OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Transcription and translation of videos using fine-tuned XLSR Wav2Vec2 on custom dataset and mBART
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

This research addresses the challenge of training an ASR model for personalized voices with minimal data. Utilizing just 14 minutes of custom audio from a YouTube video, we employ Retrieval-Based Voice Conversion (RVC) to create a custom Common Voice 16.0 corpus. Subsequently, a Cross-lingual Self-supervised Representations (XLSR) Wav2Vec2 model is fine-tuned on this dataset. The developed web-based GUI efficiently transcribes and translates input Hindi videos. By integrating XLSR Wav2Vec2 and mBART, the system aligns the translated text with the video timeline, delivering an accessible solution for multilingual video content transcription and translation for personalized voice.
Multi-modal Attribute Prompting for Vision-Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Pre-trained Vision-Language Models (VLMs), like CLIP, exhibit strong generalization ability to downstream tasks but struggle in few-shot scenarios. Existing prompting techniques primarily focus on global text and image representations, yet overlooking multi-modal attribute characteristics. This limitation hinders the model's ability to perceive fine-grained visual details and restricts its generalization ability to a broader range of unseen classes. To address this issue, we propose a Multi-modal Attribute Prompting method (MAP) by jointly exploring textual attribute prompting, visual attribute prompting, and attribute-level alignment. The proposed MAP enjoys several merits. First, we introduce learnable visual attribute prompts enhanced by textual attribute semantics to adaptively capture visual attributes for images from unknown categories, boosting fine-grained visual perception capabilities for CLIP. Second, the proposed attribute-level alignment complements the global alignment to enhance the robustness of cross-modal alignment for open-vocabulary objects. To our knowledge, this is the first work to establish cross-modal attribute-level alignment for CLIP-based few-shot adaptation. Extensive experimental results on 11 datasets demonstrate that our method performs favorably against state-of-the-art approaches.
FTTN: Feature-Targeted Testing for Numerical Properties of NVIDIA & AMD Matrix Accelerators
Venue: arXiv cs.AR 2024
Year: 2024

NVIDIA Tensor Cores and AMD Matrix Cores (together called Matrix Accelerators) are of growing interest in high-performance computing and machine learning owing to their high performance. Unfortunately, their numerical behaviors are not publicly documented, including the number of extra precision bits maintained, the accumulation order of addition, and predictable subnormal number handling during computations. This makes it impossible to reliably port codes across these differing accelerators. This paper contributes a collection of {\em Feature Targeted Tests for Numerical Properties} that that help determine these features across five floating-point formats, four rounding modes and additional that highlight the rounding behaviors and preservation of extra precision bits. To show the practical relevance of FTTN, we design a simple matrix-multiplication test designed with insights gathered from our feature-tests. We executed this very simple test on five platforms, producing different answers: V100, A100, and MI250X produced 0, MI100 produced 255.875, and Hopper H100 produced 191.875. Our matrix multiplication tests employ patterns found in iterative refinement-based algorithms, highlighting the need to check for significant result variability when porting code across GPUs.
Extracting Polymer Nanocomposite Samples from Full-Length Documents
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

This paper investigates the use of large language models (LLMs) for extracting sample lists of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) from full-length materials science research papers. The challenge lies in the complex nature of PNC samples, which have numerous attributes scattered throughout the text. The complexity of annotating detailed information on PNCs limits the availability of data, making conventional document-level relation extraction techniques impractical due to the challenge in creating comprehensive named entity span annotations. To address this, we introduce a new benchmark and an evaluation technique for this task and explore different prompting strategies in a zero-shot manner. We also incorporate self-consistency to improve the performance. Our findings show that even advanced LLMs struggle to extract all of the samples from an article. Finally, we analyze the errors encountered in this process, categorizing them into three main challenges, and discuss potential strategies for future research to overcome them.
Algorithms for Efficient, Compact Online Data Stream Curation
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2024
Year: 2024

Data stream algorithms tackle operations on high-volume sequences of read-once data items. Data stream scenarios include inherently real-time systems like sensor networks and financial markets. They also arise in purely-computational scenarios like ordered traversal of big data or long-running iterative simulations. In this work, we develop methods to maintain running archives of stream data that are temporally representative, a task we call "stream curation." Our approach contributes to rich existing literature on data stream binning, which we extend by providing stateless (i.e., non-iterative) curation schemes that enable key optimizations to trim archive storage overhead and streamline processing of incoming observations. We also broaden support to cover new trade-offs between curated archive size and temporal coverage. We present a suite of five stream curation algorithms that span $\mathcal{O}(n)$, $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$, and $\mathcal{O}(1)$ orders of growth for retained data items. Within each order of growth, algorithms are provided to maintain even coverage across history or bias coverage toward more recent time points. More broadly, memory-efficient stream curation can boost the data stream mining capabilities of low-grade hardware in roles such as sensor nodes and data logging devices.
Improving Acne Image Grading with Label Distribution Smoothing
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Acne, a prevalent skin condition, necessitates precise severity assessment for effective treatment. Acne severity grading typically involves lesion counting and global assessment. However, manual grading suffers from variability and inefficiency, highlighting the need for automated tools. Recently, label distribution learning (LDL) was proposed as an effective framework for acne image grading, but its effectiveness is hindered by severity scales that assign varying numbers of lesions to different severity grades. Addressing these limitations, we proposed to incorporate severity scale information into lesion counting by combining LDL with label smoothing, and to decouple if from global assessment. A novel weighting scheme in our approach adjusts the degree of label smoothing based on the severity grading scale. This method helped to effectively manage label uncertainty without compromising class distinctiveness. Applied to the benchmark ACNE04 dataset, our model demonstrated improved performance in automated acne grading, showcasing its potential in enhancing acne diagnostics. The source code is publicly available at http://github.com/openface-io/acne-lds.
Semantic Text Transmission via Prediction with Small Language Models: Cost-Similarity Trade-off
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

We consider the communication of natural language text from a source to a destination over noiseless and character-erasure channels. We exploit language's inherent correlations and predictability to constrain transmission costs by allowing the destination to predict or complete words with potential dissimilarity with the source text. Concretely, our objective is to obtain achievable $(\bar{c}, \bar{s})$ pairs, where $\bar{c}$ is the average transmission cost at the source and $\bar{s}$ is the average semantic similarity measured via cosine similarity between vector embedding of words at the source and those predicted/completed at the destination. We obtain $(\bar{c}, \bar{s})$ pairs for neural language and first-order Markov chain-based small language models (SLM) for prediction, using both a threshold policy that transmits a word if its cosine similarity with that predicted/completed at the destination is below a threshold, and a periodic policy, which transmits words after a specific interval and predicts/completes the words in between, at the destination. We adopt an SLM for word completion. We demonstrate that, when communication occurs over a noiseless channel, the threshold policy achieves a higher $\bar{s}$ for a given $\bar{c}$ than the periodic policy and that the $\bar{s}$ achieved with the neural SLM is greater than or equal to that of the Markov chain-based algorithm for the same $\bar{c}$. The improved performance comes with a higher complexity in terms of time and computing requirements. However, when communication occurs over a character-erasure channel, all prediction algorithms and scheduling policies perform poorly. Furthermore, if character-level Huffman coding is used, the required $\bar{c}$ to achieve a given $\bar{s}$ is reduced, but the above observations still apply.
Enhancing Jailbreak Attacks with Diversity Guidance
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

As large language models(LLMs) become commonplace in practical applications, the security issues of LLMs have attracted societal concerns. Although extensive efforts have been made to safety alignment, LLMs remain vulnerable to jailbreak attacks. We find that redundant computations limit the performance of existing jailbreak attack methods. Therefore, we propose DPP-based Stochastic Trigger Searching (DSTS), a new optimization algorithm for jailbreak attacks. DSTS incorporates diversity guidance through techniques including stochastic gradient search and DPP selection during optimization. Detailed experiments and ablation studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm. Moreover, we use the proposed algorithm to compute the risk boundaries for different LLMs, providing a new perspective on LLM safety evaluation.
qPMS Sigma -- An Efficient and Exact Parallel Algorithm for the Planted $(l, d)$ Motif Search Problem
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2024
Year: 2024

Motif finding is an important step for the detection of rare events occurring in a set of DNA or protein sequences. Extraction of information about these rare events can lead to new biological discoveries. Motifs are some important patterns that have numerous applications including the identification of transcription factors and their binding sites, composite regulatory patterns, similarity between families of proteins, etc. Although several flavors of motif searching algorithms have been studied in the literature, we study the version known as $ (l, d) $-motif search or Planted Motif Search (PMS). In PMS, given two integers $ l $, $ d $ and $ n $ input sequences we try to find all the patterns of length $ l $ that appear in each of the $ n $ input sequences with at most $ d $ mismatches. We also discuss the quorum version of PMS in our work that finds motifs that are not planted in all the input sequences but at least in $ q $ of the sequences. Our algorithm is mainly based on the algorithms qPMSPrune, qPMS7, TraverStringRef and PMS8. We introduce some techniques to compress the input strings and make faster comparison between strings with bitwise operations. Our algorithm performs a little better than the existing exact algorithms to solve the qPMS problem in DNA sequence. We have also proposed an idea for parallel implementation of our algorithm.
Embedded Multi-label Feature Selection via Orthogonal Regression
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

In the last decade, embedded multi-label feature selection methods, incorporating the search for feature subsets into model optimization, have attracted considerable attention in accurately evaluating the importance of features in multi-label classification tasks. Nevertheless, the state-of-the-art embedded multi-label feature selection algorithms based on least square regression usually cannot preserve sufficient discriminative information in multi-label data. To tackle the aforementioned challenge, a novel embedded multi-label feature selection method, termed global redundancy and relevance optimization in orthogonal regression (GRROOR), is proposed to facilitate the multi-label feature selection. The method employs orthogonal regression with feature weighting to retain sufficient statistical and structural information related to local label correlations of the multi-label data in the feature learning process. Additionally, both global feature redundancy and global label relevancy information have been considered in the orthogonal regression model, which could contribute to the search for discriminative and non-redundant feature subsets in the multi-label data. The cost function of GRROOR is an unbalanced orthogonal Procrustes problem on the Stiefel manifold. A simple yet effective scheme is utilized to obtain an optimal solution. Extensive experimental results on ten multi-label data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of GRROOR.
Axe the X in XAI: A Plea for Understandable AI
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

In a recent paper, Erasmus et al. (2021) defend the idea that the ambiguity of the term "explanation" in explainable AI (XAI) can be solved by adopting any of four different extant accounts of explanation in the philosophy of science: the Deductive Nomological, Inductive Statistical, Causal Mechanical, and New Mechanist models. In this chapter, I show that the authors' claim that these accounts can be applied to deep neural networks as they would to any natural phenomenon is mistaken. I also provide a more general argument as to why the notion of explainability as it is currently used in the XAI literature bears little resemblance to the traditional concept of scientific explanation. It would be more fruitful to use the label "understandable AI" to avoid the confusion that surrounds the goal and purposes of XAI. In the second half of the chapter, I argue for a pragmatic conception of understanding that is better suited to play the central role attributed to explanation in XAI. Following Kuorikoski & Ylikoski (2015), the conditions of satisfaction for understanding an ML system are fleshed out in terms of an agent's success in using the system, in drawing correct inferences from it.
Learning with Logical Constraints but without Shortcut Satisfaction
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Recent studies in neuro-symbolic learning have explored the integration of logical knowledge into deep learning via encoding logical constraints as an additional loss function. However, existing approaches tend to vacuously satisfy logical constraints through shortcuts, failing to fully exploit the knowledge. In this paper, we present a new framework for learning with logical constraints. Specifically, we address the shortcut satisfaction issue by introducing dual variables for logical connectives, encoding how the constraint is satisfied. We further propose a variational framework where the encoded logical constraint is expressed as a distributional loss that is compatible with the model's original training loss. The theoretical analysis shows that the proposed approach bears salient properties, and the experimental evaluations demonstrate its superior performance in both model generalizability and constraint satisfaction.
Impact of Inter-Operator Interference via Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

A wireless communication system is studied that operates in the presence of multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). In particular, a multi-operator environment is considered where each operator utilizes an RIS to enhance its communication quality. Although out-of-band interference does not exist (since each operator uses isolated spectrum resources), RISs controlled by different operators do affect the system performance of one another due to the inherently rapid phase shift adjustments that occur on an independent basis. The system performance of such a communication scenario is analytically studied for the practical case where discrete-only phase shifts occur at RIS. The proposed framework is quite general since it is valid under arbitrary channel fading conditions as well as the presence (or not) of the transceiver's direct link. Finally, the derived analytical results are verified via numerical and simulation trial as well as some novel and useful engineering outcomes are manifested.
Can a Funny Chatbot Make a Difference? Infusing Humor into Conversational Agent for Behavioral Intervention
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

Regular physical activity is crucial for reducing the risk of non-communicable disease (NCD). With NCDs on the rise globally, there is an urgent need for effective health interventions, with chatbots emerging as a viable and cost-effective option because of limited healthcare accessibility. Although health professionals often utilize behavior change techniques (BCTs) to boost physical activity levels and enhance client engagement and motivation by affiliative humor, the efficacy of humor in chatbot-delivered interventions is not well-understood. This study conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of the generative humorous communication style in a 10-day chatbot-delivered intervention for physical activity. It further investigated if user engagement and motivation act as mediators between the communication style and changes in physical activity levels. 66 participants engaged with the chatbots across three groups (humorous, non-humorous, and no-intervention) and responded to daily ecological momentary assessment questionnaires assessing engagement, motivation, and physical activity levels. Multilevel time series analyses revealed that an affiliative humorous communication style positively impacted physical activity levels over time, with user engagement acting as a mediator in this relationship, whereas motivation did not. These findings clarify the role of humorous communication style in chatbot-delivered physical activity interventions, offering valuable insights for future development of intelligent conversational agents incorporating humor.
TRUCE: Private Benchmarking to Prevent Contamination and Improve Comparative Evaluation of LLMs
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

Benchmarking is the de-facto standard for evaluating LLMs, due to its speed, replicability and low cost. However, recent work has pointed out that the majority of the open source benchmarks available today have been contaminated or leaked into LLMs, meaning that LLMs have access to test data during pretraining and/or fine-tuning. This raises serious concerns about the validity of benchmarking studies conducted so far and the future of evaluation using benchmarks. To solve this problem, we propose Private Benchmarking, a solution where test datasets are kept private and models are evaluated without revealing the test data to the model. We describe various scenarios (depending on the trust placed on model owners or dataset owners), and present solutions to avoid data contamination using private benchmarking. For scenarios where the model weights need to be kept private, we describe solutions from confidential computing and cryptography that can aid in private benchmarking. We build an end-to-end system, TRUCE, that enables such private benchmarking showing that the overheads introduced to protect models and benchmark are negligible (in the case of confidential computing) and tractable (when cryptographic security is required). Finally, we also discuss solutions to the problem of benchmark dataset auditing, to ensure that private benchmarks are of sufficiently high quality.
Fractal interpolation in the context of prediction accuracy optimization
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

This paper focuses on the hypothesis of optimizing time series predictions using fractal interpolation techniques. In general, the accuracy of machine learning model predictions is closely related to the quality and quantitative aspects of the data used, following the principle of \textit{garbage-in, garbage-out}. In order to quantitatively and qualitatively augment datasets, one of the most prevalent concerns of data scientists is to generate synthetic data, which should follow as closely as possible the actual pattern of the original data. This study proposes three different data augmentation strategies based on fractal interpolation, namely the \textit{Closest Hurst Strategy}, \textit{Closest Values Strategy} and \textit{Formula Strategy}. To validate the strategies, we used four public datasets from the literature, as well as a private dataset obtained from meteorological records in the city of Brasov, Romania. The prediction results obtained with the LSTM model using the presented interpolation strategies showed a significant accuracy improvement compared to the raw datasets, thus providing a possible answer to practical problems in the field of remote sensing and sensor sensitivity. Moreover, our methodologies answer some optimization-related open questions for the fractal interpolation step using \textit{Optuna} framework.
Data-efficient Event Camera Pre-training via Disentangled Masked Modeling
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we present a new data-efficient voxel-based self-supervised learning method for event cameras. Our pre-training overcomes the limitations of previous methods, which either sacrifice temporal information by converting event sequences into 2D images for utilizing pre-trained image models or directly employ paired image data for knowledge distillation to enhance the learning of event streams. In order to make our pre-training data-efficient, we first design a semantic-uniform masking method to address the learning imbalance caused by the varying reconstruction difficulties of different regions in non-uniform data when using random masking. In addition, we ease the traditional hybrid masked modeling process by explicitly decomposing it into two branches, namely local spatio-temporal reconstruction and global semantic reconstruction to encourage the encoder to capture local correlations and global semantics, respectively. This decomposition allows our selfsupervised learning method to converge faster with minimal pre-training data. Compared to previous approaches, our self-supervised learning method does not rely on paired RGB images, yet enables simultaneous exploration of spatial and temporal cues in multiple scales. It exhibits excellent generalization performance and demonstrates significant improvements across various tasks with fewer parameters and lower computational costs.
Hierarchical Indexing for Retrieval-Augmented Opinion Summarization
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

We propose a method for unsupervised abstractive opinion summarization, that combines the attributability and scalability of extractive approaches with the coherence and fluency of Large Language Models (LLMs). Our method, HIRO, learns an index structure that maps sentences to a path through a semantically organized discrete hierarchy. At inference time, we populate the index and use it to identify and retrieve clusters of sentences containing popular opinions from input reviews. Then, we use a pretrained LLM to generate a readable summary that is grounded in these extracted evidential clusters. The modularity of our approach allows us to evaluate its efficacy at each stage. We show that HIRO learns an encoding space that is more semantically structured than prior work, and generates summaries that are more representative of the opinions in the input reviews. Human evaluation confirms that HIRO generates significantly more coherent, detailed and accurate summaries.