Large language models respond well in high-resource languages like English but struggle in low-resource languages. It may arise from the lack of high-quality instruction following data in these languages. Directly translating English samples into these languages can be a solution but unreliable, leading to responses with translation errors and lacking language-specific or cultural knowledge. To address this issue, we propose a novel method to construct cross-lingual instruction following samples with instruction in English and response in low-resource languages. Specifically, the language model first learns to generate appropriate English instructions according to the natural web texts in other languages as responses. The candidate cross-lingual instruction tuning samples are further refined and diversified. We have employed this method to build a large-scale cross-lingual instruction tuning dataset on 10 languages, namely X-Instruction. The instruction data built using our method incorporate more language-specific knowledge compared with the naive translation method. Experimental results have shown that the response quality of the model tuned on X-Instruction greatly exceeds the model distilled from a powerful teacher model, reaching or even surpassing the ones of ChatGPT. In addition, we find that models tuned on cross-lingual instruction following samples can follow the instruction in the output language without further tuning.

The integration of large language models (LLMs) and search engines represents a significant evolution in knowledge acquisition methodologies. However, determining the knowledge that an LLM already possesses and the knowledge that requires the help of a search engine remains an unresolved issue. Most existing methods solve this problem through the results of preliminary answers or reasoning done by the LLM itself, but this incurs excessively high computational costs. This paper introduces a novel collaborative approach, namely SlimPLM, that detects missing knowledge in LLMs with a slim proxy model, to enhance the LLM's knowledge acquisition process. We employ a proxy model which has far fewer parameters, and take its answers as heuristic answers. Heuristic answers are then utilized to predict the knowledge required to answer the user question, as well as the known and unknown knowledge within the LLM. We only conduct retrieval for the missing knowledge in questions that the LLM does not know. Extensive experimental results on five datasets with two LLMs demonstrate a notable improvement in the end-to-end performance of LLMs in question-answering tasks, achieving or surpassing current state-of-the-art models with lower LLM inference costs.

In many prediction problems, the predictive model affects the distribution of the prediction target. This phenomenon is known as performativity and is often caused by the behavior of individuals with vested interests in the outcome of the predictive model. Although performativity is generally problematic because it manifests as distribution shifts, we develop algorithmic fairness practices that leverage performativity to achieve stronger group fairness guarantees in social classification problems (compared to what is achievable in non-performative settings). In particular, we leverage the policymaker's ability to steer the population to remedy inequities in the long term. A crucial benefit of this approach is that it is possible to resolve the incompatibilities between conflicting group fairness definitions.

We study reinforcement learning with multinomial logistic (MNL) function approximation where the underlying transition probability kernel of the Markov decision processes (MDPs) is parametrized by an unknown transition core with features of state and action. For the finite horizon episodic setting with inhomogeneous state transitions, we propose provably efficient algorithms with randomized exploration having frequentist regret guarantees. For our first algorithm, $\texttt{RRL-MNL}$, we adapt optimistic sampling to ensure the optimism of the estimated value function with sufficient frequency and establish that $\texttt{RRL-MNL}$ is both statistically and computationally efficient, achieving a $\tilde{O}(\kappa^{-1} d^{\frac{3}{2}} H^{\frac{3}{2}} \sqrt{T})$ frequentist regret bound with constant-time computational cost per episode. Here, $d$ is the dimension of the transition core, $H$ is the horizon length, $T$ is the total number of steps, and $\kappa$ is a problem-dependent constant. Despite the simplicity and practicality of $\texttt{RRL-MNL}$, its regret bound scales with $\kappa^{-1}$, which is potentially large in the worst case. To improve the dependence on $\kappa^{-1}$, we propose $\texttt{ORRL-MNL}$, which estimates the value function using local gradient information of the MNL transition model. We show that its frequentist regret bound is $\tilde{O}(d^{\frac{3}{2}} H^{\frac{3}{2}} \sqrt{T} + \kappa^{-1} d^2 H^2)$. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first randomized RL algorithms for the MNL transition model that achieve both computational and statistical efficiency. Numerical experiments demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithms.

VPN adoption has seen steady growth over the past decade due to increased public awareness of privacy and surveillance threats. In response, certain governments are attempting to restrict VPN access by identifying connections using "dual use" DPI technology. To investigate the potential for VPN blocking, we develop mechanisms for accurately fingerprinting connections using OpenVPN, the most popular protocol for commercial VPN services. We identify three fingerprints based on protocol features such as byte pattern, packet size, and server response. Playing the role of an attacker who controls the network, we design a two-phase framework that performs passive fingerprinting and active probing in sequence.

Red Arrows pay tribute to Spitfire crash pilot 2 hours agoEleanor Maslin,BBC NewsShareMODSqn Ldr Mark Long was described as a "passionate aviator" in a tribute by the RAF The Red Arrows have shared their "heartfelt condolences" after the death of a pilot when his Spitfire crashed into a Lincolnshire field. Emergency crews were called shortly before 13:20 BST on 25 May to the site near RAF Coningsby where Sqn Ldr Mark Long crashed. Red Arrows team leader Sqn Ldr Jon Bond said he and fellow pilots were supporting Sqn Ldr Long's family "as much as we can". The display team is getting ready to start its 60th anniversary season after returning from winter training in Greece on Saturday.Sqn Ldr Jon Bond said "things can change quickly" when flying The RAF said a "comprehensive investigation" was now under way to determine the cause of the Spitfire crash. Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Sqn Ldr Bond said: "Awful news to come back to on Saturday. "Our absolute heartfelt condolences go to Mark's family, all at the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) and all at RAF Coningsby.

Welcome to our monthly digest, where you can catch up with any AIhub stories you may have missed, peruse the latest news, recap recent events, and more. This month, we learn about causality and natural language, find out about the grassroots initiative AfriClimate AI, and discuss what responsible and trustworthy AI really means. In a series of interviews, we're chatting to some of the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants to find out more about their research. We caught up with Salena Torres Ashton and found out about her work focusing on causality and natural language. Salena was a professional genealogist and historian for 25 years before deciding to return to University and study for a PhD.

The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives at an important moment when AI's influence on society has never been more pronounced. This year, we have broadened our scope to more extensively cover essential trends such as technical advancements in AI, public perceptions of the technology, and the geopolitical dynamics surrounding its development. Featuring more original data than ever before, this edition introduces new estimates on AI training costs, detailed analyses of the responsible AI landscape, and an entirely new chapter dedicated to AI's impact on science and medicine. The AI Index report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, broadly sourced data in order for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the complex field of AI. The AI Index is recognized globally as one of the most credible and authoritative sources for data and insights on artificial intelligence. Previous editions have been cited in major newspapers, including the The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Guardian, have amassed hundreds of academic citations, and been referenced by high-level policymakers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, among other places. This year's edition surpasses all previous ones in size, scale, and scope, reflecting the growing significance that AI is coming to hold in all of our lives.

This work aims toward an application of natural language processing (NLP) technology for automatic verification of causal graphs using text sources. A causal graph is often derived from unsupervised causal discovery methods and requires manual evaluation from human experts. NLP technologies, i.e., Large Language Models (LLMs) such as BERT and ChatGPT, can potentially be used to verify the resulted causal graph by predicting if causal relation can be observed between node pairs based on the textual context. In this work, we compare the performance of two types of NLP models: (1) Pre-trained language models fine-tuned for causal relation classification task and, (2) prompt-based LLMs. Contrasted to previous studies where prompt-based LLMs work relatively well over a set of diverse tasks, preliminary experiments on biomedical and open-domain datasets suggest that the fine-tuned models far outperform the prompt-based LLMs, up to 20.5 points improvement of F1 score. We shared the code and the pre-processed datasets in our repository.

Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) is crucial for understanding sentiment nuances in text, especially across diverse languages and cultures. This paper introduces a novel Deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based model tailored for aspect and polarity classification in Hausa movie reviews, an underrepresented language in sentiment analysis research. A comprehensive Hausa ABSA dataset is created, filling a significant gap in resource availability. The dataset, preprocessed using sci-kit-learn for TF-IDF transformation, includes manually annotated aspect-level feature ontology words and sentiment polarity assignments. The proposed model combines CNNs with attention mechanisms for aspect-word prediction, leveraging contextual information and sentiment polarities. With 91% accuracy on aspect term extraction and 92% on sentiment polarity classification, the model outperforms traditional machine models, offering insights into specific aspects and sentiments. This study advances ABSA research, particularly in underrepresented languages, with implications for cross-cultural linguistic research.