Deep learning has shown incredible potential across a vast array of tasks and accompanying this growth has been an insatiable appetite for data. However, a large amount of data needed for enabling deep learning is stored on personal devices and recent concerns on privacy have further highlighted challenges for accessing such data. As a result, federated learning (FL) has emerged as an important privacy-preserving technology enabling collaborative training of machine learning models without the need to send the raw, potentially sensitive, data to a central server. However, the fundamental premise that sending model updates to a server is privacy-preserving only holds if the updates cannot be "reverse engineered" to infer information about the private training data. It has been shown under a wide variety of settings that this premise for privacy does {\em not} hold. In this survey paper, we provide a comprehensive literature review of the different privacy attacks and defense methods in FL. We identify the current limitations of these attacks and highlight the settings in which FL client privacy can be broken. We dissect some of the successful industry applications of FL and draw lessons for future successful adoption. We survey the emerging landscape of privacy regulation for FL. We conclude with future directions for taking FL toward the cherished goal of generating accurate models while preserving the privacy of the data from its participants.

The rapid advancements in large language models (LLMs) have opened new avenues across various fields, including cybersecurity, which faces an ever-evolving threat landscape and need for innovative technologies. Despite initial explorations into the application of LLMs in cybersecurity, there is a lack of a comprehensive overview of this research area. This paper bridge this gap by providing a systematic literature review, encompassing an analysis of over 180 works, spanning across 25 LLMs and more than 10 downstream scenarios. Our comprehensive overview addresses three critical research questions: the construction of cybersecurity-oriented LLMs, LLMs' applications in various cybersecurity tasks, and the existing challenges and further research in this area. This study aims to shed light on the extensive potential of LLMs in enhancing cybersecurity practices, and serve as a valuable resource for applying LLMs in this doamin. We also maintain and regularly updated list of practical guides on LLMs for cybersecurity at https://github.com/tmylla/Awesome-LLM4Cybersecurity.

This study introduces a transformative framework for medical education by integrating semi-structured data with Large Language Models (LLMs), primarily OpenAIs ChatGPT3.5, to automate the creation of medical simulation scenarios. Traditionally, developing these scenarios was a time-intensive process with limited flexibility to meet diverse educational needs. The proposed approach utilizes AI to efficiently generate detailed, clinically relevant scenarios that are tailored to specific educational objectives. This innovation has significantly reduced the time and resources required for scenario development, allowing for a broader variety of simulations. Preliminary feedback from educators and learners has shown enhanced engagement and improved knowledge acquisition, confirming the effectiveness of this AI-enhanced methodology in simulation-based learning. The integration of structured data with LLMs not only streamlines the creation process but also offers a scalable, dynamic solution that could revolutionize medical training, highlighting the critical role of AI in advancing educational outcomes and patient care standards.

Abstract-- Miniaturization of cameras and LiDAR sensors has enabled the development of wearable 3D mapping systems for emergency responders. These systems have the potential to revolutionize response capabilities by providing real-time, high-fidelity maps of dynamic and hazardous environments. We review four different sensor configurations, either helmet-mounted or body-worn, with two different mapping algorithms that were implemented and evaluated during field trials. The paper discusses the experimental results with the aim to stimulate further discussion within the portable 3D mapping research community. I. INTRODUCTION Recent technological developments in the fields of machine vision and 3D perception sensors show immense promise for revolutionizing emergency response capabilities.

In this paper, the second of two companion pieces, we explore novel philosophical questions raised by recent progress in large language models (LLMs) that go beyond the classical debates covered in the first part. We focus particularly on issues related to interpretability, examining evidence from causal intervention methods about the nature of LLMs' internal representations and computations. We also discuss the implications of multimodal and modular extensions of LLMs, recent debates about whether such systems may meet minimal criteria for consciousness, and concerns about secrecy and reproducibility in LLM research. Finally, we discuss whether LLM-like systems may be relevant to modeling aspects of human cognition, if their architectural characteristics and learning scenario are adequately constrained.

Integrating large language models (LLMs) and knowledge graphs (KGs) holds great promise for revolutionizing intelligent education, but challenges remain in achieving personalization, interactivity, and explainability. We propose FOKE, a Forest Of Knowledge and Education framework that synergizes foundation models, knowledge graphs, and prompt engineering to address these challenges. FOKE introduces three key innovations: (1) a hierarchical knowledge forest for structured domain knowledge representation; (2) a multi-dimensional user profiling mechanism for comprehensive learner modeling; and (3) an interactive prompt engineering scheme for generating precise and tailored learning guidance. We showcase FOKE's application in programming education, homework assessment, and learning path planning, demonstrating its effectiveness and practicality. Additionally, we implement Scholar Hero, a real-world instantiation of FOKE. Our research highlights the potential of integrating foundation models, knowledge graphs, and prompt engineering to revolutionize intelligent education practices, ultimately benefiting learners worldwide. FOKE provides a principled and unified approach to harnessing cutting-edge AI technologies for personalized, interactive, and explainable educational services, paving the way for further research and development in this critical direction.

The conversational recommendation system (CRS) has been criticized regarding its user experience in real-world scenarios, despite recent significant progress achieved in academia. Existing evaluation protocols for CRS may prioritize system-centric factors such as effectiveness and fluency in conversation while neglecting user-centric aspects. Thus, we propose a new and inclusive evaluation protocol, Concept, which integrates both system- and user-centric factors. We conceptualise three key characteristics in representing such factors and further divide them into six primary abilities. To implement Concept, we adopt a LLM-based user simulator and evaluator with scoring rubrics that are tailored for each primary ability. Our protocol, Concept, serves a dual purpose. First, it provides an overview of the pros and cons in current CRS models. Second, it pinpoints the problem of low usability in the "omnipotent" ChatGPT and offers a comprehensive reference guide for evaluating CRS, thereby setting the foundation for CRS improvement.

Existing neural field-based SLAM methods typically employ a single monolithic field as their scene representation. This prevents efficient incorporation of loop closure constraints and limits scalability. To address these shortcomings, we propose a neural mapping framework which anchors lightweight neural fields to the pose graph of a sparse visual SLAM system. Our approach shows the ability to integrate large-scale loop closures, while limiting necessary reintegration. Furthermore, we verify the scalability of our approach by demonstrating successful building-scale mapping taking multiple loop closures into account during the optimization, and show that our method outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches on large scenes in terms of quality and runtime.

Automated design of metaheuristic algorithms offers an attractive avenue to reduce human effort and gain enhanced performance beyond human intuition. Current automated methods design algorithms within a fixed structure and operate from scratch. This poses a clear gap towards fully discovering potentials over the metaheuristic family and fertilizing from prior design experience. To bridge the gap, this paper proposes an autoregressive learning-based designer for automated design of metaheuristic algorithms. Our designer formulates metaheuristic algorithm design as a sequence generation task, and harnesses an autoregressive generative network to handle the task. This offers two advances. First, through autoregressive inference, the designer generates algorithms with diverse lengths and structures, enabling to fully discover potentials over the metaheuristic family. Second, prior design knowledge learned and accumulated in neurons of the designer can be retrieved for designing algorithms for future problems, paving the way to continual design of algorithms for open-ended problem-solving. Extensive experiments on numeral benchmarks and real-world problems reveal that the proposed designer generates algorithms that outperform all human-created baselines on 24 out of 25 test problems. The generated algorithms display various structures and behaviors, reasonably fitting for different problem-solving contexts. Code will be released after paper publication.

Diffusion generative models have recently become a robust technique for producing and modifying coherent, high-quality video. This survey offers a systematic overview of critical elements of diffusion models for video generation, covering applications, architectural choices, and the modeling of temporal dynamics. Recent advancements in the field are summarized and grouped into development trends. The survey concludes with an overview of remaining challenges and an outlook on the future of the field.