pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Mamba State-Space Models Are Lyapunov-Stable Learners
Authors: John T. Halloran, Manbir Gulati, Paul F. Roysdon
Date: 2024-05-31 00:00:00
Tasks: In-Context Learning, Mamba, parameter-efficient fine-tuning, State Space Models

Mamba state-space models (SSMs) were recently shown to outperform state-of-the-art (SOTA) Transformer large language models (LLMs) across various tasks. Despite subsequent widespread adaptation, little work has focused on Mamba LLMs' amenability for fine-tuning frameworks ubiquitously used for Transformer-based LLMs, e.g., mixed-precision fine-tuning (MPFT) and parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT). For the former, it currently remains an open question whether Mamba's recurrent dynamics are robust to small input changes, such as those encountered during MPFT. Using dynamical systems theory (in particular, Lyapunov exponents), we answer this question in the affirmative. We empirically validate this result through several experiments, showing that Mamba SSMs are significantly more stable to changes introduced by mixed-precision than comparable Transformers, even when both MPFT and PEFT are combined. For PEFT, we show how targeting specific memory buffers in Mamba's customized CUDA kernels for low-rank adaptation regularizes SSM parameters, thus providing both parameter efficient learning and computational savings. Finally, with both MPFT and PEFT enabled, we explore the impact of instruction tuning Mamba SSMs for in-context learning (ICL) on natural language tasks. While pretrained Mamba and Mamba-2 models only achieve 38% and 82% (respectively) of the ICL improvements of comparable Transformer-based LLMs, we show that instruction tuning allows Mamba models to narrow this gap to 81% and Mamba-2 models to skyrocket over this gap to 132%.
Bias Similarity Across Large Language Models
Authors: Hyejun Jeong, Shiqing Ma, Amir Houmansadr
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: 4k, Fairness

Bias in Large Language Models remains a critical concern as these systems are increasingly deployed in high-stakes applications. Yet most fairness evaluations rely on scalar metrics or single-model analysis, overlooking how biases align -- or diverge -- across model families, scales, and tuning strategies. In this work, we reframe bias similarity as a form of functional similarity and evaluate 24 LLMs from four major families on over one million structured prompts spanning four bias dimensions. Our findings uncover that fairness is not strongly determined by model size, architecture, instruction tuning, or openness. Instead, bias behaviors are highly context-dependent and structurally persistent, often resistant to current alignment techniques. Contrary to common assumptions, we find that open-source models frequently match or outperform proprietary models in both fairness and utility. These results call into question the default reliance on proprietary systems and highlight the need for behaviorally grounded, model-specific audits to better understand how bias manifests and endures across the LLM landscape.
Beyond Labels: A Self-Supervised Framework with Masked Autoencoders and Random Cropping for Breast Cancer Subtype Classification
Authors: Annalisa Chiocchetti, Marco Dossena, Christopher Irwin, Luigi Portinale
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Multi-class Classification

This work contributes to breast cancer sub-type classification using histopathological images. We utilize masked autoencoders (MAEs) to learn a self-supervised embedding tailored for computer vision tasks in this domain. This embedding captures informative representations of histopathological data, facilitating feature learning without extensive labeled datasets. During pre-training, we investigate employing a random crop technique to generate a large dataset from WSIs automatically. Additionally, we assess the performance of linear probes for multi-class classification tasks of cancer sub-types using the representations learnt by the MAE. Our approach aims to achieve strong performance on downstream tasks by leveraging the complementary strengths of ViTs and autoencoders. We evaluate our model's performance on the BRACS dataset and compare it with existing benchmarks.
The Fair Language Model Paradox
Authors: Andrea Pinto, Tomer Galanti, Randall Balestriero
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Fairness, Language Modeling, Language Modelling, model

Large Language Models (LLMs) are widely deployed in real-world applications, yet little is known about their training dynamics at the token level. Evaluation typically relies on aggregated training loss, measured at the batch level, which overlooks subtle per-token biases arising from (i) varying token-level dynamics and (ii) structural biases introduced by hyperparameters. While weight decay is commonly used to stabilize training, we reveal that it silently introduces performance biases detectable only at the token level. In fact, we empirically show across different dataset sizes, model architectures and sizes ranging from 270M to 3B parameters that as weight decay increases, low-frequency tokens are disproportionately depreciated. This is particularly concerning, as these neglected low-frequency tokens represent the vast majority of the token distribution in most languages, calling for novel regularization techniques that ensure fairness across all available tokens.
Generative AI Policies under the Microscope: How CS Conferences Are Navigating the New Frontier in Scholarly Writing
Authors: Mahjabin Nahar, Sian Lee, Rebekah Guillen, Dongwon Lee
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00

As the use of Generative AI (Gen-AI) in scholarly writing and peer reviews continues to rise, it is essential for the computing field to establish and adopt clear Gen-AI policies. This study examines the landscape of Gen-AI policies across 64 major Computer Science conferences and offers recommendations for promoting more effective and responsible use of Gen-AI in the field.
DDIL: Diversity Enhancing Diffusion Distillation With Imitation Learning
Authors: Risheek Garrepalli, Shweta Mahajan, Munawar Hayat, Fatih Porikli
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Denoising, Diversity, Imitation Learning

Diffusion models excel at generative modeling (e.g., text-to-image) but sampling requires multiple denoising network passes, limiting practicality. Efforts such as progressive distillation or consistency distillation have shown promise by reducing the number of passes at the expense of quality of the generated samples. In this work we identify co-variate shift as one of reason for poor performance of multi-step distilled models from compounding error at inference time. To address co-variate shift, we formulate diffusion distillation within imitation learning (DDIL) framework and enhance training distribution for distilling diffusion models on both data distribution (forward diffusion) and student induced distributions (backward diffusion). Training on data distribution helps to diversify the generations by preserving marginal data distribution and training on student distribution addresses compounding error by correcting covariate shift. In addition, we adopt reflected diffusion formulation for distillation and demonstrate improved performance, stable training across different distillation methods. We show that DDIL consistency improves on baseline algorithms of progressive distillation (PD), Latent consistency models (LCM) and Distribution Matching Distillation (DMD2).
CtrlSynth: Controllable Image Text Synthesis for Data-Efficient Multimodal Learning
Authors: Qingqing Cao, Mahyar Najibi, Sachin Mehta
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Image-text Retrieval, Text Retrieval, zero-shot-classification, Zero-Shot Learning

Pretraining robust vision or multimodal foundation models (e.g., CLIP) relies on large-scale datasets that may be noisy, potentially misaligned, and have long-tail distributions. Previous works have shown promising results in augmenting datasets by generating synthetic samples. However, they only support domain-specific ad hoc use cases (e.g., either image or text only, but not both), and are limited in data diversity due to a lack of fine-grained control over the synthesis process. In this paper, we design a \emph{controllable} image-text synthesis pipeline, CtrlSynth, for data-efficient and robust multimodal learning. The key idea is to decompose the visual semantics of an image into basic elements, apply user-specified control policies (e.g., remove, add, or replace operations), and recompose them to synthesize images or texts. The decompose and recompose feature in CtrlSynth allows users to control data synthesis in a fine-grained manner by defining customized control policies to manipulate the basic elements. CtrlSynth leverages the capabilities of pretrained foundation models such as large language models or diffusion models to reason and recompose basic elements such that synthetic samples are natural and composed in diverse ways. CtrlSynth is a closed-loop, training-free, and modular framework, making it easy to support different pretrained models. With extensive experiments on 31 datasets spanning different vision and vision-language tasks, we show that CtrlSynth substantially improves zero-shot classification, image-text retrieval, and compositional reasoning performance of CLIP models.
Beyond Sequence: Impact of Geometric Context for RNA Property Prediction
Authors: Junjie Xu, Artem Moskalev, Tommaso Mansi, Mangal Prakash, Rui Liao
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Computational Efficiency, Property Prediction

Accurate prediction of RNA properties, such as stability and interactions, is crucial for advancing our understanding of biological processes and developing RNA-based therapeutics. RNA structures can be represented as 1D sequences, 2D topological graphs, or 3D all-atom models, each offering different insights into its function. Existing works predominantly focus on 1D sequence-based models, which overlook the geometric context provided by 2D and 3D geometries. This study presents the first systematic evaluation of incorporating explicit 2D and 3D geometric information into RNA property prediction, considering not only performance but also real-world challenges such as limited data availability, partial labeling, sequencing noise, and computational efficiency. To this end, we introduce a newly curated set of RNA datasets with enhanced 2D and 3D structural annotations, providing a resource for model evaluation on RNA data. Our findings reveal that models with explicit geometry encoding generally outperform sequence-based models, with an average prediction RMSE reduction of around 12% across all various RNA tasks and excelling in low-data and partial labeling regimes, underscoring the value of explicitly incorporating geometric context. On the other hand, geometry-unaware sequence-based models are more robust under sequencing noise but often require around $2-5\times$ training data to match the performance of geometry-aware models. Our study offers further insights into the trade-offs between different RNA representations in practical applications and addresses a significant gap in evaluating deep learning models for RNA tasks.
Transfer Learning Adapts to Changing PSD in Gravitational Wave Data
Authors: Beka Modrekiladze
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Transfer Learning

The detection of gravitational waves has opened unparalleled opportunities for observing the universe, particularly through the study of black hole inspirals. These events serve as unique laboratories to explore the laws of physics under conditions of extreme energies. However, significant noise in gravitational wave (GW) data from observatories such as Advanced LIGO and Virgo poses major challenges in signal identification. Traditional noise suppression methods often fall short in fully addressing the non-Gaussian effects in the data, including the fluctuations in noise power spectral density (PSD) over short time intervals. These challenges have led to the exploration of an AI approach that, while overcoming previous obstacles, introduced its own challenges, such as scalability, reliability issues, and the vanishing gradient problem. Our approach addresses these issues through a simplified architecture. To compensate for the potential limitations of a simpler model, we have developed a novel training methodology that enables it to accurately detect gravitational waves amidst highly complex noise. Employing this strategy, our model achieves over 99% accuracy in non-white noise scenarios and shows remarkable adaptability to changing noise PSD conditions. By leveraging the principles of transfer learning, our model quickly adapts to new noise profiles with just a few epochs of fine-tuning, facilitating real-time applications in dynamically changing noise environments.
Explainable AI Methods for Multi-Omics Analysis: A Survey
Authors: Ahmad Hussein, Mukesh Prasad, Ali Braytee
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Explainable artificial intelligence, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), Survey

Advancements in high-throughput technologies have led to a shift from traditional hypothesis-driven methodologies to data-driven approaches. Multi-omics refers to the integrative analysis of data derived from multiple 'omes', such as genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics. This approach enables a comprehensive understanding of biological systems by capturing different layers of biological information. Deep learning methods are increasingly utilized to integrate multi-omics data, offering insights into molecular interactions and enhancing research into complex diseases. However, these models, with their numerous interconnected layers and nonlinear relationships, often function as black boxes, lacking transparency in decision-making processes. To overcome this challenge, explainable artificial intelligence (xAI) methods are crucial for creating transparent models that allow clinicians to interpret and work with complex data more effectively. This review explores how xAI can improve the interpretability of deep learning models in multi-omics research, highlighting its potential to provide clinicians with clear insights, thereby facilitating the effective application of such models in clinical settings.
Empowering Users in Digital Privacy Management through Interactive LLM-Based Agents
Authors: Bolun Sun, Yifan Zhou, Haiyun Jiang
Date: 2024-10-15 00:00:00
Tasks: Management, Question Answering

This paper presents a novel application of large language models (LLMs) to enhance user comprehension of privacy policies through an interactive dialogue agent. We demonstrate that LLMs significantly outperform traditional models in tasks like Data Practice Identification, Choice Identification, Policy Summarization, and Privacy Question Answering, setting new benchmarks in privacy policy analysis. Building on these findings, we introduce an innovative LLM-based agent that functions as an expert system for processing website privacy policies, guiding users through complex legal language without requiring them to pose specific questions. A user study with 100 participants showed that users assisted by the agent had higher comprehension levels (mean score of 2.6 out of 3 vs. 1.8 in the control group), reduced cognitive load (task difficulty ratings of 3.2 out of 10 vs. 7.8), increased confidence in managing privacy, and completed tasks in less time (5.5 minutes vs. 15.8 minutes). This work highlights the potential of LLM-based agents to transform user interaction with privacy policies, leading to more informed consent and empowering users in the digital services landscape.
A Scalable Communication Protocol for Networks of Large Language Models
Authors: Samuele Marro, Emanuele La Malfa, Jesse Wright, Guohao Li, Nigel Shadbolt, Michael Wooldridge, Philip Torr
Date: 2024-10-14 00:00:00

Communication is a prerequisite for collaboration. When scaling networks of AI-powered agents, communication must be versatile, efficient, and portable. These requisites, which we refer to as the Agent Communication Trilemma, are hard to achieve in large networks of agents. We introduce Agora, a meta protocol that leverages existing communication standards to make LLM-powered agents solve complex problems efficiently. In Agora, agents typically use standardised routines for frequent communications, natural language for rare communications, and LLM-written routines for everything in between. Agora sidesteps the Agent Communication Trilemma and robustly handles changes in interfaces and members, allowing unprecedented scalability with full decentralisation and minimal involvement of human beings. On large Agora networks, we observe the emergence of self-organising, fully automated protocols that achieve complex goals without human intervention.
Personalised Feedback Framework for Online Education Programmes Using Generative AI
Authors: Ievgeniia Kuzminykh, Tareita Nawaz, Shihao Shenzhang, Bogdan Ghita, Jeffery Raphael, Hannan Xiao
Date: 2024-10-14 00:00:00
Tasks: Benchmarking, Management, Multiple-choice

AI tools, particularly large language modules, have recently proven their effectiveness within learning management systems and online education programmes. As feedback continues to play a crucial role in learning and assessment in schools, educators must carefully customise the use of AI tools in order to optimally support students in their learning journey. Efforts to improve educational feedback systems have seen numerous attempts reflected in the research studies but mostly have been focusing on qualitatively benchmarking AI feedback against human-generated feedback. This paper presents an exploration of an alternative feedback framework which extends the capabilities of ChatGPT by integrating embeddings, enabling a more nuanced understanding of educational materials and facilitating topic-targeted feedback for quiz-based assessments. As part of the study, we proposed and developed a proof of concept solution, achieving an efficacy rate of 90% and 100% for open-ended and multiple-choice questions, respectively. The results showed that our framework not only surpasses expectations but also rivals human narratives, highlighting the potential of AI in revolutionising educational feedback mechanisms.
FLARE: Faithful Logic-Aided Reasoning and Exploration
Authors: Erik Arakelyan, Pasquale Minervini, Pat Verga, Patrick Lewis, Isabelle Augenstein
Date: 2024-10-14 00:00:00
Tasks: Code Generation, Question Answering

Modern Question Answering (QA) and Reasoning approaches based on Large Language Models (LLMs) commonly use prompting techniques, such as Chain-of-Thought (CoT), assuming the resulting generation will have a more granular exploration and reasoning over the question space and scope. However, such methods struggle with generating outputs that are faithful to the intermediate chain of reasoning produced by the model. On the other end of the spectrum, neuro-symbolic methods such as Faithful CoT (F-CoT) propose to combine LLMs with external symbolic solvers. While such approaches boast a high degree of faithfulness, they usually require a model trained for code generation and struggle with tasks that are ambiguous or hard to formalise strictly. We introduce $\textbf{F}$aithful $\textbf{L}$ogic-$\textbf{A}$ided $\textbf{R}$easoning and $\textbf{E}$xploration ($\textbf{FLARE}$), a novel interpretable approach for traversing the problem space using task decompositions. We use the LLM to plan a solution, soft-formalise the query into facts and predicates using a logic programming code and simulate that code execution using an exhaustive multi-hop search over the defined space. Our method allows us to compute the faithfulness of the reasoning process w.r.t. the generated code and analyse the steps of the multi-hop search without relying on external solvers. Our methods achieve SOTA results on $\mathbf{7}$ out of $\mathbf{9}$ diverse reasoning benchmarks. We also show that model faithfulness positively correlates with overall performance and further demonstrate that $\textbf{FLARE}$ allows pinpointing the decisive factors sufficient for and leading to the correct answer with optimal reasoning during the multi-hop search.
Dual Prototype Evolving for Test-Time Generalization of Vision-Language Models
Authors: Ce Zhang, Simon Stepputtis, Katia Sycara, Yaqi Xie
Date: 2024-10-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Computational Efficiency, Test-time Adaptation

Test-time adaptation, which enables models to generalize to diverse data with unlabeled test samples, holds significant value in real-world scenarios. Recently, researchers have applied this setting to advanced pre-trained vision-language models (VLMs), developing approaches such as test-time prompt tuning to further extend their practical applicability. However, these methods typically focus solely on adapting VLMs from a single modality and fail to accumulate task-specific knowledge as more samples are processed. To address this, we introduce Dual Prototype Evolving (DPE), a novel test-time adaptation approach for VLMs that effectively accumulates task-specific knowledge from multi-modalities. Specifically, we create and evolve two sets of prototypes--textual and visual--to progressively capture more accurate multi-modal representations for target classes during test time. Moreover, to promote consistent multi-modal representations, we introduce and optimize learnable residuals for each test sample to align the prototypes from both modalities. Extensive experimental results on 15 benchmark datasets demonstrate that our proposed DPE consistently outperforms previous state-of-the-art methods while also exhibiting competitive computational efficiency. Code is available at https://github.com/zhangce01/DPE-CLIP.
The Curse of Multi-Modalities: Evaluating Hallucinations of Large Multimodal Models across Language, Visual, and Audio
Authors: Sicong Leng, Yun Xing, Zesen Cheng, Yang Zhou, Hang Zhang, Xin Li, Deli Zhao, Shijian Lu, Chunyan Miao, Lidong Bing
Date: 2024-10-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Hallucination

Recent advancements in large multimodal models (LMMs) have significantly enhanced performance across diverse tasks, with ongoing efforts to further integrate additional modalities such as video and audio. However, most existing LMMs remain vulnerable to hallucinations, the discrepancy between the factual multimodal input and the generated textual output, which has limited their applicability in various real-world scenarios. This paper presents the first systematic investigation of hallucinations in LMMs involving the three most common modalities: language, visual, and audio. Our study reveals two key contributors to hallucinations: overreliance on unimodal priors and spurious inter-modality correlations. To address these challenges, we introduce the benchmark The Curse of Multi-Modalities (CMM), which comprehensively evaluates hallucinations in LMMs, providing a detailed analysis of their underlying issues. Our findings highlight key vulnerabilities, including imbalances in modality integration and biases from training data, underscoring the need for balanced cross-modal learning and enhanced hallucination mitigation strategies. Based on our observations and findings, we suggest potential research directions that could enhance the reliability of LMMs.