Overview
A Survey on the Optimization of Large Language Model-based Agents
Du, Shangheng, Zhao, Jiabao, Shi, Jinxin, Xie, Zhentao, Jiang, Xin, Bai, Yanhong, He, Liang
With the rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs), LLM-based agents have been widely adopted in various fields, becoming essential for autonomous decision-making and interactive tasks. However, current work typically relies on prompt design or fine-tuning strategies applied to vanilla LLMs, which often leads to limited effectiveness or suboptimal performance in complex agent-related environments. Although LLM optimization techniques can improve model performance across many general tasks, they lack specialized optimization towards critical agent functionalities such as long-term planning, dynamic environmental interaction, and complex decision-making. Although numerous recent studies have explored various strategies to optimize LLM-based agents for complex agent tasks, a systematic review summarizing and comparing these methods from a holistic perspective is still lacking. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of LLM-based agent optimization approaches, categorizing them into parameter-driven and parameter-free methods. We first focus on parameter-driven optimization, covering fine-tuning-based optimization, reinforcement learning-based optimization, and hybrid strategies, analyzing key aspects such as trajectory data construction, fine-tuning techniques, reward function design, and optimization algorithms. Additionally, we briefly discuss parameter-free strategies that optimize agent behavior through prompt engineering and external knowledge retrieval. Finally, we summarize the datasets and benchmarks used for evaluation and tuning, review key applications of LLM-based agents, and discuss major challenges and promising future directions. Our repository for related references is available at https://github.com/YoungDubbyDu/LLM-Agent-Optimization.
GeoRSMLLM: A Multimodal Large Language Model for Vision-Language Tasks in Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Zhang, Zilun, Shen, Haozhan, Zhao, Tiancheng, Chen, Bin, Guan, Zian, Wang, Yuhao, Jia, Xu, Cai, Yuxiang, Shang, Yongheng, Yin, Jianwei
The application of Vision-Language Models (VLMs) in remote sensing (RS) has demonstrated significant potential in traditional tasks such as scene classification, object detection, and image captioning. However, current models, which excel in Referring Expression Comprehension (REC), struggle with tasks involving complex instructions (e.g., exists multiple conditions) or pixel-level operations like segmentation and change detection. In this white paper, we provide a comprehensive hierarchical summary of vision-language tasks in RS, categorized by the varying levels of cognitive capability required. We introduce the Remote Sensing Vision-Language Task Set (RSVLTS), which includes Open-Vocabulary Tasks (OVT), Referring Expression Tasks (RET), and Described Object Tasks (DOT) with increased difficulty, and Visual Question Answering (VQA) aloneside. Moreover, we propose a novel unified data representation using a set-of-points approach for RSVLTS, along with a condition parser and a self-augmentation strategy based on cyclic referring. These features are integrated into the GeoRSMLLM model, and this enhanced model is designed to handle a broad range of tasks of RSVLTS, paving the way for a more generalized solution for vision-language tasks in geoscience and remote sensing.
Advancing Human-Machine Teaming: Concepts, Challenges, and Applications
Chen, Dian, Yoon, Han Jun, Wan, Zelin, Alluru, Nithin, Lee, Sang Won, He, Richard, Moore, Terrence J., Nelson, Frederica F., Yoon, Sunghyun, Lim, Hyuk, Kim, Dan Dongseong, Cho, Jin-Hee
Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) is revolutionizing collaboration across domains such as defense, healthcare, and autonomous systems by integrating AI-driven decision-making, trust calibration, and adaptive teaming. This survey presents a comprehensive taxonomy of HMT, analyzing theoretical models, including reinforcement learning, instance-based learning, and interdependence theory, alongside interdisciplinary methodologies. Unlike prior reviews, we examine team cognition, ethical AI, multi-modal interactions, and real-world evaluation frameworks. Key challenges include explainability, role allocation, and scalable benchmarking. We propose future research in cross-domain adaptation, trust-aware AI, and standardized testbeds. By bridging computational and social sciences, this work lays a foundation for resilient, ethical, and scalable HMT systems.
Causality Model for Semantic Understanding on Videos
After a decade of prosperity, the development of video understanding has reached a critical juncture, where the sole reliance on massive data and complex architectures is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution to all situations. The presence of ubiquitous data imbalance hampers DNNs from effectively learning the underlying causal mechanisms, leading to significant performance drops when encountering distribution shifts, such as long-tail imbalances and perturbed imbalances. This realization has prompted researchers to seek alternative methodologies to capture causal patterns in video data. To tackle these challenges and increase the robustness of DNNs, causal modeling emerged as a principle to discover the true causal patterns behind the observed correlations. This thesis focuses on the domain of semantic video understanding and explores the potential of causal modeling to advance two fundamental tasks: Video Relation Detection (VidVRD) and Video Question Answering (VideoQA).
SAM2 for Image and Video Segmentation: A Comprehensive Survey
Despite significant advances in deep learning for image and video segmentation, existing models continue to face challenges in cross-domain adaptability and generalization. Image and video segmentation are fundamental tasks in computer vision with wide-ranging applications in healthcare, agriculture, industrial inspection, and autonomous driving. With the advent of large-scale foundation models, SAM2 - an improved version of SAM (Segment Anything Model)has been optimized for segmentation tasks, demonstrating enhanced performance in complex scenarios. However, SAM2's adaptability and limitations in specific domains require further investigation. This paper systematically analyzes the application of SAM2 in image and video segmentation and evaluates its performance in various fields. We begin by introducing the foundational concepts of image segmentation, categorizing foundation models, and exploring the technical characteristics of SAM and SAM2. Subsequently, we delve into SAM2's applications in static image and video segmentation, emphasizing its performance in specialized areas such as medical imaging and the challenges of cross-domain adaptability. As part of our research, we reviewed over 200 related papers to provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic. Finally, the paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of SAM2 in segmentation tasks, identifies the technical challenges it faces, and proposes future development directions. This review provides valuable insights and practical recommendations for optimizing and applying SAM2 in real-world scenarios.
Point Cloud Based Scene Segmentation: A Survey
Autonomous driving is a safety-critical application, and it is therefore a top priority that the accompanying assistance systems are able to provide precise information about the surrounding environment of the vehicle. Tasks such as 3D Object Detection deliver an insufficiently detailed understanding of the surrounding scene because they only predict a bounding box for foreground objects. In contrast, 3D Semantic Segmentation provides richer and denser information about the environment by assigning a label to each individual point, which is of paramount importance for autonomous driving tasks, such as navigation or lane changes. To inspire future research, in this review paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art methods in the field of Point Cloud Semantic Segmentation for autonomous driving. We categorize the approaches into projection-based, 3D-based and hybrid methods. Moreover, we discuss the most important and commonly used datasets for this task and also emphasize the importance of synthetic data to support research when real-world data is limited. We further present the results of the different methods and compare them with respect to their segmentation accuracy and efficiency.
A Survey on Human Interaction Motion Generation
Sui, Kewei, Ghosh, Anindita, Hwang, Inwoo, Wang, Jian, Guo, Chuan
Humans inhabit a world defined by interactions -- with other humans, objects, and environments. These interactive movements not only convey our relationships with our surroundings but also demonstrate how we perceive and communicate with the real world. Therefore, replicating these interaction behaviors in digital systems has emerged as an important topic for applications in robotics, virtual reality, and animation. While recent advances in deep generative models and new datasets have accelerated progress in this field, significant challenges remain in modeling the intricate human dynamics and their interactions with entities in the external world. In this survey, we present, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the literature in human interaction motion generation. We begin by establishing foundational concepts essential for understanding the research background. We then systematically review existing solutions and datasets across three primary interaction tasks -- human-human, human-object, and human-scene interactions -- followed by evaluation metrics. Finally, we discuss open research directions and future opportunities.
Interpretation Gaps in LLM-Assisted Comprehension of Privacy Documents
This article explores the gaps that can manifest when using a large language model (LLM) to obtain simplified interpretations of data practices from a complex privacy policy. We exemplify these gaps to showcase issues in accuracy, completeness, clarity and representation, while advocating for continued research to realize an LLM's true potential in revolutionizing privacy management through personal assistants and automated compliance checking.
Enhanced Sentiment Analysis of Iranian Restaurant Reviews Utilizing Sentiment Intensity Analyzer & Fuzzy Logic
Rokhva, Shayan, Teimourpour, Babak, Babaei, Romina
This research presents an advanced sentiment analysis framework studied on Iranian restaurant reviews, combining fuzzy logic with conventional sentiment analysis techniques to assess both sentiment polarity and intensity. A dataset of 1266 reviews, alongside corresponding star ratings, was compiled and preprocessed for analysis. Initial sentiment analysis was conducted using the Sentiment Intensity Analyzer (VADER), a rule-based tool that assigns sentiment scores across positive, negative, and neutral categories. However, a noticeable bias toward neutrality often led to an inaccurate representation of sentiment intensity. To mitigate this issue, based on a fuzzy perspective, two refinement techniques were introduced, applying square-root and fourth-root transformations to amplify positive and negative sentiment scores while maintaining neutrality. This led to three distinct methodologies: Approach 1, utilizing unaltered VADER scores; Approach 2, modifying sentiment values using the square root; and Approach 3, applying the fourth root for further refinement. A Fuzzy Inference System incorporating comprehensive fuzzy rules was then developed to process these refined scores and generate a single, continuous sentiment value for each review based on each approach. Comparative analysis, including human supervision and alignment with customer star ratings, revealed that the refined approaches significantly improved sentiment analysis by reducing neutrality bias and better capturing sentiment intensity. Despite these advancements, minor over-amplification and persistent neutrality in domain-specific cases were identified, leading us to propose several future studies to tackle these occasional barriers. The study's methodology and outcomes offer valuable insights for businesses seeking a more precise understanding of consumer sentiment, enhancing sentiment analysis across various industries.
A Survey on Federated Fine-tuning of Large Language Models
Wu, Yebo, Tian, Chunlin, Li, Jingguang, Sun, He, Tam, Kahou, Li, Li, Xu, Chengzhong
Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success across a wide range of tasks, with fine-tuning playing a pivotal role in adapting them to specific downstream applications. Federated Learning (FL) offers a promising approach that enables collaborative model adaptation while ensuring data privacy, i.e., FedLLM. In this survey, we provide a systematic and thorough review of the integration of LLMs with FL. Specifically, we first trace the historical evolution of both LLMs and FL, while summarizing relevant prior surveys. We then present an in-depth analysis of the fundamental challenges encountered in deploying FedLLM. Following this, we conduct an extensive study of existing parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) methods and explore their applicability in FL. Furthermore, we introduce a comprehensive evaluation benchmark to rigorously assess FedLLM performance and discuss its diverse real-world applications across multiple domains. Finally, we identify critical open challenges and outline promising research directions to drive future advancements in FedLLM. We maintain an active \href{https://github.com/Clin0212/Awesome-Federated-LLM-Learning}{GitHub repository} tracking cutting-edge advancements. This survey serves as a foundational resource for researchers and practitioners, offering insights into the evolving landscape of federated fine-tuning for LLMs while guiding future innovations in privacy-preserving AI.