Neural networks are regularly employed in adaptive control of nonlinear systems and related methods of reinforcement learning. A common architecture uses a neural network with a single hidden layer (i.e. a shallow network), in which the weights and biases are fixed in advance and only the output layer is trained. While classical results show that there exist neural networks of this type that can approximate arbitrary continuous functions over bounded regions, they are non-constructive, and the networks used in practice have no approximation guarantees. Thus, the approximation properties required for control with neural networks are assumed, rather than proved. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by showing that for sufficiently smooth functions, ReLU networks with randomly generated weights and biases achieve $L_{\infty}$ error of $O(m^{-1/2})$ with high probability, where $m$ is the number of neurons. It suffices to generate the weights uniformly over a sphere and the biases uniformly over an interval. We show how the result can be used to get approximations of required accuracy in a model reference adaptive control application.

Self-alignment is an effective way to reduce the cost of human annotation while ensuring promising model capability. However, most current methods complete the data collection and training steps in a single round, which may overlook the continuously improving ability of self-aligned models. This gives rise to a key query: What if we do multi-time bootstrapping self-alignment? Does this strategy enhance model performance or lead to rapid degradation? In this paper, our pioneering exploration delves into the impact of bootstrapping self-alignment on large language models. Our findings reveal that bootstrapping self-alignment markedly surpasses the single-round approach, by guaranteeing data diversity from in-context learning. To further exploit the capabilities of bootstrapping, we investigate and adjust the training order of data, which yields improved performance of the model. Drawing on these findings, we propose Step-On-Feet Tuning (SOFT) which leverages model's continuously enhanced few-shot ability to boost zero or one-shot performance. Based on easy-to-hard training recipe, we propose SOFT+ which further boost self-alignment's performance. Our experiments demonstrate the efficiency of SOFT (SOFT+) across various classification and generation tasks, highlighting the potential of bootstrapping self-alignment on continually enhancing model alignment performance.

Recent studies have shown that dense retrieval models, lacking dedicated training data, struggle to perform well across diverse retrieval tasks, as different retrieval tasks often entail distinct search intents. To address this challenge, in this work we introduce ControlRetriever, a generic and efficient approach with a parameter isolated architecture, capable of controlling dense retrieval models to directly perform varied retrieval tasks, harnessing the power of instructions that explicitly describe retrieval intents in natural language. Leveraging the foundation of ControlNet, which has proven powerful in text-to-image generation, ControlRetriever imbues different retrieval models with the new capacity of controllable retrieval, all while being guided by task-specific instructions. Furthermore, we propose a novel LLM guided Instruction Synthesizing and Iterative Training strategy, which iteratively tunes ControlRetriever based on extensive automatically-generated retrieval data with diverse instructions by capitalizing the advancement of large language models. Extensive experiments show that in the BEIR benchmark, with only natural language descriptions of specific retrieval intent for each task, ControlRetriever, as a unified multi-task retrieval system without task-specific tuning, significantly outperforms baseline methods designed with task-specific retrievers and also achieves state-of-the-art zero-shot performance.

Collaborative decision making in multi-agent systems typically requires a predefined communication protocol among agents. Usually, agent-level observations are locally processed and information is exchanged using the predefined protocol, enabling the team to perform more efficiently than each agent operating in isolation. In this work, we consider the situation where agents, with complementary sensing modalities must co-operate to achieve a common goal/task by learning an efficient communication protocol. We frame the problem within an actor-critic scheme, where the agents learn optimal policies in a centralized fashion, while taking action in a distributed manner. We provide an interpretation of the emergent communication between the agents. We observe that the information exchanged is not just an encoding of the raw sensor data but is, rather, a specific set of directive actions that depend on the overall task. Simulation results demonstrate the interpretability of the learnt communication in a variety of tasks.

--Advances in the field of Machine Learning and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) has enabled rapid development of sophisticated and autonomous systems. However, the inherent complexity to rigorously assure the safe operation of such systems hinders their real-world adoption in safety-critical domains such as aerospace and medical devices. Hence, there is a surge in interest to explore the use of advanced mathematical techniques such as formal methods to address this challenge. In fact, the initial results of such efforts are promising. Along these lines, we propose the use of quantifier elimination (QE) -- a formal method technique, as a complimentary technique to the state-of-the-art static analysis and verification procedures. Using an airborne collision avoidance DNN as a case example, we illustrate the use of QE to formulate the precise range forward propagation through a network as well as analyze its robustness. We discuss the initial results of this ongoing work and explore the future possibilities of extending this approach and/or integrating it with other approaches to perform advanced safety assurance of DNNs. Recently, there is a tremendous surge of interest within the aerospace community to leverage advances in Machine Learning (ML) to develop sophisticated software for large, autonomous avionic systems such as unmanned aircrafts. In fact, the inherent ability of the modern structurally complex computing systems such as Deep Neural Networks (DNN), that automatically learn and generalize behaviors based on a set of training data rather than explicit programming based on requirements, makes it a natural choice for developing autonomous components for aircraft. However, there is a widespread apprehension about deploying such systems in the real-world since it has not been possible to rigorously interpret and assure the safe functional boundaries and behaviors of the DNNs due to their structural complexity and behavioural immensity [1, 2, 3]. For instance, analyzing the robustness of DNNs against adversarial attacks [4, 5, 6] -- small perturbations to inputs that lead to unsafe outputs, remains as an open safety assurance concern.

Understanding the needs of a variety of distinct user groups is vital in designing effective, desirable dialogue systems that will be adopted by the largest possible segment of the population. Despite the increasing popularity of dialogue systems in both mobile and home formats, user studies remain relatively infrequent and often sample a segment of the user population that is not representative of the needs of the potential user population as a whole. This is especially the case for users who may be more reluctant adopters, such as older adults. In this paper we discuss the results of a recent user study performed over a large population of age 50 and over adults in the Midwestern United States that have experience using a variety of commercial dialogue systems. We show the common preferences, use cases, and feature gaps identified by older adult users in interacting with these systems. Based on these results, we propose a new, robust user modeling framework that addresses common issues facing older adult users, which can then be generalized to the wider user population.

It is critical for search marketing professionals and business owners to review plans for enticing prospective users to visit their websites directly from Google. Implementing schema on your site can make your products and services stand out – even if your site has a backlink profile of lower strength. Once you are familiar with the logic of schema, it is less confusing and easier to select which schemas you should use on your website that fit your type of business. There is a growing list of opportunities, many which offer a broad umbrella so that anyone can find choice industry syntax. Before we look at a breakdown of which schemas might be used by specific business types, let's cover what size of business needs this improvement. Don't think you need to be a business of considerable size to benefit.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Virginia AT&T's Merrimack Valley Works The US Army Laboratory Command's (Richmond, VA) has developed an (North Andover, MA) has developed Human Engineering Laboratory expert system to classify, evaluate the Expert Capacity and Material (Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD) has and process medical claims. The system, System (XCAM), an expert system awarded a $2.4 million contract to called MedScreen, reportedly which simplifies forecast evaluations Carnegie Group (Pittsburgh, PA) to can process up to 500 claims in 45 for a manufacturing operation The continue work on a knowledge-based minutes, an operation that used to system automates the analysis of logistics planning system. The system take several days to complete. The IBM (Armonk, NY) and Dragon Systems NRM has been successfully deployed ICL (Birmingham, England) has completed (Newton, MA) have jointly in a number of Australian banks, as a pilot test of an intelligent developed VoiceType, a speech recognition well as a food storage and distribution system for field service diagnosing system based on elements of center. ICL used a laptop-based allows hands-free typing.