## 1 Introduction
[PERSON] [24] investigated the effect of vertical mass irregularity on the seismic response of multi-story structures. The study reported that the seismic response was higher when mass irregularity was located on the top floor. A few of the latest studies investigated the location of a vertical stiffness irregularity (soft story) on the seismic response of building structures. According to the latest study [25], when a structure is subjected to seismic loading, the stiffness at the base has a substantial influence on the overall stability and response of the structure. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [26] investigated the inelastic seismic response of multistorey structures with stiffness irregularities. They observed that sudden changes in seismic response occurred around the presence of irregularities. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [27] studied the seismic response of irregular-stiffness steel frames under mainshock aftershock. They considered stiffness irregularities at the building frames' bottom, middle, and top stories. Their analysis concluded that a stiffness irregularity at the bottom story causes a maximum inter-story drift ratio (IDR). Very recently, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [28] studied the effect of a flexible diaphragms on the peak floor accelerations (PFAs) and floor acceleration spectra of single-story buildings. The analysis concluded that the flexible diaphragm significantly affects FRSs and PFAs. Buildings with structural irregularities are particularly vulnerable to increased damage when exposed to the forces of earthquake loads, primarily due to the presence of a soft story. Since the open story is more flexible than the neighboring stories, a soft-story building will have a stiffness discontinuity. Studies on the seismic behavior of soft-story structures have been undertaken by several scholars [29; 30; 31; 32]. Most of the research studies listed in this paragraph focus on infill walls that can diffuse the seismic energy in soft stories. Yetwhen it comes to bare frames, a change in the height of a soft story has a huge impact on how rigid the building floors are. This may significantly alter the structural behavior of the structure, which in turn will alter the response spectra of the floors. It is clear from previous research that soft stories significantly affect the seismic behavior of both structural and non-structural components under earthquake stresses. Despite the fact that a recent study [20] concentrated on the impact of an irregularity on FRSs, it was only able to use straightforward 2D frames. Giving due attention to how a soft story influences the behavior of NSCs during earthquakes is of significant importance. The current study investigates how a soft story and its position affect NSCs' seismic behavior. When evaluating the seismic loads on NSCs, the dynamic amplification factors and FRSs are crucial. Component dynamic amplification factors hold considerable importance as they quantify the amplification of non-structural components (NSCs) during the formulation of floor response spectra. As a result, the spectra and the parameters are assessed for models under earthquakes. This study aims to compare the amplification factors obtained from code-based formulations with those derived from the analysis. Furthermore, this study presents a novel prediction model for the component dynamic amplification factor (CDAF) spectrum. Previous models [33; 34] used to determine CDAFs have neglected the effects of soft stories. In this research, a cutting-edge prediction model for dynamic amplification factors is introduced, making use of advanced machine learning (ML) techniques. ML has proven to be more effective than traditional regression analysis [8; 35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40] in establishing relationships between input and output variables. The field of structural engineering has witnessed numerous applications of ML, particularly in simulating structures under various loading conditions [41; 42].