The development of large language models (LLMs) has significantly advanced the emergence of large multimodal models (LMMs). While LMMs have achieved tremendous success by promoting the synergy between multimodal comprehension and creation, they often face challenges when confronted with out-of-distribution data. This is primarily due to their reliance on image encoders trained to encode images into task-relevant features, which may lead them to disregard irrelevant details. Delving into the modeling capabilities of diffusion models for images naturally prompts the question: Can diffusion models serve as the eyes of large language models for image perception? In this paper, we propose DEEM, a simple and effective approach that utilizes the generative feedback of diffusion models to align the semantic distributions of the image encoder. This addresses the drawbacks of previous methods that solely relied on image encoders like ViT, thereby enhancing the model's resilience against out-of-distribution samples and reducing visual hallucinations. Importantly, this is achieved without requiring additional training modules and with fewer training parameters. We extensively evaluated DEEM on both our newly constructed RobustVQA benchmark and another well-known benchmark, POPE, for object hallucination. Compared to the state-of-the-art interleaved content generation models, DEEM exhibits enhanced robustness and a superior capacity to alleviate model hallucinations while utilizing fewer trainable parameters, less pre-training data (10%), and a smaller base model size.

Recent advancements in Vision-Language Models (VLMs) have led to the development of Vision-Language Generalists (VLGs) capable of understanding and generating interleaved images and text. Despite these advances, VLGs still struggle to follow user instructions for interleaved text and image generation. To address this issue, we introduce LeafInstruct, the first open-sourced interleaved instruction tuning data with over 30,000 high-quality instances across more than 10 domains. Due to the extensive size of existing VLGs, we opt for parameter-efficient tuning. However, we observe that VLGs tuned with a standard LoRA typically exhibit inferior performance in interleaved text-image generation. We attribute this problem to modality interference and the lack of modality-specialized adaptation design. Hence, we propose Lateralization LoRA, a novel modality-specialized adaptation method inspired by the concept of brain lateralization. Lateralization LoRA employs a hybrid approach, combining the traditional linear LoRA and a Convolutional LoRA for generating text and images, enabling the generation of high-quality text and images by leveraging modality-specific structures and parameter sets. We perform instruction tuning of the VLG (i.e., EMU2) using Lateralization LoRA on the LeafInstruct dataset. Extensive experiments demonstrate that EMU2 tuned with Lateralization LoRA achieve state-of-the-art performance, significantly surpassing baseline models in complex interleaved tasks.

Proton resonance frequency (PRF) based MR thermometry is essential for focused ultrasound (FUS) thermal ablation therapies. This work aims to enhance temporal resolution in dynamic MR temperature map reconstruction using an improved deep learning method. The training-optimized methods and five classical neural networks were applied on the 2-fold and 4-fold under-sampling k-space data to reconstruct the temperature maps. The enhanced training modules included offline/online data augmentations, knowledge distillation, and the amplitude-phase decoupling loss function. The heating experiments were performed by a FUS transducer on phantom and ex vivo tissues, respectively. These data were manually under-sampled to imitate acceleration procedures and trained in our method to get the reconstruction model. The additional dozen or so testing datasets were separately obtained for evaluating the real-time performance and temperature accuracy. Acceleration factors of 1.9 and 3.7 were found for 2 times and 4 times k-space under-sampling strategies and the ResUNet-based deep learning reconstruction performed exceptionally well. In 2-fold acceleration scenario, the RMSE of temperature map patches provided the values of 0.888 degree centigrade and 1.145 degree centigrade on phantom and ex vivo testing datasets. The DICE value of temperature areas enclosed by 43 degree centigrade isotherm was 0.809, and the Bland-Altman analysis showed a bias of -0.253 degree centigrade with the apart of plus or minus 2.16 degree centigrade. In 4 times under-sampling case, these evaluating values decreased by approximately 10%. This study demonstrates that deep learning-based reconstruction can significantly enhance the accuracy and efficiency of MR thermometry for clinical FUS thermal therapies.

Text-to-SQL enables users to interact with databases using natural language, simplifying the retrieval and synthesis of information. Despite the remarkable success of large language models (LLMs) in translating natural language questions into SQL queries, widespread deployment remains limited due to two primary challenges. First, the effective use of text-to-SQL models depends on users' understanding of the model's capabilities-the scope of questions the model can correctly answer. Second, the absence of abstention mechanisms can lead to incorrect SQL generation going unnoticed, thereby undermining trust in the model's output. To enable wider deployment, it is crucial to address these challenges in model design and enhance model evaluation to build trust in the model's output. To this end, we introduce TrustSQL, a novel comprehensive benchmark designed to evaluate text-to-SQL reliability-defined as a model's ability to correctly handle any type of input question by generating correct SQL queries for feasible questions and abstaining from generating infeasible ones (e.g., due to schema incompatibility or functionalities beyond SQL). We evaluate existing methods using a novel penalty-based scoring metric with two modeling approaches: (1) pipeline-based methods combining SQL generators with infeasible question detectors and SQL error detectors for abstention; and (2) unified methods using a single model for the entire task. Our experimental results reveal that achieving high scores under severe penalties requires significant effort and provide a new perspective on developing text-to-SQL models for safer deployment. TrustSQL is available at https://github.com/glee4810/TrustSQL.

End of semester student evaluations of teaching are the dominant mechanism for providing feedback to academics on their teaching practice. For large classes, however, the volume of feedback makes these tools impractical for this purpose. This paper explores the use of open-source generative AI to synthesise factual, actionable and appropriate summaries of student feedback from these survey responses. In our setup, we have 742 student responses ranging over 75 courses in a Computer Science department. For each course, we synthesise a summary of the course evaluations and actionable items for the instructor. Our results reveal a promising avenue for enhancing teaching practices in the classroom setting. Our contribution lies in demonstrating the feasibility of using generative AI to produce insightful feedback for teachers, thus providing a cost-effective means to support educators' development. Overall, our work highlights the possibility of using generative AI to produce factual, actionable, and appropriate feedback for teachers in the classroom setting.

The ability to infer pre- and postconditions of an action is vital for comprehending complex instructions, and is essential for applications such as autonomous instruction-guided agents and assistive AI that supports humans to perform physical tasks. In this work, we propose a task dubbed action condition inference, and collecting a high-quality, human annotated dataset of preconditions and postconditions of actions in instructional manuals. We propose a weakly supervised approach to automatically construct large-scale training instances from online instructional manuals, and curate a densely human-annotated and validated dataset to study how well the current NLP models can infer action-condition dependencies in the instruction texts. We design two types of models differ by whether contextualized and global information is leveraged, as well as various combinations of heuristics to construct the weak supervisions. Our experimental results show a >20% F1-score improvement with considering the entire instruction contexts and a >6% F1-score benefit with the proposed heuristics.

This tutorial explores the advancements and challenges in the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Gemini. It addresses inherent limitations like temporal knowledge cutoffs, mathematical inaccuracies, and the generation of incorrect information, proposing solutions like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), Program-Aided Language Models (PAL), and frameworks such as ReAct and LangChain. The integration of these techniques enhances LLM performance and reliability, especially in multi-step reasoning and complex task execution. The paper also covers fine-tuning strategies, including instruction fine-tuning, parameter-efficient methods like LoRA, and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) as well as Reinforced Self-Training (ReST). Additionally, it provides a comprehensive survey of transformer architectures and training techniques for LLMs. The toolbox for implementing these techniques is publicly available at https://github.com/giorgioroffo/large_language_models_open_suite

Graph classification is a pivotal challenge in machine learning, especially within the realm of graph-based data, given its importance in numerous real-world applications such as social network analysis, recommendation systems, and bioinformatics. Despite its significance, graph classification faces several hurdles, including adapting to diverse prediction tasks, training across multiple target domains, and handling small-sample prediction scenarios. Current methods often tackle these challenges individually, leading to fragmented solutions that lack a holistic approach to the overarching problem. In this paper, we propose an algorithm aimed at addressing the aforementioned challenges. By incorporating insights from various types of tasks, our method aims to enhance adaptability, scalability, and generalizability in graph classification. Motivated by the recognition that the underlying subgraph plays a crucial role in GNN prediction, while the remainder is task-irrelevant, we introduce the Core Knowledge Learning (\method{}) framework for graph adaptation and scalability learning. \method{} comprises several key modules, including the core subgraph knowledge submodule, graph domain adaptation module, and few-shot learning module for downstream tasks. Each module is tailored to tackle specific challenges in graph classification, such as domain shift, label inconsistencies, and data scarcity. By learning the core subgraph of the entire graph, we focus on the most pertinent features for task relevance. Consequently, our method offers benefits such as improved model performance, increased domain adaptability, and enhanced robustness to domain variations. Experimental results demonstrate significant performance enhancements achieved by our method compared to state-of-the-art approaches.

The capacity of large language models (LLMs) to generate honest, harmless, and helpful responses heavily relies on the quality of user prompts. However, these prompts often tend to be brief and vague, thereby significantly limiting the full potential of LLMs. Moreover, harmful prompts can be meticulously crafted and manipulated by adversaries to jailbreak LLMs, inducing them to produce potentially toxic content. To enhance the capabilities of LLMs while maintaining strong robustness against harmful jailbreak inputs, this study proposes a transferable and pluggable framework that refines user prompts before they are input into LLMs. This strategy improves the quality of the queries, empowering LLMs to generate more truthful, benign and useful responses. Specifically, a lightweight query refinement model is introduced and trained using a specially designed reinforcement learning approach that incorporates multiple objectives to enhance particular capabilities of LLMs. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the refinement model not only improves the quality of responses but also strengthens their robustness against jailbreak attacks. Code is available at: https://github.com/Huangzisu/query-refinement .

Reinforcement learning (RL) -- finding the optimal behaviour (also referred to as policy) maximizing the collected long-term cumulative reward -- is among the most influential approaches in machine learning with a large number of successful applications. In several decision problems, however, one faces the possibility of policy switching -- changing from the current policy to a new one -- which incurs a non-negligible cost (examples include the shifting of the currently applied educational technology, modernization of a computing cluster, and the introduction of a new webpage design), and in the decision one is limited to using historical data without the availability for further online interaction. Despite the inevitable importance of this offline learning scenario, to our best knowledge, very little effort has been made to tackle the key problem of balancing between the gain and the cost of switching in a flexible and principled way. Leveraging ideas from the area of optimal transport, we initialize the systematic study of policy switching in offline RL. We establish fundamental properties and design a Net Actor-Critic algorithm for the proposed novel switching formulation. Numerical experiments demonstrate the efficiency of our approach on multiple benchmarks of the Gymnasium.