Law
Ultra-Fast Language Generation via Discrete Diffusion Divergence Instruct
Zheng, Haoyang, Liu, Xinyang, Kong, Cindy Xiangrui, Jiang, Nan, Hu, Zheyuan, Luo, Weijian, Deng, Wei, Lin, Guang
Fast and high-quality language generation is the holy grail that people pursue in the age of AI. In this work, we introduce Discrete Diffusion Divergence Instruct (DiDi-Instruct), a training-based method that initializes from a pre-trained (masked) discrete diffusion language model (dLLM) and distills a few-step student for fast generation. The resulting DiDi-Instruct model achieves comparable or superior performance to its dLLM teacher and the GPT-2 baseline while enabling up to 64$\times$ acceleration. The theoretical foundation of DiDi-Instruct is a novel framework based on integral KL-divergence minimization, which yields a practical training algorithm. We further introduce grouped reward normalization, intermediate-state matching, and the reward-guided ancestral sampler that significantly improve training stability, model coverage, and inference quality. On OpenWebText, DiDi-Instruct achieves perplexity from 62.2 (8 NFEs) to 18.4 (128 NFEs), which outperforms prior accelerated dLLMs and GPT-2 baseline. These gains come with a negligible entropy loss (around $1\%$) and reduce additional training wall-clock time by more than $20\times$ compared to competing dLLM distillation methods. We further validate the robustness and effectiveness of DiDi-Instruct through extensive ablation studies, model scaling, and the generation of discrete protein sequences. In conclusion, DiDi-Instruct is an efficient yet effective distillation method, enabling language generation in the blink of an eye. We will release both code and models at github.com/haoyangzheng-ai/didi-instruct.
Reasoning Scaffolding: Distilling the Flow of Thought from LLMs
Wen, Xiangyu, Huang, Junhua, Li, Zeju, Li, Min, Zhong, Jianyuan, Xu, Zhijian, Yuan, Mingxuan, Huang, Yongxiang, Xu, Qiang
The prevailing approach to distilling reasoning from Large Language Models (LLMs)-behavioral cloning from textual rationales-is fundamentally limited. It teaches Small Language Models (SLMs) to mimic surface-level patterns rather than the underlying algorithmic structure of thought, resulting in a critical lack of logical robustness. We argue that instead of cloning text, distillation should transfer this algorithmic structure directly. We introduce Reasoning Scaffolding}, a framework that reframes reasoning as a structured generation process. Our method first abstracts the teacher's thought process into a sequence of discrete, interpretable semantic signals (e.g., Contrast, Addition) that act as a scaffold. The student model is then trained via a multi-task objective to both (1)predict the next semantic signal, anticipating the reasoning flow, and (2)generate the corresponding step, conditioned on that signal. This multi-task scheme acts as a powerful regularizer, compelling the student to internalize the computational patterns of coherent reasoning. On a suite of challenging reasoning benchmarks, our method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art distillation in both accuracy and logical consistency, providing a path towards creating smaller models that are genuine reasoners, not just fluent mimics.
REAL: Reading Out Transformer Activations for Precise Localization in Language Model Steering
Zhan, Li-Ming, Liu, Bo, Xie, Chengqiang, Cao, Jiannong, Wu, Xiao-Ming
Inference-time steering aims to alter a large language model's (LLM's) responses without changing its parameters, but a central challenge is identifying the internal modules that most strongly govern the target behavior. Existing approaches often rely on simplistic cues or ad hoc heuristics, leading to suboptimal or unintended effects. We introduce REAL, a framework for identifying behavior-relevant modules (attention heads or layers) in Transformer models. For each module, REAL trains a vector-quantized autoencoder (VQ-AE) on its hidden activations and uses a shared, learnable codebook to partition the latent space into behavior-relevant and behavior-irrelevant subspaces. REAL quantifies a module's behavioral relevance by how well its VQ-AE encodings discriminate behavior-aligned from behavior-violating responses via a binary classification metric; this score guides both module selection and steering strength. We evaluate REAL across eight LLMs from the Llama and Qwen families and nine datasets spanning truthfulness enhancement, open-domain QA under knowledge conflicts, and general alignment tasks. REAL enables more effective inference-time interventions, achieving an average relative improvement of 20% (up to 81.5%) over the ITI method on truthfulness steering. In addition, the modules selected by REAL exhibit strong zero-shot generalization in cross-domain truthfulness-steering scenarios.
GuRE:Generative Query REwriter for Legal Passage Retrieval
Kim, Daehee, Kang, Deokhyung, Kim, Jonghwi, Ryu, Sangwon, Lee, Gary Geunbae
Legal Passage Retrieval (LPR) systems are crucial as they help practitioners save time when drafting legal arguments. However, it remains an underexplored avenue. One primary reason is the significant vocabulary mismatch between the query and the target passage. To address this, we propose a simple yet effective method, the Generative query REwriter (GuRE). We leverage the generative capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) by training the LLM for query rewriting. "Rewritten queries" help retrievers to retrieve target passages by mitigating vocabulary mismatch. Experimental results show that GuRE significantly improves performance in a retriever-agnostic manner, outperforming all baseline methods. Further analysis reveals that different training objectives lead to distinct retrieval behaviors, making GuRE more suitable than direct retriever fine-tuning for real-world applications. Codes are avaiable at github.com/daehuikim/GuRE.
Solar storm alert issued TODAY as officials warn several US states about power disruptions
Shroud of Turin mystery deepens as surgeon spots hidden detail that points to Jesus' resurrection I was so happy after trying a trendy new cosmetic procedure. But 10 years later I suffered a devastating side effect... the doctor had lied I'm no longer sleeping with my husband - and never will again, says MOLLY RYDDELL. I love him, but counted down the moments until he climaxed. Then I couldn't bear it any more and the truth spilled out... so many women feel the same The'middle-class kinks' saving marriages: Wives reveal the eight buzzy sex trends that revived their lagging libidos - including the fantasy husbands are secretly obsessed with Lori Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli seen with mystery brunette in tiny skirt day after shock split I'm a woman with autism... here are the signs you might be masking, even from yourself Cake-faced 90s sitcom star looks unrecognizable as she ditches the heavy eyeshadow for an LA errand run can you guess who? Trump dollar coin design released by Treasury... and it's inspired by the most iconic political photo of the century I've loved Taylor Swift for years. Mystery deepens over Hulk Hogan's death as his widow faces fresh anguish Body count from Houston's bayous rises as serial killer whispers grip city and residents are told: 'Be vigilant' Prison chief reveals exactly where Diddy could end up... and the one horrifying jail he MUST avoid Diddy sentenced to 50 MONTHS in prison for prostitution offenses as he's branded a vile and unrepentant woman beater A moderate geomagnetic storm watch was issued on Wednesday after holes appeared on the sun.
Interstellar object spotted 'bleeding' mysterious metals that defy science: 'It's extremely puzzling'
Diddy FUMBLES as he speaks in public for first time in 13 months and begs his mother's forgiveness through tears Shroud of Turin mystery deepens as surgeon spots hidden detail that points to Jesus' resurrection I was so happy after trying a trendy new cosmetic procedure. But 10 years later I suffered a devastating side effect... the doctor had lied I'm no longer sleeping with my husband - and never will again, says MOLLY RYDDELL. I love him, but counted down the moments until he climaxed. Then I couldn't bear it any more and the truth spilled out... so many women feel the same The'middle-class kinks' saving marriages: Wives reveal the eight buzzy sex trends that revived their lagging libidos - including the fantasy husbands are secretly obsessed with I'm a woman with autism... here are the signs you might be masking, even from yourself Lori Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli seen with mystery brunette in tiny skirt day after shock split Body count from Houston's bayous rises as serial killer whispers grip city and residents are told: 'Be vigilant' Cake-faced 90s sitcom star looks unrecognizable as she ditches the heavy eyeshadow for an LA errand run can you guess who? Trump dollar coin design released by Treasury... and it's inspired by the most iconic political photo of the century I've loved Taylor Swift for years. Mystery deepens over Hulk Hogan's death as his widow faces fresh anguish Warning as pasta salad is recalled due to risk of'fatal infections' Interstellar object spotted shedding mysterious metals in way that defies science: 'It's extremely puzzling' The mysterious interstellar object speeding through our Solar System has been spotted shedding metals in a way that defies the rules of a comet.
Hollywood's Most Terrifying Nightmare Has Arrived
The Industry A.I. Is Ready to Crush Hollywood as We've Known It Generative video tools are ready to flood the market with robot actors and content--leaving studios and actors scrambling to catch up. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Nitish_Pahwa newsletter. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.
Scientists reveal the surprising reason why women live longer than men
Shroud of Turin mystery deepens as surgeon spots hidden detail that points to Jesus' resurrection I was so happy after trying a trendy new cosmetic procedure. But 10 years later I suffered a devastating side effect... the doctor had lied I'm no longer sleeping with my husband - and never will again, says MOLLY RYDDELL. I love him, but counted down the moments until he climaxed. Then I couldn't bear it any more and the truth spilled out... so many women feel the same The'middle-class kinks' saving marriages: Wives reveal the eight buzzy sex trends that revived their lagging libidos - including the fantasy husbands are secretly obsessed with Lori Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli seen with mystery brunette in tiny skirt day after shock split I'm a woman with autism... here are the signs you might be masking, even from yourself Cake-faced 90s sitcom star looks unrecognizable as she ditches the heavy eyeshadow for an LA errand run can you guess who? Trump dollar coin design released by Treasury... and it's inspired by the most iconic political photo of the century I've loved Taylor Swift for years. Mystery deepens over Hulk Hogan's death as his widow faces fresh anguish Body count from Houston's bayous rises as serial killer whispers grip city and residents are told: 'Be vigilant' Prison chief reveals exactly where Diddy could end up... and the one horrifying jail he MUST avoid READ MORE: Women could have'virgin births' without men, experts say It's a fact that has been known for more than two centuries - wherever you are around the world, women on average live longer than men.