally, we propose a novel method to ensemble static and dynamic models together.
Unsupervised Flow Discovery from Task-oriented Dialogues
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

The design of dialogue flows is a critical but time-consuming task when developing task-oriented dialogue (TOD) systems. We propose an approach for the unsupervised discovery of flows from dialogue history, thus making the process applicable to any domain for which such an history is available. Briefly, utterances are represented in a vector space and clustered according to their semantic similarity. Clusters, which can be seen as dialogue states, are then used as the vertices of a transition graph for representing the flows visually. We present concrete examples of flows, discovered from MultiWOZ, a public TOD dataset. We further elaborate on their significance and relevance for the underlying conversations and introduce an automatic validation metric for their assessment. Experimental results demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach for extracting meaningful flows from task-oriented conversations.
Natural Language to Verilog: Design of a Recurrent Spiking Neural Network using Large Language Models and ChatGPT
Venue: arXiv cs.AR 2024
Year: 2024

This paper investigates the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and natural language prompts to generate hardware description code, namely Verilog. Building on our prior work, we employ OpenAI's ChatGPT4 and natural language prompts to synthesize an RTL Verilog module of a programmable recurrent spiking neural network, while also generating test benches to assess the system's correctness. The resultant design was validated in three simple machine learning tasks, the exclusive OR, the IRIS flower classification and the MNIST hand-written digit classification. Furthermore, the design was validated on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and subsequently synthesized in the SkyWater 130 nm technology by using an open-source electronic design automation flow. The design was submitted to Efabless Tiny Tapeout 6.
Two competing populations with a common environmental resource
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2024
Year: 2024

Feedback-evolving games is a framework that models the co-evolution between payoff functions and an environmental state. It serves as a useful tool to analyze many social dilemmas such as natural resource consumption, behaviors in epidemics, and the evolution of biological populations. However, it has primarily focused on the dynamics of a single population of agents. In this paper, we consider the impact of two populations of agents that share a common environmental resource. We focus on a scenario where individuals in one population are governed by an environmentally ``responsible" incentive policy, and individuals in the other population are environmentally ``irresponsible". An analysis on the asymptotic stability of the coupled system is provided, and conditions for which the resource collapses are identified. We then derive consumption rates for the irresponsible population that optimally exploit the environmental resource, and analyze how incentives should be allocated to the responsible population that most effectively promote the environment via a sensitivity analysis.
Error Correction Capabilities of Non-Linear Cryptographic Hash Functions
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

Linear hashes are known to possess error-correcting capabilities. However, in most applications, non-linear hashes with pseudorandom outputs are utilized instead. It has also been established that classical non-systematic random codes, both linear and non-linear, are capacity achieving in the asymptotic regime. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that non-linear hashes might also exhibit good error-correcting capabilities. In this paper, we show this to be the case. Our proof is based on techniques from multiple access channels. As a consequence, we show that Systematic Random Non-Linear Codes (S-RNLC) are capacity achieving in the asymptotic regime. We validate our results by comparing the performance of the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) with that of Systematic Random Linear Codes (SRLC) and S-RNLC, demonstrating that SHA performs equally.
Evaluation and Optimization of Adaptive Cruise Control in Autonomous Vehicles using the CARLA Simulator: A Study on Performance under Wet and Dry Weather Conditions
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Adaptive Cruise Control ACC can change the speed of the ego vehicle to maintain a safe distance from the following vehicle automatically. The primary purpose of this research is to use cutting-edge computing approaches to locate and track vehicles in real time under various conditions to achieve a safe ACC. The paper examines the extension of ACC employing depth cameras and radar sensors within Autonomous Vehicles AVs to respond in real time by changing weather conditions using the Car Learning to Act CARLA simulation platform at noon. The ego vehicle controller's decision to accelerate or decelerate depends on the speed of the leading ahead vehicle and the safe distance from that vehicle. Simulation results show that a Proportional Integral Derivative PID control of autonomous vehicles using a depth camera and radar sensors reduces the speed of the leading vehicle and the ego vehicle when it rains. In addition, longer travel time was observed for both vehicles in rainy conditions than in dry conditions. Also, PID control prevents the leading vehicle from rear collisions
Reverse Influential Community Search Over Social Networks (Technical Report)
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2024
Year: 2024

As an important fundamental task of numerous real-world applications such as social network analysis and online advertising/marketing, several prior works studied influential community search, which retrieves a community with high structural cohesiveness and maximum influences on other users in social networks. However, previous works usually considered the influences of the community on arbitrary users in social networks, rather than specific groups (e.g., customer groups, or senior communities). Inspired by this, we propose a novel Top-M Reverse Influential Community Search (TopM-RICS) problem, which obtains a seed community with the maximum influence on a user-specified target community, satisfying both structural and keyword constraints. To efficiently tackle the TopM-RICS problem, we design effective pruning strategies to filter out false alarms of candidate seed communities, and propose an effective index mechanism to facilitate the community retrieval. We also formulate and tackle a TopM-RICS variant, named Top-M Relaxed Reverse Influential Community Search} (TopM-R2ICS), which returns top-M subgraphs with relaxed structural constraints and having the maximum influence on a user-specified target community. Comprehensive experiments have been conducted to verify the efficiency and effectiveness of our TopM-RICS and TopM-R2ICS approaches on both real-world and synthetic social networks under various parameter settings.
Untangling Knots: Leveraging LLM for Error Resolution in Computational Notebooks
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

Computational notebooks became indispensable tools for research-related development, offering unprecedented interactivity and flexibility in the development process. However, these benefits come at the cost of reproducibility and an increased potential for bugs. There are many tools for bug fixing; however, they are generally targeted at the classical linear code. With the rise of code-fluent Large Language Models, a new stream of smart bug-fixing tools has emerged. However, the applicability of those tools is still problematic for non-linear computational notebooks. In this paper, we propose a potential solution for resolving errors in computational notebooks via an iterative LLM-based agent. We discuss the questions raised by this approach and share a novel dataset of computational notebooks containing bugs to facilitate the research of the proposed approach.
Rapid Mobile App Development for Generative AI Agents on MIT App Inventor
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

The evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as a pivotal force shaping our society, finding applications across diverse domains such as education, sustainability, and safety. Leveraging AI within mobile applications makes it easily accessible to the public, catalyzing its transformative potential. In this paper, we present a methodology for the rapid development of AI agent applications using the development platform provided by MIT App Inventor. To demonstrate its efficacy, we share the development journey of three distinct mobile applications: SynchroNet for fostering sustainable communities; ProductiviTeams for addressing procrastination; and iHELP for enhancing community safety. All three applications seamlessly integrate a spectrum of generative AI features, leveraging OpenAI APIs. Furthermore, we offer insights gleaned from overcoming challenges in integrating diverse tools and AI functionalities, aiming to inspire young developers to join our efforts in building practical AI agent applications.
CodeFort: Robust Training for Code Generation Models
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

Code generation models are not robust to small perturbations, which often lead to incorrect generations and significantly degrade the performance of these models. Although improving the robustness of code generation models is crucial to enhancing user experience in real-world applications, existing research efforts do not address this issue. To fill this gap, we propose CodeFort, a framework to improve the robustness of code generation models, generalizing a large variety of code perturbations to enrich the training data and enabling various robust training strategies, mixing data augmentation, batch augmentation, adversarial logits pairing, and contrastive learning, all carefully designed to support high-throughput training. Extensive evaluations show that we increase the average robust pass rates of baseline CodeGen models from 14.79 to 21.74. We notably decrease the robustness drop rate from 95.02% to 54.95% against code-syntax perturbations.
On Using Agent-based Modeling and Simulation for Studying Blockchain Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

There is a need for a simulation framework, which is develop as a software using modern engineering approaches (e.g., modularity --i.e., model reuse--, testing, continuous development and continuous integration, automated management of builds, dependencies and documentation) and agile principles, (1) to make rapid prototyping of industrial cases and (2) to carry out their feasibility analysis in a realistic manner (i.e., to test hypothesis by simulating complex experiments involving large numbers of participants of different types acting in one or several blockchain systems).
Large Language Model Agent for Fake News Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

In the current digital era, the rapid spread of misinformation on online platforms presents significant challenges to societal well-being, public trust, and democratic processes, influencing critical decision making and public opinion. To address these challenges, there is a growing need for automated fake news detection mechanisms. Pre-trained large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated exceptional capabilities across various natural language processing (NLP) tasks, prompting exploration into their potential for verifying news claims. Instead of employing LLMs in a non-agentic way, where LLMs generate responses based on direct prompts in a single shot, our work introduces FactAgent, an agentic approach of utilizing LLMs for fake news detection. FactAgent enables LLMs to emulate human expert behavior in verifying news claims without any model training, following a structured workflow. This workflow breaks down the complex task of news veracity checking into multiple sub-steps, where LLMs complete simple tasks using their internal knowledge or external tools. At the final step of the workflow, LLMs integrate all findings throughout the workflow to determine the news claim's veracity. Compared to manual human verification, FactAgent offers enhanced efficiency. Experimental studies demonstrate the effectiveness of FactAgent in verifying claims without the need for any training process. Moreover, FactAgent provides transparent explanations at each step of the workflow and during final decision-making, offering insights into the reasoning process of fake news detection for end users. FactAgent is highly adaptable, allowing for straightforward updates to its tools that LLMs can leverage within the workflow, as well as updates to the workflow itself using domain knowledge. This adaptability enables FactAgent's application to news verification across various domains.
Xabclib:A Fully Auto-tuned Sparse Iterative Solver
Venue: arXiv cs.MS 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we propose a general application programming interface named OpenATLib for auto-tuning (AT). OpenATLib is designed to establish the reusability of AT functions. By using OpenATLib, we develop a fully auto-tuned sparse iterative solver named Xabclib. Xabclib has several novel run-time AT functions. First, the following new implementations of sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) for thread processing are implemented:(1) non-zero elements; (2) omission of zero-elements computation for vector reduction; (3) branchless segmented scan (BSS). According to the performance evaluation and the comparison with conventional implementations, the following results are obtained: (1) 14x speedup for non-zero elements and zero-elements computation omission for symmetric SpMV; (2) 4.62x speedup by using BSS. We also develop a "numerical computation policy" that can optimize memory space and computational accuracy. Using the policy, we obtain the following: (1) an averaged 1/45 memory space reduction; (2) avoidance of the "fault convergence" situation, which is a problem of conventional solvers.
A Comprehensive Study on Automated Testing with the Software Lifecycle
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

The software development lifecycle depends heavily on the testing process, which is an essential part of finding issues and reviewing the quality of software. Software testing can be done in two ways: manually and automatically. With an emphasis on its primary function within the software lifecycle, the relevance of testing in general, and the advantages that come with it, this article aims to give a thorough review of automated testing. Finding time- and cost-effective methods for software testing. The research examines how automated testing makes it easier to evaluate software quality, how it saves time as compared to manual testing, and how it differs from each of them in terms of benefits and drawbacks. The process of testing software applications is simplified, customized to certain testing situations, and can be successfully carried out by using automated testing tools.