Oceania
Constrained Multiagent Markov Decision Processes: a Taxonomy of Problems and Algorithms
de Nijs, Frits | Walraven, Erwin (Delft University of Technology) | De Weerdt, Mathijs (Delft University of Technology) | Spaan, Matthijs (Delft University of Technology)
In domains such as electric vehicle charging, smart distribution grids and autonomous warehouses, multiple agents share the same resources. When planning the use of these resources, agents need to deal with the uncertainty in these domains. Although several models and algorithms for such constrained multiagent planning problems under uncertainty have been proposed in the literature, it remains unclear when which algorithm can be applied. In this survey we conceptualize these domains and establish a generic problem class based on Markov decision processes. We identify and compare the conditions under which algorithms from the planning literature for problems in this class can be applied: whether constraints are soft or hard, whether agents are continuously connected, whether the domain is fully observable, whether a constraint is momentarily (instantaneous) or on a budget, and whether the constraint is on a single resource or on multiple. Further we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these algorithms. We conclude by identifying open problems that are directly related to the conceptualized domains, as well as in adjacent research areas.
Constrained Learning with Non-Convex Losses
Chamon, Luiz F. O., Paternain, Santiago, Calvo-Fullana, Miguel, Ribeiro, Alejandro
Though learning has become a core technology of modern information processing, there is now ample evidence that it can lead to biased, unsafe, and prejudiced solutions. The need to impose requirements on learning is therefore paramount, especially as it reaches critical applications in social, industrial, and medical domains. However, the non-convexity of most modern learning problems is only exacerbated by the introduction of constraints. Whereas good unconstrained solutions can often be learned using empirical risk minimization (ERM), even obtaining a model that satisfies statistical constraints can be challenging, all the more so a good one. In this paper, we overcome this issue by learning in the empirical dual domain, where constrained statistical learning problems become unconstrained, finite dimensional, and deterministic. We analyze the generalization properties of this approach by bounding the empirical duality gap, i.e., the difference between our approximate, tractable solution and the solution of the original (non-convex)~statistical problem, and provide a practical constrained learning algorithm. These results establish a constrained counterpart of classical learning theory and enable the explicit use of constraints in learning. We illustrate this algorithm and theory in rate-constrained learning applications.
The AI Index 2021 Annual Report
Zhang, Daniel, Mishra, Saurabh, Brynjolfsson, Erik, Etchemendy, John, Ganguli, Deep, Grosz, Barbara, Lyons, Terah, Manyika, James, Niebles, Juan Carlos, Sellitto, Michael, Shoham, Yoav, Clark, Jack, Perrault, Raymond
Welcome to the fourth edition of the AI Index Report. This year we significantly expanded the amount of data available in the report, worked with a broader set of external organizations to calibrate our data, and deepened our connections with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). The AI Index Report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence. Its mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, and globally sourced data for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop intuitions about the complex field of AI. The report aims to be the most credible and authoritative source for data and insights about AI in the world.
Enhancing Medical Image Registration via Appearance Adjustment Networks
Meng, Mingyuan, Bi, Lei, Fulham, Michael, Feng, David Dagan, Kim, Jinman
Deformable image registration is fundamental for many medical image analyses. A key obstacle for accurate image registration is the variations in image appearance. Recently, deep learning-based registration methods (DLRs), using deep neural networks, have computational efficiency that is several orders of magnitude greater than traditional optimization-based registration methods (ORs). A major drawback, however, of DLRs is a disregard for the target-pair-specific optimization that is inherent in ORs and instead they rely on a globally optimized network that is trained with a set of training samples to achieve faster registration. Thus, DLRs inherently have degraded ability to adapt to appearance variations and perform poorly, compared to ORs, when image pairs (fixed/moving images) have large differences in appearance. Hence, we propose an Appearance Adjustment Network (AAN) where we leverage anatomy edges, through an anatomy-constrained loss function, to generate an anatomy-preserving appearance transformation. We designed the AAN so that it can be readily inserted into a wide range of DLRs, to reduce the appearance differences between the fixed and moving images. Our AAN and DLR's network can be trained cooperatively in an unsupervised and end-to-end manner. We evaluated our AAN with two widely used DLRs - Voxelmorph (VM) and FAst IMage registration (FAIM) - on three public 3D brain magnetic resonance (MR) image datasets - IBSR18, Mindboggle101, and LPBA40. The results show that DLRs, using the AAN, improved performance and achieved higher results than state-of-the-art ORs.
Joint Coding and Scheduling Optimization for Distributed Learning over Wireless Edge Networks
Van Huynh, Nguyen, Hoang, Dinh Thai, Nguyen, Diep N., Dutkiewicz, Eryk
Unlike theoretical distributed learning (DL), DL over wireless edge networks faces the inherent dynamics/uncertainty of wireless connections and edge nodes, making DL less efficient or even inapplicable under the highly dynamic wireless edge networks (e.g., using mmW interfaces). This article addresses these problems by leveraging recent advances in coded computing and the deep dueling neural network architecture. By introducing coded structures/redundancy, a distributed learning task can be completed without waiting for straggling nodes. Unlike conventional coded computing that only optimizes the code structure, coded distributed learning over the wireless edge also requires to optimize the selection/scheduling of wireless edge nodes with heterogeneous connections, computing capability, and straggling effects. However, even neglecting the aforementioned dynamics/uncertainty, the resulting joint optimization of coding and scheduling to minimize the distributed learning time turns out to be NP-hard. To tackle this and to account for the dynamics and uncertainty of wireless connections and edge nodes, we reformulate the problem as a Markov Decision Process and then design a novel deep reinforcement learning algorithm that employs the deep dueling neural network architecture to find the jointly optimal coding scheme and the best set of edge nodes for different learning tasks without explicit information about the wireless environment and edge nodes' straggling parameters. Simulations show that the proposed framework reduces the average learning delay in wireless edge computing up to 66% compared with other DL approaches. The jointly optimal framework in this article is also applicable to any distributed learning scheme with heterogeneous and uncertain computing nodes.
Video Sentiment Analysis with Bimodal Information-augmented Multi-Head Attention
Wu, Ting, Peng, Junjie, Zhang, Wenqiang, Zhang, Huiran, Ma, Chuanshuai, Huang, Yansong
Sentiment analysis is the basis of intelligent human-computer interaction. As one of the frontier research directions of artificial intelligence, it can help computers better identify human intentions and emotional states so that provide more personalized services. However, as human present sentiments by spoken words, gestures, facial expressions and others which involve variable forms of data including text, audio, video, etc., it poses many challenges to this study. Due to the limitations of unimodal sentiment analysis, recent research has focused on the sentiment analysis of videos containing time series data of multiple modalities. When analyzing videos with multimodal data, the key problem is how to fuse these heterogeneous data. In consideration that the contribution of each modality is different, current fusion methods tend to extract the important information of single modality prior to fusion, which ignores the consistency and complementarity of bimodal interaction and has influences on the final decision. To solve this problem, a video sentiment analysis method using multi-head attention with bimodal information augmented is proposed. Based on bimodal interaction, more important bimodal features are assigned larger weights. In this way, different feature representations are adaptively assigned corresponding attention for effective multimodal fusion. Extensive experiments were conducted on both Chinese and English public datasets. The results show that our approach outperforms the existing methods and can give an insight into the contributions of bimodal interaction among three modalities.
Top 10 predictions of how AI is going to improve cybersecurity In 2021
There is no denying that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of cybersecurity. In other words, the future of cybersecurity lies in the hands of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Companies or medium-sized corporations can counter various cyber threats using the advanced concepts of AI. If you want to know about different AI predictions that will positively influence cybersecurity in 2021 and in the future, read this post in detail. According to a recent research conducted by Trend Micro, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace the need for human beings by the end of 2030.
Building AI for the Global South
Harm wrought by AI tends to fall most heavily on marginalized communities. In the United States, algorithmic harm may lead to the false arrest of Black men, disproportionately reject female job candidates, or target people who identify as queer. In India, those impacts can further impact marginalized populations like Muslim minority groups or people oppressed by the caste system. And algorithmic fairness frameworks developed in the West may not transfer directly to people in India or other countries in the Global South, where algorithmic fairness requires understanding of local social structures and power dynamics and a legacy of colonialism. That's the argument behind "De-centering Algorithmic Power: Towards Algorithmic Fairness in India," a paper accepted for publication at the Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) conference, which begins this week. Other works that seek to move beyond a Western-centric focus include Shinto or Buddhism-based frameworks for AI design and an approach to AI governance based on the African philosophy of Ubuntu.
Canadian Agritech Startup Farmers Edge Inc. Files IPO to Raise CAD 100 Million
Farmers Edge Inc, an AI startup to help growers increase crop yields, plans to go public on Canada's largest Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FDGE". The company seeks to raise CAD 100 million (approximately USD 79 million). Founded in 2005, Farmers Edge uses AI technology to collect and analyze local weather, soil moisture and satellite data to help farmers improve crop efficiency and yield. Besides the Canadian Prairie, the company currently hosts offices in the United States, Australia, Russia, Brazil and Ukraine. As of the end of 2020, more than 3,000 growers have used the Farmers Edge products, covering more than 23 million acres of land in six countries.
Global Lega-Tech Artificial Intelligence Market Economic Outlook, Market Structure Analysis,Forecast from 2021-2025 – NeighborWebSJ
The information presented in Lega-Tech Artificial Intelligence Market Report 2021 includes qualitative and quantitative insights. Under the qualitative analysis part, manufacturing base, raw materials data, Lega-Tech Artificial Intelligence status, trends, SWOT analysis, PESTEL Analysis, distribution channels, driving factors, and a competitive structure is presented. Under the qualitative analysis part, market value/volume, production analysis, consumption data, import-export data, or each region and country are explained. Also, industry size by Lega-Tech Artificial Intelligence type, application, demand and supply scenario, and economic status are explained. Also, comprehensive information on the latest product development, growth opportunities, industry strategies, cost structures, and recent policies are enlightened in the Lega-Tech Artificial Intelligence report.