OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Inherent Diverse Redundant Safety Mechanisms for AI-based Software Elements in Automotive Applications
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

This paper explores the role and challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, specifically AI-based software elements, in autonomous driving systems. These AI systems are fundamental in executing real-time critical functions in complex and high-dimensional environments. They handle vital tasks like multi-modal perception, cognition, and decision-making tasks such as motion planning, lane keeping, and emergency braking. A primary concern relates to the ability (and necessity) of AI models to generalize beyond their initial training data. This generalization issue becomes evident in real-time scenarios, where models frequently encounter inputs not represented in their training or validation data. In such cases, AI systems must still function effectively despite facing distributional or domain shifts. This paper investigates the risk associated with overconfident AI models in safety-critical applications like autonomous driving. To mitigate these risks, methods for training AI models that help maintain performance without overconfidence are proposed. This involves implementing certainty reporting architectures and ensuring diverse training data. While various distribution-based methods exist to provide safety mechanisms for AI models, there is a noted lack of systematic assessment of these methods, especially in the context of safety-critical automotive applications. Many methods in the literature do not adapt well to the quick response times required in safety-critical edge applications. This paper reviews these methods, discusses their suitability for safety-critical applications, and highlights their strengths and limitations. The paper also proposes potential improvements to enhance the safety and reliability of AI algorithms in autonomous vehicles in the context of rapid and accurate decision-making processes.
Transformer Mechanisms Mimic Frontostriatal Gating Operations When Trained on Human Working Memory Tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Models based on the Transformer neural network architecture have seen success on a wide variety of tasks that appear to require complex "cognitive branching" -- or the ability to maintain pursuit of one goal while accomplishing others. In cognitive neuroscience, success on such tasks is thought to rely on sophisticated frontostriatal mechanisms for selective \textit{gating}, which enable role-addressable updating -- and later readout -- of information to and from distinct "addresses" of memory, in the form of clusters of neurons. However, Transformer models have no such mechanisms intentionally built-in. It is thus an open question how Transformers solve such tasks, and whether the mechanisms that emerge to help them to do so bear any resemblance to the gating mechanisms in the human brain. In this work, we analyze the mechanisms that emerge within a vanilla attention-only Transformer trained on a simple sequence modeling task inspired by a task explicitly designed to study working memory gating in computational cognitive neuroscience. We find that, as a result of training, the self-attention mechanism within the Transformer specializes in a way that mirrors the input and output gating mechanisms which were explicitly incorporated into earlier, more biologically-inspired architectures. These results suggest opportunities for future research on computational similarities between modern AI architectures and models of the human brain.
Opportunistic Scheduling Using Statistical Information of Wireless Channels
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2024
Year: 2024

This paper considers opportunistic scheduler (OS) design using statistical channel state information~(CSI). We apply max-weight schedulers (MWSs) to maximize a utility function of users' average data rates. MWSs schedule the user with the highest weighted instantaneous data rate every time slot. Existing methods require hundreds of time slots to adjust the MWS's weights according to the instantaneous CSI before finding the optimal weights that maximize the utility function. In contrast, our MWS design requires few slots for estimating the statistical CSI. Specifically, we formulate a weight optimization problem using the mean and variance of users' signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) to construct constraints bounding users' feasible average rates. Here, the utility function is the formulated objective, and the MWS's weights are optimization variables. We develop an iterative solver for the problem and prove that it finds the optimal weights. We also design an online architecture where the solver adaptively generates optimal weights for networks with varying mean and variance of the SNRs. Simulations show that our methods effectively require $4\sim10$ times fewer slots to find the optimal weights and achieve $5\sim15\%$ better average rates than the existing methods.
Improving Image Coding for Machines through Optimizing Encoder via Auxiliary Loss
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Image coding for machines (ICM) aims to compress images for machine analysis using recognition models rather than human vision. Hence, in ICM, it is important for the encoder to recognize and compress the information necessary for the machine recognition task. There are two main approaches in learned ICM; optimization of the compression model based on task loss, and Region of Interest (ROI) based bit allocation. These approaches provide the encoder with the recognition capability. However, optimization with task loss becomes difficult when the recognition model is deep, and ROI-based methods often involve extra overhead during evaluation. In this study, we propose a novel training method for learned ICM models that applies auxiliary loss to the encoder to improve its recognition capability and rate-distortion performance. Our method achieves Bjontegaard Delta rate improvements of 27.7% and 20.3% in object detection and semantic segmentation tasks, compared to the conventional training method. \c{opyright} 2024 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Multi-Level GNN Preconditioner for Solving Large Scale Problems
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Large-scale numerical simulations often come at the expense of daunting computations. High-Performance Computing has enhanced the process, but adapting legacy codes to leverage parallel GPU computations remains challenging. Meanwhile, Machine Learning models can harness GPU computations effectively but often struggle with generalization and accuracy. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), in particular, are great for learning from unstructured data like meshes but are often limited to small-scale problems. Moreover, the capabilities of the trained model usually restrict the accuracy of the data-driven solution. To benefit from both worlds, this paper introduces a novel preconditioner integrating a GNN model within a multi-level Domain Decomposition framework. The proposed GNN-based preconditioner is used to enhance the efficiency of a Krylov method, resulting in a hybrid solver that can converge with any desired level of accuracy. The efficiency of the Krylov method greatly benefits from the GNN preconditioner, which is adaptable to meshes of any size and shape, is executed on GPUs, and features a multi-level approach to enforce the scalability of the entire process. Several experiments are conducted to validate the numerical behavior of the hybrid solver, and an in-depth analysis of its performance is proposed to assess its competitiveness against a C++ legacy solver.
RBF-PINN: Non-Fourier Positional Embedding in Physics-Informed Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

While many recent Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) variants have had considerable success in solving Partial Differential Equations, the empirical benefits of feature mapping drawn from the broader Neural Representations research have been largely overlooked. We highlight the limitations of widely used Fourier-based feature mapping in certain situations and suggest the use of the conditionally positive definite Radial Basis Function. The empirical findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach across a variety of forward and inverse problem cases. Our method can be seamlessly integrated into coordinate-based input neural networks and contribute to the wider field of PINNs research.
Insights Towards Better Case Study Reporting in Software Engineering
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

Case studies are a popular and noteworthy type of research study in software engineering, offering significant potential to impact industry practices by investigating phenomena in their natural contexts. This potential to reach a broad audience beyond the academic community is often undermined by deficiencies in reporting, particularly in the context description, study classification, generalizability, and the handling of validity threats. This paper presents a reflective analysis aiming to share insights that can enhance the quality and impact of case study reporting. We emphasize the need to follow established guidelines, accurate classification, and detailed context descriptions in case studies. Additionally, particular focus is placed on articulating generalizable findings and thoroughly discussing generalizability threats. We aim to encourage researchers to adopt more rigorous and communicative strategies, ensuring that case studies are methodologically sound, resonate with, and apply to software engineering practitioners and the broader academic community. The reflections and recommendations offered in this paper aim to ensure that insights from case studies are transparent, understandable, and tailored to meet the needs of both academic researchers and industry practitioners. In doing so, we seek to enhance the real-world applicability of academic research, bridging the gap between theoretical research and practical implementation in industry.
Conservative and Risk-Aware Offline Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely adopted for controlling and optimizing complex engineering systems such as next-generation wireless networks. An important challenge in adopting RL is the need for direct access to the physical environment. This limitation is particularly severe in multi-agent systems, for which conventional multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) requires a large number of coordinated online interactions with the environment during training. When only offline data is available, a direct application of online MARL schemes would generally fail due to the epistemic uncertainty entailed by the lack of exploration during training. In this work, we propose an offline MARL scheme that integrates distributional RL and conservative Q-learning to address the environment's inherent aleatoric uncertainty and the epistemic uncertainty arising from the use of offline data. We explore both independent and joint learning strategies. The proposed MARL scheme, referred to as multi-agent conservative quantile regression, addresses general risk-sensitive design criteria and is applied to the trajectory planning problem in drone networks, showcasing its advantages.
Leveraging Self-Supervised Instance Contrastive Learning for Radar Object Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

In recent years, driven by the need for safer and more autonomous transport systems, the automotive industry has shifted toward integrating a growing number of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Among the array of sensors employed for object recognition tasks, radar sensors have emerged as a formidable contender due to their abilities in adverse weather conditions or low-light scenarios and their robustness in maintaining consistent performance across diverse environments. However, the small size of radar datasets and the complexity of the labelling of those data limit the performance of radar object detectors. Driven by the promising results of self-supervised learning in computer vision, this paper presents RiCL, an instance contrastive learning framework to pre-train radar object detectors. We propose to exploit the detection from the radar and the temporal information to pre-train the radar object detection model in a self-supervised way using contrastive learning. We aim to pre-train an object detector's backbone, head and neck to learn with fewer data. Experiments on the CARRADA and the RADDet datasets show the effectiveness of our approach in learning generic representations of objects in range-Doppler maps. Notably, our pre-training strategy allows us to use only 20% of the labelled data to reach a similar mAP@0.5 than a supervised approach using the whole training set.
Analyzing Prompt Influence on Automated Method Generation: An Empirical Study with Copilot
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

Generative AI is changing the way developers interact with software systems, providing services that can produce and deliver new content, crafted to satisfy the actual needs of developers. For instance, developers can ask for new code directly from within their IDEs by writing natural language prompts, and integrated services based on generative AI, such as Copilot, immediately respond to prompts by providing ready-to-use code snippets. Formulating the prompt appropriately, and incorporating the useful information while avoiding any information overload, can be an important factor in obtaining the right piece of code. The task of designing good prompts is known as prompt engineering. In this paper, we systematically investigate the influence of eight prompt features on the style and the content of prompts, on the level of correctness, complexity, size, and similarity to the developers' code of the generated code. We specifically consider the task of using Copilot with 124,800 prompts obtained by systematically combining the eight considered prompt features to generate the implementation of 200 Java methods. Results show how some prompt features, such as the presence of examples and the summary of the purpose of the method, can significantly influence the quality of the result.
Generating Java Methods: An Empirical Assessment of Four AI-Based Code Assistants
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

AI-based code assistants are promising tools that can facilitate and speed up code development. They exploit machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to interact with developers, suggesting code snippets (e.g., method implementations) that can be incorporated into projects. Recent studies empirically investigated the effectiveness of code assistants using simple exemplary problems (e.g., the re-implementation of well-known algorithms), which fail to capture the spectrum and nature of the tasks actually faced by developers. In this paper, we expand the knowledge in the area by comparatively assessing four popular AI-based code assistants, namely GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, ChatGPT, and Google Bard, with a dataset of 100 methods that we constructed from real-life open-source Java projects, considering a variety of cases for complexity and dependency from contextual elements. Results show that Copilot is often more accurate than other techniques, yet none of the assistants is completely subsumed by the rest of the approaches. Interestingly, the effectiveness of these solutions dramatically decreases when dealing with dependencies outside the boundaries of single classes.
Taking Training Seriously: Human Guidance and Management-Based Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Fervent calls for more robust governance of the harms associated with artificial intelligence (AI) are leading to the adoption around the world of what regulatory scholars have called a management-based approach to regulation. Recent initiatives in the United States and Europe, as well as the adoption of major self-regulatory standards by the International Organization for Standardization, share in common a core management-based paradigm. These management-based initiatives seek to motivate an increase in human oversight of how AI tools are trained and developed. Refinements and systematization of human-guided training techniques will thus be needed to fit within this emerging era of management-based regulatory paradigm. If taken seriously, human-guided training can alleviate some of the technical and ethical pressures on AI, boosting AI performance with human intuition as well as better addressing the needs for fairness and effective explainability. In this paper, we discuss the connection between the emerging management-based regulatory frameworks governing AI and the need for human oversight during training. We broadly cover some of the technical components involved in human-guided training and then argue that the kinds of high-stakes use cases for AI that appear of most concern to regulators should lean more on human-guided training than on data-only training. We hope to foster a discussion between legal scholars and computer scientists involving how to govern a domain of technology that is vast, heterogenous, and dynamic in its applications and risks.
Fairness Auditing with Multi-Agent Collaboration
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Existing work in fairness auditing assumes that each audit is performed independently. In this paper, we consider multiple agents working together, each auditing the same platform for different tasks. Agents have two levers: their collaboration strategy, with or without coordination beforehand, and their strategy for sampling appropriate data points. We theoretically compare the interplay of these levers. Our main findings are that (i) collaboration is generally beneficial for accurate audits, (ii) basic sampling methods often prove to be effective, and (iii) counter-intuitively, extensive coordination on queries often deteriorates audits accuracy as the number of agents increases. Experiments on three large datasets confirm our theoretical results. Our findings motivate collaboration during fairness audits of platforms that use ML models for decision-making.
A new framework for calibrating COVID-19 SEIR models with spatial-/time-varying coefficients using genetic and sliding window algorithms
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2024
Year: 2024

A susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model assumes spatial-/time-varying coefficients to model the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the regional and temporal distribution of COVID-19 disease epidemics. A significant challenge in using such model is their fast and accurate calibration to observed data from geo-referenced hospitalized data, i.e., efficient estimation of the spatial-/time-varying parameters. In this work, a new calibration framework is proposed towards optimizing the spatial-/time-varying parameters of the SEIR model. We also devise a method for combing the overlapping sliding window technique (OSW) with a genetic algorithm (GA) calibration routine to automatically search the segmented parameter space. Parallelized GA is used to reduce the computational burden. Our framework abstracts the implementation complexity of the method away from the user. It provides high-level APIs for setting up a customized calibration system and consuming the optimized values of parameters. We evaluated the application of our method on the calibration of a spatial age-structured microsimulation model using a single objective function that comprises observed COVID-19-related ICU demand. The results reflect the effectiveness of the proposed method towards estimating the parameters in a changing environment.
Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Weaver's Discrepancy Problem in a Dense Regime
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2024
Year: 2024

Given $v_1,\ldots, v_m\in\mathbb{C}^d$ with $\|v_i\|^2= α$ for all $i\in[m]$ as input and suppose $\sum_{i=1}^m | \langle u, v_i \rangle |^2 = 1$ for every unit vector $u\in\mathbb{C}^d$, Weaver's discrepancy problem asks for a partition $S_1, S_2$ of $[m]$, such that $\sum_{i\in S_{j}} |\langle u, v_i \rangle|^2 \leq 1 -θ$ for some universal constant $θ$, every unit vector $u\in\mathbb{C}^d$ and every $j\in\{1,2\}$. We prove that this problem can be solved deterministically in polynomial time when $m\geq 49 d^2$.
Latent Inversion with Timestep-aware Sampling for Training-free Non-rigid Editing
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Text-guided non-rigid editing involves complex edits for input images, such as changing motion or compositions within their surroundings. Since it requires manipulating the input structure, existing methods often struggle with preserving object identity and background, particularly when combined with Stable Diffusion. In this work, we propose a training-free approach for non-rigid editing with Stable Diffusion, aimed at improving the identity preservation quality without compromising editability. Our approach comprises three stages: text optimization, latent inversion, and timestep-aware text injection sampling. Inspired by the success of Imagic, we employ their text optimization for smooth editing. Then, we introduce latent inversion to preserve the input image's identity without additional model fine-tuning. To fully utilize the input reconstruction ability of latent inversion, we suggest timestep-aware text injection sampling. This effectively retains the structure of the input image by injecting the source text prompt in early sampling steps and then transitioning to the target prompt in subsequent sampling steps. This strategic approach seamlessly harmonizes with text optimization, facilitating complex non-rigid edits to the input without losing the original identity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in terms of identity preservation, editability, and aesthetic quality through extensive experiments.
Assessing the Privacy Risk of Cross-Platform Identity Linkage using Eye Movement Biometrics
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

The recent emergence of ubiquitous, multi-platform eye tracking has raised user privacy concerns over re-identification across platforms, where a person is re-identified across multiple eye tracking-enabled platforms using personally identifying information that is implicitly expressed through their eye movement. We present an empirical investigation quantifying a modern eye movement biometric model's ability to link subject identities across three different eye tracking devices using eye movement signals from each device. We show that a state-of-the art eye movement biometrics model demonstrates above-chance levels of biometric performance (34.99% equal error rate, 15% rank-1 identification rate) when linking user identities across one pair of devices, but not for the other. Considering these findings, we also discuss the impact that eye tracking signal quality has on the model's ability to meaningfully associate a subject's identity between two substantially different eye tracking devices. Our investigation advances a fundamental understanding of the privacy risks for identity linkage across platforms by employing both quantitative and qualitative measures of biometric performance, including a visualization of the model's ability to distinguish genuine and imposter authentication attempts across platforms.