OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Online Relocating and Matching of Ride-Hailing Services: A Model-Based Modular Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

This study proposes an innovative model-based modular approach (MMA) to dynamically optimize order matching and vehicle relocation in a ride-hailing platform. MMA utilizes a two-layer and modular modeling structure. The upper layer determines the spatial transfer patterns of vehicle flow within the system to maximize the total revenue of the current and future stages. With the guidance provided by the upper layer, the lower layer performs rapid vehicle-to-order matching and vehicle relocation. MMA is interpretable, and equipped with the customized and polynomial-time algorithm, which, as an online order-matching and vehicle-relocation algorithm, can scale past thousands of vehicles. We theoretically prove that the proposed algorithm can achieve the global optimum in stylized networks, while the numerical experiments based on both the toy network and realistic dataset demonstrate that MMA is capable of achieving superior systematic performance compared to batch matching and reinforcement-learning based methods. Moreover, its modular and lightweight modeling structure further enables it to achieve a high level of robustness against demand variation while maintaining a relatively low computational cost.
iPUNet:Iterative Cross Field Guided Point Cloud Upsampling
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Point clouds acquired by 3D scanning devices are often sparse, noisy, and non-uniform, causing a loss of geometric features. To facilitate the usability of point clouds in downstream applications, given such input, we present a learning-based point upsampling method, i.e., iPUNet, which generates dense and uniform points at arbitrary ratios and better captures sharp features. To generate feature-aware points, we introduce cross fields that are aligned to sharp geometric features by self-supervision to guide point generation. Given cross field defined frames, we enable arbitrary ratio upsampling by learning at each input point a local parameterized surface. The learned surface consumes the neighboring points and 2D tangent plane coordinates as input, and maps onto a continuous surface in 3D where arbitrary ratios of output points can be sampled. To solve the non-uniformity of input points, on top of the cross field guided upsampling, we further introduce an iterative strategy that refines the point distribution by moving sparse points onto the desired continuous 3D surface in each iteration. Within only a few iterations, the sparse points are evenly distributed and their corresponding dense samples are more uniform and better capture geometric features. Through extensive evaluations on diverse scans of objects and scenes, we demonstrate that iPUNet is robust to handle noisy and non-uniformly distributed inputs, and outperforms state-of-the-art point cloud upsampling methods.
Timestamp-supervised Wearable-based Activity Segmentation and Recognition with Contrastive Learning and Order-Preserving Optimal Transport
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Human activity recognition (HAR) with wearables is one of the serviceable technologies in ubiquitous and mobile computing applications. The sliding-window scheme is widely adopted while suffering from the multi-class windows problem. As a result, there is a growing focus on joint segmentation and recognition with deep-learning methods, aiming at simultaneously dealing with HAR and time-series segmentation issues. However, obtaining the full activity annotations of wearable data sequences is resource-intensive or time-consuming, while unsupervised methods yield poor performance. To address these challenges, we propose a novel method for joint activity segmentation and recognition with timestamp supervision, in which only a single annotated sample is needed in each activity segment. However, the limited information of sparse annotations exacerbates the gap between recognition and segmentation tasks, leading to sub-optimal model performance. Therefore, the prototypes are estimated by class-activation maps to form a sample-to-prototype contrast module for well-structured embeddings. Moreover, with the optimal transport theory, our approach generates the sample-level pseudo-labels that take advantage of unlabeled data between timestamp annotations for further performance improvement. Comprehensive experiments on four public HAR datasets demonstrate that our model trained with timestamp supervision is superior to the state-of-the-art weakly-supervised methods and achieves comparable performance to the fully-supervised approaches.
PuoBERTa: Training and evaluation of a curated language model for Setswana
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2023
Year: 2023

Natural language processing (NLP) has made significant progress for well-resourced languages such as English but lagged behind for low-resource languages like Setswana. This paper addresses this gap by presenting PuoBERTa, a customised masked language model trained specifically for Setswana. We cover how we collected, curated, and prepared diverse monolingual texts to generate a high-quality corpus for PuoBERTa's training. Building upon previous efforts in creating monolingual resources for Setswana, we evaluated PuoBERTa across several NLP tasks, including part-of-speech (POS) tagging, named entity recognition (NER), and news categorisation. Additionally, we introduced a new Setswana news categorisation dataset and provided the initial benchmarks using PuoBERTa. Our work demonstrates the efficacy of PuoBERTa in fostering NLP capabilities for understudied languages like Setswana and paves the way for future research directions.
Quantum Machine Learning in Climate Change and Sustainability: a Review
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Climate change and its impact on global sustainability are critical challenges, demanding innovative solutions that combine cutting-edge technologies and scientific insights. Quantum machine learning (QML) has emerged as a promising paradigm that harnesses the power of quantum computing to address complex problems in various domains including climate change and sustainability. In this work, we survey existing literature that applies quantum machine learning to solve climate change and sustainability-related problems. We review promising QML methodologies that have the potential to accelerate decarbonization including energy systems, climate data forecasting, climate monitoring, and hazardous events predictions. We discuss the challenges and current limitations of quantum machine learning approaches and provide an overview of potential opportunities and future work to leverage QML-based methods in the important area of climate change research.
Multinational AGI Consortium (MAGIC): A Proposal for International Coordination on AI
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2023
Year: 2023

This paper proposes a Multinational Artificial General Intelligence Consortium (MAGIC) to mitigate existential risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). MAGIC would be the only institution in the world permitted to develop advanced AI, enforced through a global moratorium by its signatory members on all other advanced AI development. MAGIC would be exclusive, safety-focused, highly secure, and collectively supported by member states, with benefits distributed equitably among signatories. MAGIC would allow narrow AI models to flourish while significantly reducing the possibility of misaligned, rogue, breakout, or runaway outcomes of general-purpose systems. We do not address the political feasibility of implementing a moratorium or address the specific legislative strategies and rules needed to enforce a ban on high-capacity AGI training runs. Instead, we propose one positive vision of the future, where MAGIC, as a global governance regime, can lay the groundwork for long-term, safe regulation of advanced AI.
BanglaNLP at BLP-2023 Task 2: Benchmarking different Transformer Models for Sentiment Analysis of Bangla Social Media Posts
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2023
Year: 2023

Bangla is the 7th most widely spoken language globally, with a staggering 234 million native speakers primarily hailing from India and Bangladesh. This morphologically rich language boasts a rich literary tradition, encompassing diverse dialects and language-specific challenges. Despite its linguistic richness and history, Bangla remains categorized as a low-resource language within the natural language processing (NLP) and speech community. This paper presents our submission to Task 2 (Sentiment Analysis of Bangla Social Media Posts) of the BLP Workshop. We experiment with various Transformer-based architectures to solve this task. Our quantitative results show that transfer learning really helps in better learning of the models in this low-resource language scenario. This becomes evident when we further finetune a model which has already been finetuned on twitter data for sentiment analysis task and that finetuned model performs the best among all other models. We also perform a detailed error analysis where we find some instances where ground truth labels need to be relooked at. We obtain a micro-F1 of 67.02\% on the test set and our performance in this shared task is ranked at 21 in the leaderboard.
QUIK: Towards End-to-End 4-Bit Inference on Generative Large Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Large Language Models (LLMs) from the GPT family have become extremely popular, leading to a race towards reducing their inference costs to allow for efficient local computation. Yet, the vast majority of existing work focuses on weight-only quantization, which can reduce runtime costs in the memory-bound one-token-at-a-time generative setting, but does not address them in compute-bound scenarios, such as batched inference or prompt processing. In this paper, we address the general quantization problem, where both weights and activations should be quantized. We show, for the first time, that the majority of inference computations for large generative models such as LLaMA, OPT, and Falcon can be performed with both weights and activations being cast to 4 bits, in a way that leads to practical speedups, while at the same time maintaining good accuracy. We achieve this via a hybrid quantization strategy called QUIK, which compresses most of the weights and activations to 4-bit, while keeping some outlier weights and activations in higher-precision. The key feature of our scheme is that it is designed with computational efficiency in mind: we provide GPU kernels matching the QUIK format with highly-efficient layer-wise runtimes, which lead to practical end-to-end throughput improvements of up to 3.4x relative to FP16 execution. We provide detailed studies for models from the OPT, LLaMA-2 and Falcon families, as well as a first instance of accurate inference using quantization plus 2:4 sparsity. Code is available at: https://github.com/IST-DASLab/QUIK.
SAIR: Learning Semantic-aware Implicit Representation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Implicit representation of an image can map arbitrary coordinates in the continuous domain to their corresponding color values, presenting a powerful capability for image reconstruction. Nevertheless, existing implicit representation approaches only focus on building continuous appearance mapping, ignoring the continuities of the semantic information across pixels. As a result, they can hardly achieve desired reconstruction results when the semantic information within input images is corrupted, for example, a large region misses. To address the issue, we propose to learn semantic-aware implicit representation (SAIR), that is, we make the implicit representation of each pixel rely on both its appearance and semantic information (\eg, which object does the pixel belong to). To this end, we propose a framework with two modules: (1) building a semantic implicit representation (SIR) for a corrupted image whose large regions miss. Given an arbitrary coordinate in the continuous domain, we can obtain its respective text-aligned embedding indicating the object the pixel belongs. (2) building an appearance implicit representation (AIR) based on the SIR. Given an arbitrary coordinate in the continuous domain, we can reconstruct its color whether or not the pixel is missed in the input. We validate the novel semantic-aware implicit representation method on the image inpainting task, and the extensive experiments demonstrate that our method surpasses state-of-the-art approaches by a significant margin.
Near-optimal Differentially Private Client Selection in Federated Settings
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

We develop an iterative differentially private algorithm for client selection in federated settings. We consider a federated network wherein clients coordinate with a central server to complete a task; however, the clients decide whether to participate or not at a time step based on their preferences -- local computation and probabilistic intent. The algorithm does not require client-to-client information exchange. The developed algorithm provides near-optimal values to the clients over long-term average participation with a certain differential privacy guarantee. Finally, we present the experimental results to check the algorithm's efficacy.
Target Variable Engineering
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

How does the formulation of a target variable affect performance within the ML pipeline? The experiments in this study examine numeric targets that have been binarized by comparing against a threshold. We compare the predictive performance of regression models trained to predict the numeric targets vs. classifiers trained to predict their binarized counterparts. Specifically, we make this comparison at every point of a randomized hyperparameter optimization search to understand the effect of computational resource budget on the tradeoff between the two. We find that regression requires significantly more computational effort to converge upon the optimal performance, and is more sensitive to both randomness and heuristic choices in the training process. Although classification can and does benefit from systematic hyperparameter tuning and model selection, the improvements are much less than for regression. This work comprises the first systematic comparison of regression and classification within the framework of computational resource requirements. Our findings contribute to calls for greater replicability and efficiency within the ML pipeline for the sake of building more sustainable and robust AI systems.
Tackling Heterogeneity in Medical Federated learning via Vision Transformers
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Optimization-based regularization methods have been effective in addressing the challenges posed by data heterogeneity in medical federated learning, particularly in improving the performance of underrepresented clients. However, these methods often lead to lower overall model accuracy and slower convergence rates. In this paper, we demonstrate that using Vision Transformers can substantially improve the performance of underrepresented clients without a significant trade-off in overall accuracy. This improvement is attributed to the Vision transformer's ability to capture long-range dependencies within the input data.
Learning In-between Imagery Dynamics via Physical Latent Spaces
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

We present a framework designed to learn the underlying dynamics between two images observed at consecutive time steps. The complex nature of image data and the lack of temporal information pose significant challenges in capturing the unique evolving patterns. Our proposed method focuses on estimating the intermediary stages of image evolution, allowing for interpretability through latent dynamics while preserving spatial correlations with the image. By incorporating a latent variable that follows a physical model expressed in partial differential equations (PDEs), our approach ensures the interpretability of the learned model and provides insight into corresponding image dynamics. We demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of our learning framework through a series of numerical tests using geoscientific imagery data.
OBSUM: An object-based spatial unmixing model for spatiotemporal fusion of remote sensing images
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Spatiotemporal fusion aims to improve both the spatial and temporal resolution of remote sensing images, thus facilitating time-series analysis at a fine spatial scale. However, there are several important issues that limit the application of current spatiotemporal fusion methods. First, most spatiotemporal fusion methods are based on pixel-level computation, which neglects the valuable object-level information of the land surface. Moreover, many existing methods cannot accurately retrieve strong temporal changes between the available high-resolution image at base date and the predicted one. This study proposes an Object-Based Spatial Unmixing Model (OBSUM), which incorporates object-based image analysis and spatial unmixing, to overcome the two abovementioned problems. OBSUM consists of one preprocessing step and three fusion steps, i.e., object-level unmixing, object-level residual compensation, and pixel-level residual compensation. OBSUM can be applied using only one fine image at the base date and one coarse image at the prediction date, without the need of a coarse image at the base date. The performance of OBSUM was compared with five representative spatiotemporal fusion methods. The experimental results demonstrated that OBSUM outperformed other methods in terms of both accuracy indices and visual effects over time-series. Furthermore, OBSUM also achieved satisfactory results in two typical remote sensing applications. Therefore, it has great potential to generate accurate and high-resolution time-series observations for supporting various remote sensing applications.
Analysis of the Penetration of 5G Wireless RF-EMF on Human Skin
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2023
Year: 2023

New wireless mobile technology has been released every ten years, improving previous generations' facilities. Even though 5G supports many services on demand nowadays, its higher radiation increases the queries about the safety of humans and other living things. The health effects related to EMF of 5G is still under in discussion. Number of health organizations such as ICNIRP, FCC and WHO have specified the 5G safety guidelines and suggested the minimum distance between UE and BS. But this is unsafe for humans while using high frequencies. The unique position and functions of the skin are not considered by the most recent revisions to the ICNIRP exposure limits. Although 5G radiation has an impact on biological matter, a connection between physiological consequences and health issues is not being investigated. It is time to establish a task force to clarify the consequences of 5G radiation on the skin and overall health, and to change exposure restrictions as necessary. This paper investigates the human Electro Magnetic Field (EMF) exposure from 5G wireless communication. It analyzes the impact of the penetration level of EMF in human skin at 28GHz using the Specific Absorption Rate metric and discusses the reduction of EMF exposure level of 5G.
Landslide Topology Uncovers Failure Movements
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

The death toll and monetary damages from landslides continue to rise despite advancements in predictive modeling. The predictive capability of these models is limited as landslide databases used in training and assessing the models often have crucial information missing, such as underlying failure types. Here, we present an approach for identifying failure types based on their movements, e.g., slides and flows by leveraging 3D landslide topology. We observe topological proxies reveal prevalent signatures of mass movement mechanics embedded in the landslide's morphology or shape, such as detecting coupled movement styles within complex landslides. We find identical failure types exhibit similar topological properties, and by using them as predictors, we can identify failure types in historic and event-specific landslide databases (including multi-temporal) from various geomorphological and climatic contexts such as Italy, the US Pacific Northwest region, Denmark, Turkey, and China with 80 to 94 % accuracy. To demonstrate the real-world application of the method, we implement it in two undocumented datasets from China and publicly release the datasets. These new insights can considerably improve the performance of landslide predictive models and impact assessments. Moreover, our work introduces a new paradigm for studying landslide shapes to understand underlying processes through the lens of landslide topology.
Generative Adversarial Training for Text-to-Speech Synthesis Based on Raw Phonetic Input and Explicit Prosody Modelling
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

We describe an end-to-end speech synthesis system that uses generative adversarial training. We train our Vocoder for raw phoneme-to-audio conversion, using explicit phonetic, pitch and duration modeling. We experiment with several pre-trained models for contextualized and decontextualized word embeddings and we introduce a new method for highly expressive character voice matching, based on discreet style tokens.
Robot Imitation from Video Demonstration
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

This paper presents an attempt to replicate the robot imitation work conducted by Sermanet et al., with a specific focus on the experiments involving robot joint position prediction. While the original study utilized human poses to predict robot joint positions, this project aimed to achieve robot-to-robot imitation due to the challenges of obtaining human-to-robot translation data. The primary objective was to provide a neural network with robot images and have it predict end-effector positions through regression. The paper discusses the implementation process, including data collection using the open-source RoboSuite, where a Python module was developed to capture randomized action data for four different robots. Challenges in data collection, such as oscillations and limited action variety, were addressed through domain randomization. Results show high testing error and unsatisfactory imitation due to overfitting, necessitating improvements in the project.
Generative artificial intelligence for de novo protein design
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Engineering new molecules with desirable functions and properties has the potential to extend our ability to engineer proteins beyond what nature has so far evolved. Advances in the so-called "de novo" design problem have recently been brought forward by developments in artificial intelligence. Generative architectures, such as language models and diffusion processes, seem adept at generating novel, yet realistic proteins that display desirable properties and perform specified functions. State-of-the-art design protocols now achieve experimental success rates nearing 20%, thus widening the access to de novo designed proteins. Despite extensive progress, there are clear field-wide challenges, for example in determining the best in silico metrics to prioritise designs for experimental testing, and in designing proteins that can undergo large conformational changes or be regulated by post-translational modifications and other cellular processes. With an increase in the number of models being developed, this review provides a framework to understand how these tools fit into the overall process of de novo protein design. Throughout, we highlight the power of incorporating biochemical knowledge to improve performance and interpretability.