Overview
GenAI-based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning towards Distributed Agent Intelligence: A Generative-RL Agent Perspective
Multi-agent reinforcement learning faces fundamental challenges that conventional approaches have failed to overcome: exponentially growing joint action spaces, non-stationary environments where simultaneous learning creates moving targets, and partial observability that constrains coordination. Current methods remain reactive, employing stimulus-response mechanisms that fail when facing novel scenarios. We argue for a transformative paradigm shift from reactive to proactive multi-agent intelligence through generative AI-based reinforcement learning. This position advocates reconceptualizing agents not as isolated policy optimizers, but as sophisticated generative models capable of synthesizing complex multi-agent dynamics and making anticipatory decisions based on predictive understanding of future interactions. Rather than responding to immediate observations, generative-RL agents can model environment evolution, predict other agents' behaviors, generate coordinated action sequences, and engage in strategic reasoning accounting for long-term dynamics. This approach leverages pattern recognition and generation capabilities of generative AI to enable proactive decision-making, seamless coordination through enhanced communication, and dynamic adaptation to evolving scenarios. We envision this paradigm shift will unlock unprecedented possibilities for distributed intelligence, moving beyond individual optimization toward emergent collective behaviors representing genuine collaborative intelligence. The implications extend across autonomous systems, robotics, and human-AI collaboration, promising solutions to coordination challenges intractable under traditional reactive frameworks.
The CoNLL-2013 Shared Task on Grammatical Error Correction
Ng, Hwee Tou, Wu, Siew Mei, Wu, Yuanbin, Hadiwinoto, Christian, Tetreault, Joel
The CoNLL-2013 shared task was devoted to grammatical error correction. In this paper, we give the task definition, present the data sets, and describe the evaluation metric and scorer used in the shared task. We also give an overview of the various approaches adopted by the participating teams, and present the evaluation results.
Adversarial Activation Patching: A Framework for Detecting and Mitigating Emergent Deception in Safety-Aligned Transformers
Large language models (LLMs) aligned for safety through techniques like reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) often exhibit emergent deceptive behaviors, where outputs appear compliant but subtly mislead or omit critical information. This paper introduces adversarial activation patching, a novel mechanistic interpretability framework that leverages activation patching as an adversarial tool to induce, detect, and mitigate such deception in transformer-based models. By sourcing activations from "deceptive" prompts and patching them into safe forward passes at specific layers, we simulate vulnerabilities and quantify deception rates. Through toy neural network simulations across multiple scenarios (e.g., 1000 trials per setup), we demonstrate that adversarial patching increases deceptive outputs to 23.9% from a 0% baseline, with layer-specific variations supporting our hypotheses. We propose six hypotheses, including transferability across models, exacerbation in multimodal settings, and scaling effects. An expanded literature review synthesizes over 20 key works in interpretability, deception, and adversarial attacks. Mitigation strategies, such as activation anomaly detection and robust fine-tuning, are detailed, alongside ethical considerations and future research directions. This work advances AI safety by highlighting patching's dual-use potential and provides a roadmap for empirical studies on large-scale models.
Swa-bhasha Resource Hub: Romanized Sinhala to Sinhala Transliteration Systems and Data Resources
Sumanathilaka, Deshan, Perera, Sameera, Dharmasiri, Sachithya, Athukorala, Maneesha, Herath, Anuja Dilrukshi, Dias, Rukshan, Gamage, Pasindu, Weerasinghe, Ruvan, Priyadarshana, Y. H. P. P.
The Swa-bhasha Resource Hub provides a comprehensive collection of data resources and algorithms developed for Romanized Sinhala to Sinhala transliteration between 2020 and 2025. These resources have played a significant role in advancing research in Sinhala Natural Language Processing (NLP), particularly in training transliteration models and developing applications involving Romanized Sinhala. The current openly accessible data sets and corresponding tools are made publicly available through this hub. This paper presents a detailed overview of the resources contributed by the authors and includes a comparative analysis of existing transliteration applications in the domain.
The Engineer's Dilemma: A Review of Establishing a Legal Framework for Integrating Machine Learning in Construction by Navigating Precedents and Industry Expectations
Despite the widespread interest in machine learning (ML), the engineering industry has not yet fully adopted ML-based methods, which has left engineers and stakeholders uncertain about the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern their decisions. This gap remains unaddressed as an engineer's decision-making process, typically governed by professional ethics and practical guidelines, now intersects with complex algorithmic outputs. To bridge this gap, this paper explores how engineers can navigate legal principles and legislative justifications that support and/or contest the deployment of ML technologies. Drawing on recent precedents and experiences gained from other fields, this paper argues that analogical reasoning can provide a basis for embedding ML within existing engineering codes while maintaining professional accountability and meeting safety requirements. In exploring these issues, the discussion focuses on established liability doctrines, such as negligence and product liability, and highlights how courts have evaluated the use of predictive models. We further analyze how legislative bodies and standard-setting organizations can furnish explicit guidance equivalent to prior endorsements of emergent technologies. This exploration stresses the vitality of understanding the interplay between technical justifications and legal precedents for shaping an informed stance on ML's legitimacy in engineering practice. Finally, our analysis catalyzes a legal framework for integrating ML through which stakeholders can critically assess the responsibilities, liabilities, and benefits inherent in ML-driven engineering solutions.
A New Approach for Multicriteria Assessment in the Ranking of Alternatives Using Cardinal and Ordinal Data
Liu, Fuh-Hwa Franklin, Shih, Su-Chuan
Modern methods for multi-criteria assessment (MCA), such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), and Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), are utilized to appraise a collection of Decision-Making Units (DMUs), also known as alternatives, based on several criteria. These methodologies inherently rely on assumptions and can be influenced by subjective judgment to effectively tackle the complex evaluation challenges in various fields. In real-world scenarios, it is essential to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative criteria as they consist of cardinal and ordinal data. Despite the inherent variability in the criterion values of different alternatives, the homogeneity assumption is often employed, significantly affecting evaluations. To tackle these challenges and determine the most appropriate alternative, we propose a novel MCA approach that combines two Virtual Gap Analysis (VGA) models. The VGA framework, rooted in linear programming, is pivotal in the MCA methodology. This approach improves efficiency and fairness, ensuring that evaluations are both comprehensive and dependable, thus offering a strong and adaptive solution. Two comprehensive numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and transparency of our proposed method. The goal is to encourage continued advancement and stimulate progress in automated decision systems and decision support systems.
Next-Generation Travel Demand Modeling with a Generative Framework for Household Activity Coordination
Liao, Xishun, Ma, Haoxuan, Liu, Yifan, Wei, Yuxiang, He, Brian Yueshuai, Stanford, Chris, Ma, Jiaqi
Next-Generation Travel Demand Modeling with a Generative Framework for Household Activity Coordination Xishun Liao 1, Haoxuan Ma 1, Yifan Liu 1, Y uxiang Wei 1, Brian Y ueshuai He 2, Chris Stanford 3, and Jiaqi Ma* 1 Abstract -- Travel demand models are critical tools for planning, policy, and mobility system design. Traditional activity-based models (ABMs), although grounded in behavioral theories, often rely on simplified rules and assumptions, and are costly to develop and difficult to adapt across different regions. This paper presents a learning-based travel demand modeling framework that synthesizes household-coordinated daily activity patterns based on a household's socio-demographic profiles. The whole framework integrates population synthesis, coordinated activity generation, location assignment, and large-scale microscopic traffic simulation into a unified system. It is fully generative, data-driven, scalable, and transferable to other regions. A full-pipeline implementation is conducted in Los Angeles with a 10 million population. Comprehensive validation shows that the model closely replicates real-world mobility patterns and matches the performance of legacy ABMs with significantly reduced modeling cost and greater scalability. With respect to the SCAG ABM benchmark, the origin-destination matrix achieves a cosine similarity of 0.97, and the daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the network yields a 0.006 Jensen-Shannon Divergence (JSD) and a 9.8% mean absolute percentage error (MAPE).
Counterfactual optimization for fault prevention in complex wind energy systems
Carrizosa, Emilio, Fischetti, Martina, Haaker, Roshell, Morales, Juan Miguel
Machine Learning models are increasingly used in businesses to detect faults and anomalies in complex systems. In this work, we take this approach a step further: beyond merely detecting anomalies, we aim to identify the optimal control strategy that restores the system to a safe state with minimal disruption. We frame this challenge as a counterfactual problem: given a Machine Learning model that classifies system states as either "good" or "anomalous," our goal is to determine the minimal adjustment to the system's control variables (i.e., its current status) that is necessary to return it to the "good" state. To achieve this, we leverage a mathematical model that finds the optimal counterfactual solution while respecting system-specific constraints. Notably, most counterfactual analysis in the literature focuses on individual cases where a person seeks to alter their status relative to a decision made by a classifier--such as for loan approval or medical diagnosis. Our work addresses a fundamentally different challenge: optimizing counterfactuals for a complex energy system, specifically an offshore wind turbine oil-type transformer. This application not only advances counterfactual optimization in a new domain but also opens avenues for broader research in this area. Our tests on real-world data provided by our industrial partner show that our methodology easily adapts to user preferences and brings savings in the order of 3 million e per year in a typical farm. Introduction Energy systems are becoming increasingly more complex, making it more challenging--and more critical--to detect faults early and develop strategies to mitigate them. In this context, Machine Learning (ML) techniques have become an industry standard for early fault detection [16]. Energy companies can monitor various sensor readings from the turbines and apply ML methods to identify potential issues with components. In this paper, we define a fault (or faulty state) as a condition where a component is in an unsafe status, while an anomaly refers to any irregularity that is not necessarily dangerous. Note that faults are a subset of anomalies. When a fault is detected, a controller is immediately activated to prevent severe damage to the turbine. Machine Learning models can detect anomalies in advance, providing companies with a window of time to intervene before faults occur.
Thinking Beyond Tokens: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Cognitive Foundations for Artificial General Intelligence and its Societal Impact
Qureshi, Rizwan, Sapkota, Ranjan, Shah, Abbas, Muneer, Amgad, Zafar, Anas, Vayani, Ashmal, Shoman, Maged, Eldaly, Abdelrahman B. M., Zhang, Kai, Sadak, Ferhat, Raza, Shaina, Fan, Xinqi, Shwartz-Ziv, Ravid, Yan, Hong, Jain, Vinjia, Chadha, Aman, Karkee, Manoj, Wu, Jia, Mirjalili, Seyedali
Can machines truly think, reason and act in domains like humans? This enduring question continues to shape the pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Despite the growing capabilities of models such as GPT-4.5, DeepSeek, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Phi-4, and Grok 3, which exhibit multimodal fluency and partial reasoning, these systems remain fundamentally limited by their reliance on token-level prediction and lack of grounded agency. This paper offers a cross-disciplinary synthesis of AGI development, spanning artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, generative models, and agent-based systems. We analyze the architectural and cognitive foundations of general intelligence, highlighting the role of modular reasoning, persistent memory, and multi-agent coordination. In particular, we emphasize the rise of Agentic RAG frameworks that combine retrieval, planning, and dynamic tool use to enable more adaptive behavior. We discuss generalization strategies, including information compression, test-time adaptation, and training-free methods, as critical pathways toward flexible, domain-agnostic intelligence. Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are reexamined not just as perception modules but as evolving interfaces for embodied understanding and collaborative task completion. We also argue that true intelligence arises not from scale alone but from the integration of memory and reasoning: an orchestration of modular, interactive, and self-improving components where compression enables adaptive behavior. Drawing on advances in neurosymbolic systems, reinforcement learning, and cognitive scaffolding, we explore how recent architectures begin to bridge the gap between statistical learning and goal-directed cognition. Finally, we identify key scientific, technical, and ethical challenges on the path to AGI.
SwannBuddy 4K Video Doorbell review: Let the robots run the house
Higher-resolution video, improved overall performance, and an exciting new AI-powered voice response make Swann's second video doorbell a winner. Swann, a longtime player in the security camera world, has been spreading its wings to expand into related smart home gear, including video doorbells. Its first SwannBuddy Video Doorbell, a lackluster release, hit in 2022. The all-new SwannBuddy 4K Video Doorbell expands that device's resolution and image quality considerably, resolving one of the original product's biggest shortcomings. The SwannBuddy 4K offers a familiar design to both the original SwannBuddy and most video doorbells, with a large doorbell button in the center of the device, ringed with light (briefly blue, turning red when recording), a camera lens up top, and a motion sensor at the bottom.