South America
A Synergistic Approach to Wildfire Prevention and Management Using AI, ML, and 5G Technology in the United States
Okoro, Stanley Chinedu, Lopez, Alexander, Unuriode, Austine
Over the past few years, wildfires have become a worldwide environmental emergency, resulting in substantial harm to natural habitats and playing a part in the acceleration of climate change. Wildfire management methods involve prevention, response, and recovery efforts. Despite improvements in detection techniques, the rising occurrence of wildfires demands creative solutions for prompt identification and effective control. This research investigates proactive methods for detecting and handling wildfires in the United States, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and 5G technology. The specific objective of this research covers proactive detection and prevention of wildfires using advanced technology; Active monitoring and mapping with remote sensing and signaling leveraging on 5G technology; and Advanced response mechanisms to wildfire using drones and IOT devices. This study was based on secondary data collected from government databases and analyzed using descriptive statistics. In addition, past publications were reviewed through content analysis, and narrative synthesis was used to present the observations from various studies. The results showed that developing new technology presents an opportunity to detect and manage wildfires proactively. Utilizing advanced technology could save lives and prevent significant economic losses caused by wildfires. Various methods, such as AI-enabled remote sensing and 5G-based active monitoring, can enhance proactive wildfire detection and management. In addition, super intelligent drones and IOT devices can be used for safer responses to wildfires. This forms the core of the recommendation to the fire Management Agencies and the government.
Do Large Language Models Latently Perform Multi-Hop Reasoning?
Yang, Sohee, Gribovskaya, Elena, Kassner, Nora, Geva, Mor, Riedel, Sebastian
We study whether Large Language Models (LLMs) latently perform multi-hop reasoning with complex prompts such as "The mother of the singer of 'Superstition' is". We look for evidence of a latent reasoning pathway where an LLM (1) latently identifies "the singer of 'Superstition'" as Stevie Wonder, the bridge entity, and (2) uses its knowledge of Stevie Wonder's mother to complete the prompt. We analyze these two hops individually and consider their co-occurrence as indicative of latent multi-hop reasoning. For the first hop, we test if changing the prompt to indirectly mention the bridge entity instead of any other entity increases the LLM's internal recall of the bridge entity. For the second hop, we test if increasing this recall causes the LLM to better utilize what it knows about the bridge entity. We find strong evidence of latent multi-hop reasoning for the prompts of certain relation types, with the reasoning pathway used in more than 80% of the prompts. However, the utilization is highly contextual, varying across different types of prompts. Also, on average, the evidence for the second hop and the full multi-hop traversal is rather moderate and only substantial for the first hop. Moreover, we find a clear scaling trend with increasing model size for the first hop of reasoning but not for the second hop. Our experimental findings suggest potential challenges and opportunities for future development and applications of LLMs.
A Systematic Review of Data-to-Text NLG
Osuji, Chinonso Cynthia, Ferreira, Thiago Castro, Davis, Brian
Relevant literature in this field on datasets, evaluation metrics, application areas, multilingualism, language models, and hallucination mitigation methods is reviewed. Various methods for producing high-quality text are explored, addressing the challenge of hallucinations in data-to-text generation. These methods include re-ranking, traditional and neural pipeline architecture, planning architectures, data cleaning, controlled generation, and modification of models and training techniques. Their effectiveness and limitations are assessed, highlighting the need for universally applicable strategies to mitigate hallucinations. The review also examines the usage, popularity, and impact of datasets, alongside evaluation metrics, with an emphasis on both automatic and human assessment. Additionally, the evolution of data-to-text models, particularly the widespread adoption of transformer models, is discussed. Despite advancements in text quality, the review emphasizes the importance of research in low-resourced languages and the engineering of datasets in these languages to promote inclusivity. Finally, several application domains of data-to-text are highlighted, emphasizing their relevance in such domains. Overall, this review serves as a guiding framework for fostering innovation and advancing data-to-text generation.
Algorithmic Arbitrariness in Content Moderation
Gomez, Juan Felipe, Machado, Caio Vieira, Paes, Lucas Monteiro, Calmon, Flavio P.
Machine learning (ML) is widely used to moderate online content. Despite its scalability relative to human moderation, the use of ML introduces unique challenges to content moderation. One such challenge is predictive multiplicity: multiple competing models for content classification may perform equally well on average, yet assign conflicting predictions to the same content. This multiplicity can result from seemingly innocuous choices during model development, such as random seed selection for parameter initialization. We experimentally demonstrate how content moderation tools can arbitrarily classify samples as toxic, leading to arbitrary restrictions on speech. We discuss these findings in terms of human rights set out by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), namely freedom of expression, non-discrimination, and procedural justice. We analyze (i) the extent of predictive multiplicity among state-of-the-art LLMs used for detecting toxic content; (ii) the disparate impact of this arbitrariness across social groups; and (iii) how model multiplicity compares to unambiguous human classifications. Our findings indicate that the up-scaled algorithmic moderation risks legitimizing an algorithmic leviathan, where an algorithm disproportionately manages human rights. To mitigate such risks, our study underscores the need to identify and increase the transparency of arbitrariness in content moderation applications. Since algorithmic content moderation is being fueled by pressing social concerns, such as disinformation and hate speech, our discussion on harms raises concerns relevant to policy debates. Our findings also contribute to content moderation and intermediary liability laws being discussed and passed in many countries, such as the Digital Services Act in the European Union, the Online Safety Act in the United Kingdom, and the Fake News Bill in Brazil.
Introducing User Feedback-based Counterfactual Explanations (UFCE)
Suffian, Muhammad, Alonso-Moral, Jose M., Bogliolo, Alessandro
Machine learning models are widely used in real-world applications. However, their complexity makes it often challenging to interpret the rationale behind their decisions. Counterfactual explanations (CEs) have emerged as a viable solution for generating comprehensible explanations in eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). CE provides actionable information to users on how to achieve the desired outcome with minimal modifications to the input. However, current CE algorithms usually operate within the entire feature space when optimizing changes to turn over an undesired outcome, overlooking the identification of key contributors to the outcome and disregarding the practicality of the suggested changes. In this study, we introduce a novel methodology, that is named as user feedback-based counterfactual explanation (UFCE), which addresses these limitations and aims to bolster confidence in the provided explanations. UFCE allows for the inclusion of user constraints to determine the smallest modifications in the subset of actionable features while considering feature dependence, and evaluates the practicality of suggested changes using benchmark evaluation metrics. We conducted three experiments with five datasets, demonstrating that UFCE outperforms two well-known CE methods in terms of \textit{proximity}, \textit{sparsity}, and \textit{feasibility}. Reported results indicate that user constraints influence the generation of feasible CEs.
Retrieval Augmented Generation Systems: Automatic Dataset Creation, Evaluation and Boolean Agent Setup
Kenneweg, Tristan, Kenneweg, Philip, Hammer, Barbara
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems have seen huge popularity in augmenting Large-Language Model (LLM) outputs with domain specific and time sensitive data. Very recently a shift is happening from simple RAG setups that query a vector database for additional information with every user input to more sophisticated forms of RAG. However, different concrete approaches compete on mostly anecdotal evidence at the moment. In this paper we present a rigorous dataset creation and evaluation workflow to quantitatively compare different RAG strategies. We use a dataset created this way for the development and evaluation of a boolean agent RAG setup: A system in which a LLM can decide whether to query a vector database or not, thus saving tokens on questions that can be answered with internal knowledge. We publish our code and generated dataset online.
EGNN-C+: Interpretable Evolving Granular Neural Network and Application in Classification of Weakly-Supervised EEG Data Streams
Leite, Daniel, Silva, Alisson, Casalino, Gabriella, Sharma, Arnab, Fortunato, Danielle, Ngomo, Axel-Cyrille
We introduce a modified incremental learning algorithm for evolving Granular Neural Network Classifiers (eGNN-C+). We use double-boundary hyper-boxes to represent granules, and customize the adaptation procedures to enhance the robustness of outer boxes for data coverage and noise suppression, while ensuring that inner boxes remain flexible to capture drifts. The classifier evolves from scratch, incorporates new classes on the fly, and performs local incremental feature weighting. As an application, we focus on the classification of emotion-related patterns within electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Emotion recognition is crucial for enhancing the realism and interactivity of computer systems. We extract features from the Fourier spectrum of EEG signals obtained from 28 individuals engaged in playing computer games -- a public dataset. Each game elicits a different predominant emotion: boredom, calmness, horror, or joy. We analyze individual electrodes, time window lengths, and frequency bands to assess the accuracy and interpretability of resulting user-independent neural models. The findings indicate that both brain hemispheres assist classification, especially electrodes on the temporal (T8) and parietal (P7) areas, alongside contributions from frontal and occipital electrodes. While patterns may manifest in any band, the Alpha (8-13Hz), Delta (1-4Hz), and Theta (4-8Hz) bands, in this order, exhibited higher correspondence with the emotion classes. The eGNN-C+ demonstrates effectiveness in learning EEG data. It achieves an accuracy of 81.7% and a 0.0029 II interpretability using 10-second time windows, even in face of a highly-stochastic time-varying 4-class classification problem.
Training Robots without Robots: Deep Imitation Learning for Master-to-Robot Policy Transfer
Kim, Heecheol, Ohmura, Yoshiyuki, Nagakubo, Akihiko, Kuniyoshi, Yasuo
Deep imitation learning is promising for robot manipulation because it only requires demonstration samples. In this study, deep imitation learning is applied to tasks that require force feedback. However, existing demonstration methods have deficiencies; bilateral teleoperation requires a complex control scheme and is expensive, and kinesthetic teaching suffers from visual distractions from human intervention. This research proposes a new master-to-robot (M2R) policy transfer system that does not require robots for teaching force feedback-based manipulation tasks. The human directly demonstrates a task using a controller. This controller resembles the kinematic parameters of the robot arm and uses the same end-effector with force/torque (F/T) sensors to measure the force feedback. Using this controller, the operator can feel force feedback without a bilateral system. The proposed method can overcome domain gaps between the master and robot using gaze-based imitation learning and a simple calibration method. Furthermore, a Transformer is applied to infer policy from F/T sensory input. The proposed system was evaluated on a bottle-cap-opening task that requires force feedback.
Beyond Self-learned Attention: Mitigating Attention Bias in Transformer-based Models Using Attention Guidance
Transformer-based models have demonstrated considerable potential for source code modeling tasks in software engineering. However, they are limited by their dependence solely on automatic self-attention weight learning mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that these models overemphasize delimiters added by tokenizers (e.g., [CLS], [SEP]), which may lead to overlooking essential information in the original input source code. To address this challenge, we introduce SyntaGuid, a novel approach that utilizes the observation that attention weights tend to be biased towards specific source code syntax tokens and abstract syntax tree (AST) elements in fine-tuned language models when they make correct predictions. SyntaGuid facilitates the guidance of attention-weight learning, leading to improved model performance on various software engineering tasks. We evaluate the effectiveness of SyntaGuid on multiple tasks and demonstrate that it outperforms existing state-of-the-art models in overall performance without requiring additional data. Experimental result shows that SyntaGuid can improve overall performance up to 3.25% and fix up to 28.3% wrong predictions. Our work represents the first attempt to guide the attention of Transformer-based models towards critical source code tokens during fine-tuning, highlighting the potential for enhancing Transformer-based models in software engineering.
GISTEmbed: Guided In-sample Selection of Training Negatives for Text Embedding Fine-tuning
Embedding models are integral to AI applications like semantic search, personalized recommendations, and retrieval augmented generation for LLMs, necessitating high-quality training data. However, the limited scalability of manual data curation prompts the need for automated methods to ensure data integrity. Traditional unsupervised triplet mining automates training data generation, crucial for embedding model training, yet inadvertently injects biases and noise, thereby degrading model performance. Addressing this, we introduce GISTEmbed, a novel strategy that enhances in-batch negative selection during contrastive training through a guide model. This approach departs from reliance on random sampling and equal utility assumption of batch negatives, significantly reducing noise from data quality issues and improving model fine-tuning. Benchmarked against the Massive Text Embedding Benchmark (MTEB), GISTEmbed showcases consistent performance improvements across various model sizes and achieves state-of-the-art results in select categories. This framework enables significant enhancements for smaller models by leveraging the capabilities of powerful yet resource-intensive large models. GISTEmbed can potentially revolutionize the creation of highly efficient, smaller models, democratizing access to advanced AI technologies. Making these technologies more accessible and cost-effective, especially for applications constrained by resources, significantly expands the impact and accessibility of state-of-the-art AI solutions across diverse sectors.