Government
A Survey on Responsible LLMs: Inherent Risk, Malicious Use, and Mitigation Strategy
Wang, Huandong, Fu, Wenjie, Tang, Yingzhou, Chen, Zhilong, Huang, Yuxi, Piao, Jinghua, Gao, Chen, Xu, Fengli, Jiang, Tao, Li, Yong
While large language models (LLMs) present significant potential for supporting numerous real-world applications and delivering positive social impacts, they still face significant challenges in terms of the inherent risk of privacy leakage, hallucinated outputs, and value misalignment, and can be maliciously used for generating toxic content and unethical purposes after been jailbroken. Therefore, in this survey, we present a comprehensive review of recent advancements aimed at mitigating these issues, organized across the four phases of LLM development and usage: data collecting and pre-training, fine-tuning and alignment, prompting and reasoning, and post-processing and auditing. We elaborate on the recent advances for enhancing the performance of LLMs in terms of privacy protection, hallucination reduction, value alignment, toxicity elimination, and jailbreak defenses. In contrast to previous surveys that focus on a single dimension of responsible LLMs, this survey presents a unified framework that encompasses these diverse dimensions, providing a comprehensive view of enhancing LLMs to better serve real-world applications.
ADAGE: A generic two-layer framework for adaptive agent based modelling
Evans, Benjamin Patrick, Zeng, Sihan, Ganesh, Sumitra, Ardon, Leo
Agent-based models (ABMs) are valuable for modelling complex, potentially out-of-equilibria scenarios. However, ABMs have long suffered from the Lucas critique, stating that agent behaviour should adapt to environmental changes. Furthermore, the environment itself often adapts to these behavioural changes, creating a complex bi-level adaptation problem. Recent progress integrating multi-agent reinforcement learning into ABMs introduces adaptive agent behaviour, beginning to address the first part of this critique, however, the approaches are still relatively ad hoc, lacking a general formulation, and furthermore, do not tackle the second aspect of simultaneously adapting environmental level characteristics in addition to the agent behaviours. In this work, we develop a generic two-layer framework for ADaptive AGEnt based modelling (ADAGE) for addressing these problems. This framework formalises the bi-level problem as a Stackelberg game with conditional behavioural policies, providing a consolidated framework for adaptive agent-based modelling based on solving a coupled set of non-linear equations. We demonstrate how this generic approach encapsulates several common (previously viewed as distinct) ABM tasks, such as policy design, calibration, scenario generation, and robust behavioural learning under one unified framework. We provide example simulations on multiple complex economic and financial environments, showing the strength of the novel framework under these canonical settings, addressing long-standing critiques of traditional ABMs.
Physics-informed deep learning for infectious disease forecasting
Qian, Ying, Marty, รric, Basu, Avranil, O'Dea, Eamon B., Wang, Xianqiao, Fox, Spencer, Rohani, Pejman, Drake, John M., Li, He
Accurate forecasting of contagious illnesses has become increasingly important to public health policymaking, and better prediction could prevent the loss of millions of lives. To better prepare for future pandemics, it is essential to improve forecasting methods and capabilities. In this work, we propose a new infectious disease forecasting model based on physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), an emerging area of scientific machine learning. The proposed PINN model incorporates dynamical systems representations of disease transmission into the loss function, thereby assimilating epidemiological theory and data using neural networks (NNs). Our approach is designed to prevent model overfitting, which often occurs when training deep learning models with observation data alone. In addition, we employ an additional sub-network to account for mobility, vaccination, and other covariates that influence the transmission rate, a key parameter in the compartment model. To demonstrate the capability of the proposed model, we examine the performance of the model using state-level COVID-19 data in California. Our simulation results show that predictions of PINN model on the number of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are consistent with existing benchmarks. In particular, the PINN model outperforms the basic NN model and naive baseline forecast. We also show that the performance of the PINN model is comparable to a sophisticated Gaussian infection state space with time dependence (GISST) forecasting model that integrates the compartment model with a data observation model and a regression model for inferring parameters in the compartment model. Nonetheless, the PINN model offers a simpler structure and is easier to implement. Our results show that the proposed forecaster could potentially serve as a new computational tool to enhance the current capacity of infectious disease forecasting.
LLM360 K2: Building a 65B 360-Open-Source Large Language Model from Scratch
Liu, Zhengzhong, Tan, Bowen, Wang, Hongyi, Neiswanger, Willie, Tao, Tianhua, Li, Haonan, Koto, Fajri, Wang, Yuqi, Sun, Suqi, Pangarkar, Omkar, Fan, Richard, Gu, Yi, Miller, Victor, Ma, Liqun, Tang, Liping, Ranjan, Nikhil, Zhuang, Yonghao, He, Guowei, Wang, Renxi, Deng, Mingkai, Algayres, Robin, Li, Yuanzhi, Shen, Zhiqiang, Nakov, Preslav, Xing, Eric
We detail the training of the LLM360 K2-65B model, scaling up our 360-degree OPEN SOURCE approach to the largest and most powerful models under project LLM360. While open-source LLMs continue to advance, the answer to "How are the largest LLMs trained?" remains unclear within the community. The implementation details for such high-capacity models are often protected due to business considerations associated with their high cost. This lack of transparency prevents LLM researchers from leveraging valuable insights from prior experience, e.g., "What are the best practices for addressing loss spikes?" The LLM360 K2 project addresses this gap by providing full transparency and access to resources accumulated during the training of LLMs at the largest scale. This report highlights key elements of the K2 project, including our first model, K2 DIAMOND, a 65 billion-parameter LLM that surpasses LLaMA-65B and rivals LLaMA2-70B, while requiring fewer FLOPs and tokens. We detail the implementation steps and present a longitudinal analysis of K2 DIAMOND's capabilities throughout its training process. We also outline ongoing projects such as TXT360, setting the stage for future models in the series. By offering previously unavailable resources, the K2 project also resonates with the 360-degree OPEN SOURCE principles of transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility, which we believe are vital in the era of resource-intensive AI research.
PolInterviews -- A Dataset of German Politician Public Broadcast Interviews
Birkenmaier, Lukas, Sieber, Laureen, Bergstein, Felix
This paper presents a novel dataset of public broadcast interviews featuring high-ranking German politicians. The interviews were sourced from YouTube, transcribed, processed for speaker identification, and stored in a tidy and open format. The dataset comprises 99 interviews with 33 different German politicians across five major interview formats, containing a total of 28,146 sentences. As the first of its kind, this dataset offers valuable opportunities for research on various aspects of political communication in the (German) political contexts, such as agenda-setting, interviewer dynamics, or politicians' self-presentation.
Identifying Information from Observations with Uncertainty and Novelty
Prijatelj, Derek S., Ireland, Timothy J., Scheirer, Walter J.
A machine learning tasks from observations must encounter and process uncertainty and novelty, especially when it is expected to maintain performance when observing new information and to choose the best fitting hypothesis to the currently observed information. In this context, some key questions arise: what is information, how much information did the observations provide, how much information is required to identify the data-generating process, how many observations remain to get that information, and how does a predictor determine that it has observed novel information? This paper strengthens existing answers to these questions by formalizing the notion of "identifiable information" that arises from the language used to express the relationship between distinct states. Model identifiability and sample complexity are defined via computation of an indicator function over a set of hypotheses. Their properties and asymptotic statistics are described for data-generating processes ranging from deterministic processes to ergodic stationary stochastic processes. This connects the notion of identifying information in finite steps with asymptotic statistics and PAC-learning. The indicator function's computation naturally formalizes novel information and its identification from observations with respect to a hypothesis set. We also proved that computable PAC-Bayes learners' sample complexity distribution is determined by its moments in terms of the the prior probability distribution over a fixed finite hypothesis set.
Computing Optimization-Based Prompt Injections Against Closed-Weights Models By Misusing a Fine-Tuning API
Labunets, Andrey, Pandya, Nishit V., Hooda, Ashish, Fu, Xiaohan, Fernandes, Earlence
We surface a new threat to closed-weight Large Language Models (LLMs) that enables an attacker to compute optimization-based prompt injections. Specifically, we characterize how an attacker can leverage the loss-like information returned from the remote fine-tuning interface to guide the search for adversarial prompts. The fine-tuning interface is hosted by an LLM vendor and allows developers to fine-tune LLMs for their tasks, thus providing utility, but also exposes enough information for an attacker to compute adversarial prompts. Through an experimental analysis, we characterize the loss-like values returned by the Gemini fine-tuning API and demonstrate that they provide a useful signal for discrete optimization of adversarial prompts using a greedy search algorithm. Using the PurpleLlama prompt injection benchmark, we demonstrate attack success rates between 65% and 82% on Google's Gemini family of LLMs. These attacks exploit the classic utility-security tradeoff - the fine-tuning interface provides a useful feature for developers but also exposes the LLMs to powerful attacks.
New DJI drone policy could fuel even more conspiracy theories
This week DJI, the world's leading drone manufacturer, announced a new policy removing enforcement of its "No Fly Zone" geofences in restricted areas. The sudden shift may lead to more drones hovering where they shouldn't, which could worsen a lingering national panic over flying objects in the sky. DJI, the China-based drone giant, says it will no longer enforce geofence barriers that prevent its products from flying over restricted areas like airports, wildfires, and government buildings. Though the company says these changes are intended to empower its users, they come amid a surge in drone sightings, some around critical infrastructure, that have stoked fears and fueled a growing tide of conspiracy theories. DJI's changes mean operators will have one less guardrail preventing them from flying into risky areas.
Fox News AI Newsletter: AI health tech will transform your fitness routine
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on what the United States and Israel are doing to stay ahead of adversaries in A.I. on'Special Report.' FUTURE HEALTH TECH: CES 2025 has once again showcased a remarkable array of health and fitness technology that promises to transform our well-being. 'UNPRECEDENTED AND MISGUIDED': Tech giant Nvidia is pushing back on a new executive order by the Biden administration that seeks to prevent artificial intelligence technologies developed in the U.S. from falling into the hands of adversarial countries. 'CHIP' ON THEIR SHOULDER: The Biden White House on Monday announced its "final rule" placing export controls on artificial intelligence chips before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next week, drawing swift condemnation from industry leaders who argue the Democratic administration is effectively undermining America's leadership in the emerging technology. FILE - Amazon Web Services data center is seen on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Boardman, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File) 'LEAD THE WORLD': President Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order that he says will keep both national security and climate change in mind while fast-tracking the build-out of large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
Why 'Beating China' In AI Brings Its Own Risks
The Biden administration this week introduced new export restrictions designed to control AI's progress globally and ultimately prevent the most advanced AI from falling into China's hands. The rule is just the latest in a string of measures put in place by Donald Trump and Joe Biden to keep Chinese AI in check. With prominent AI figures including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei warning of the need to "beat China" in AI, the Trump administration may well escalate things further. Paul Triolo is a partner at DGA Group, a global consulting firm, a member of the council of foreign relations, and a senior adviser to the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations. Alvin Graylin is an entrepreneur who previously ran China operations for the Taiwanese electronics firm HPC.