Government
On the Richness of Calibration
Höltgen, Benedikt, Williamson, Robert C
Probabilistic predictions can be evaluated through comparisons with observed label frequencies, that is, through the lens of calibration. Recent scholarship on algorithmic fairness has started to look at a growing variety of calibration-based objectives under the name of multi-calibration but has still remained fairly restricted. In this paper, we explore and analyse forms of evaluation through calibration by making explicit the choices involved in designing calibration scores. We organise these into three grouping choices and a choice concerning the agglomeration of group errors. This provides a framework for comparing previously proposed calibration scores and helps to formulate novel ones with desirable mathematical properties. In particular, we explore the possibility of grouping datapoints based on their input features rather than on predictions and formally demonstrate advantages of such approaches. We also characterise the space of suitable agglomeration functions for group errors, generalising previously proposed calibration scores. Complementary to such population-level scores, we explore calibration scores at the individual level and analyse their relationship to choices of grouping. We draw on these insights to introduce and axiomatise fairness deviation measures for population-level scores. We demonstrate that with appropriate choices of grouping, these novel global fairness scores can provide notions of (sub-)group or individual fairness.
Accelerate Support Vector Clustering via Spectrum-Preserving Data Compression
This paper proposes a novel framework for accelerating support vector clustering. The proposed method first computes much smaller compressed data sets while preserving the key cluster properties of the original data sets based on a novel spectral data compression approach. Then, the resultant spectrally-compressed data sets are leveraged for the development of fast and high quality algorithm for support vector clustering. We conducted extensive experiments using real-world data sets and obtained very promising results. The proposed method allows us to achieve 100X and 115X speedups over the state of the art SVC method on the Pendigits and USPS data sets, respectively, while achieving even better clustering quality. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first practical method for high-quality and fast SVC on large-scale real-world data sets
Bayesian Interpolation with Deep Linear Networks
Hanin, Boris, Zlokapa, Alexander
Characterizing how neural network depth, width, and dataset size jointly impact model quality is a central problem in deep learning theory. We give here a complete solution in the special case of linear networks with output dimension one trained using zero noise Bayesian inference with Gaussian weight priors and mean squared error as a negative log-likelihood. For any training dataset, network depth, and hidden layer widths, we find non-asymptotic expressions for the predictive posterior and Bayesian model evidence in terms of Meijer-G functions, a class of meromorphic special functions of a single complex variable. Through novel asymptotic expansions of these Meijer-G functions, a rich new picture of the joint role of depth, width, and dataset size emerges. We show that linear networks make provably optimal predictions at infinite depth: the posterior of infinitely deep linear networks with data-agnostic priors is the same as that of shallow networks with evidence-maximizing data-dependent priors. This yields a principled reason to prefer deeper networks when priors are forced to be data-agnostic. Moreover, we show that with data-agnostic priors, Bayesian model evidence in wide linear networks is maximized at infinite depth, elucidating the salutary role of increased depth for model selection. Underpinning our results is a novel emergent notion of effective depth, given by the number of hidden layers times the number of data points divided by the network width; this determines the structure of the posterior in the large-data limit.
KALM: Knowledge-Aware Integration of Local, Document, and Global Contexts for Long Document Understanding
Feng, Shangbin, Tan, Zhaoxuan, Zhang, Wenqian, Lei, Zhenyu, Tsvetkov, Yulia
With the advent of pretrained language models (LMs), increasing research efforts have been focusing on infusing commonsense and domain-specific knowledge to prepare LMs for downstream tasks. These works attempt to leverage knowledge graphs, the de facto standard of symbolic knowledge representation, along with pretrained LMs. While existing approaches have leveraged external knowledge, it remains an open question how to jointly incorporate knowledge graphs representing varying contexts, from local (e.g., sentence), to document-level, to global knowledge, to enable knowledge-rich exchange across these contexts. Such rich contextualization can be especially beneficial for long document understanding tasks since standard pretrained LMs are typically bounded by the input sequence length. In light of these challenges, we propose KALM, a Knowledge-Aware Language Model that jointly leverages knowledge in local, document-level, and global contexts for long document understanding. KALM first encodes long documents and knowledge graphs into the three knowledge-aware context representations. It then processes each context with context-specific layers, followed by a context fusion layer that facilitates knowledge exchange to derive an overarching document representation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that KALM achieves state-of-the-art performance on six long document understanding tasks and datasets. Further analyses reveal that the three knowledge-aware contexts are complementary and they all contribute to model performance, while the importance and information exchange patterns of different contexts vary with respect to different tasks and datasets.
Welfare Maximization Algorithm for Solving Budget-Constrained Multi-Component POMDPs
Vora, Manav, Thangeda, Pranay, Grussing, Michael N., Ornik, Melkior
Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) provide an efficient way to model real-world sequential decision making processes. Motivated by the problem of maintenance and inspection of a group of infrastructure components with independent dynamics, this paper presents an algorithm to find the optimal policy for a multi-component budget-constrained POMDP. We first introduce a budgeted-POMDP model (b-POMDP) which enables us to find the optimal policy for a POMDP while adhering to budget constraints. Next, we prove that the value function or maximal collected reward for a b-POMDP is a concave function of the budget for the finite horizon case. Our second contribution is an algorithm to calculate the optimal policy for a multi-component budget-constrained POMDP by finding the optimal budget split among the individual component POMDPs. The optimal budget split is posed as a welfare maximization problem and the solution is computed by exploiting the concave nature of the value function. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by proposing a maintenance and inspection policy for a group of real-world infrastructure components with different deterioration dynamics, inspection and maintenance costs. We show that the proposed algorithm vastly outperforms the policy currently used in practice.
$SmartProbe$: A Virtual Moderator for Market Research Surveys
Seltzer, Josh, Pan, Jiahua, Cheng, Kathy, Sun, Yuxiao, Kolagati, Santosh, Lin, Jimmy, Zong, Shi
Market research surveys are a powerful methodology for understanding consumer perspectives at scale, but are limited by depth of understanding and insights. A virtual moderator can introduce elements of qualitative research into surveys, developing a rapport with survey participants and dynamically asking probing questions, ultimately to elicit more useful information for market researchers. In this work, we introduce ${\tt SmartProbe}$, an API which leverages the adaptive capabilities of large language models (LLMs), and incorporates domain knowledge from market research, in order to generate effective probing questions in any market research survey. We outline the modular processing flow of $\tt SmartProbe$, and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of its generated probing questions. We believe our efforts will inspire industry practitioners to build real-world applications based on the latest advances in LLMs. Our demo is publicly available at https://nexxt.in/smartprobe-demo
AI creator on the risks, opportunities and how it may make humans 'boring'
The entrepreneur is convinced that the scale of what's coming is enormous. He reckons that in 10 years time, his company and fellow AI leaders, ChatGPT and DeepMind, will even be bigger than Google and Facebook. Predictions about technology are as tricky as predictions about politics - educated guesses that could turn out to be totally wrong. But what is clear is that a public conversation about the risks and realities of AI is now underway. We might be on the cusp of sweeping changes too big for any one company, country or politician to manage.
Toyota Leaked Vehicle Data of 2 Million Customers
SafeGraph, the data broker famous for selling location data linked to abortion clinic visits, is now a US military contractor. Documents obtained by WIRED reveal that the company landed an initial contract with the US Air Force and is hoping the Pentagon will buy a tool that SafeGraph says will pinpoint locations not to bomb, like schools and hospitals. Your data is, of course, everywhere--likely including in the training data of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Fortunately, at least some users can request that OpenAI, which created the tool, delete their data. It's also possible to delete your chat history with ChatGPT.
Ministers not doing enough to control AI, says UK professor
One of the professors at the forefront of artificial intelligence has said ministers are not doing enough to protect against the dangers of super-intelligent machines in the future. In the latest contribution to the debate about the safety of the ever-quickening development of AI, Prof Stuart Russell told the Times that the government was reluctant to regulate the industry despite the concerns that the technology could get out of control and threaten the future of humanity. Russell, a lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley and former adviser to the US and UK governments, told the Times he was concerned that ChatGPT, which was released in November, could become part of a super-intelligent machine that could not be constrained. "How do you maintain power over entities more powerful than you – for ever?" he asked. "If you don't have an answer, then stop doing the research. "The stakes couldn't be higher: if we don't control our own civilisation, we have no say in whether we continue to exist." After the release of ChatGPT to the public last year, which has been used to write prose and has already worried lecturers and teachers over its use in universities and schools, the debate has intensified over its safety in the long-term. Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and Twitter owner, and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, along with 1,000 AI experts, wrote a letter to warn that there was an "out-of-control race" going on at AI labs and called for a pause on the creation of giant-scale AI. The letter warned the labs were developing "ever more powerful digital minds that no one, not even their creators, can understand, predict or reliably control". There is also concern about its wider application. A House of Lords committee this week heard evidence from Sir Lawrence Freedman, a war studies professor, who spoke about the concerns on how AI might be used in future wars. Google's rival, Bard, is due to be released in the EU later this year. Russell himself previously worked for the UN on how to monitor the nuclear test-ban treaty, and was asked to work with Whitehall earlier this year. He said: "The Foreign Office … talked to a lot of people and they concluded that loss of control was a plausible and extremely high-significance outcome." "And then the government came out with a regulatory approach that says: 'Nothing to see here … we'll welcome the AI industry as if we were talking about making cars or something like that'.
Deepfakes, porn tapes, bots: How AI has shaped a vital NATO ally's presidential election
Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska told Fox News Digital he's concerned about China's use of Artificial Intelligence after a report claimed pro-Chinese groups were spreading CCP propaganda using AI-generated news anchors. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main political opponent accused Russia of using deepfakes and other artificial intelligence (AI)-generated material to meddle in the country's upcoming presidential election. "The Russians have a vested interest in backing an Erdogan presidency to ensure that he basically stays in power, mainly because the Russians benefit [from] driving a wedge between Turkey and NATO, and they've been very successful about that in the last decade or so," Sinan Ciddi, non-resident senior fellow on Turkey at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. "So, in the last several days, weeks, it has been credibly reported by Turkish sources that Russian bot accounts, Twitter accounts, all sorts of disinformation campaigns have started pressing the thumb down on backing the Erdogan presidency, and that comes as no surprise." The election, scheduled for May 14 alongside parliamentary elections, has proven difficult for Erdogan as his election rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu maintains a slight lead in opinion polls.