Fair lending practices and model interpretability are crucial concerns in the financial industry, especially given the increasing use of complex machine learning models. In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) requirement to protect consumers against unlawful discrimination, we introduce LDA-XGB1, a novel less discriminatory alternative (LDA) machine learning model for fair and interpretable binary classification. LDA-XGB1 is developed through biobjective optimization that balances accuracy and fairness, with both objectives formulated using binning and information value. It leverages the predictive power and computational efficiency of XGBoost while ensuring inherent model interpretability, including the enforcement of monotonic constraints. We evaluate LDA-XGB1 on two datasets: SimuCredit, a simulated credit approval dataset, and COMPAS, a real-world recidivism prediction dataset. Our results demonstrate that LDA-XGB1 achieves an effective balance between predictive accuracy, fairness, and interpretability, often outperforming traditional fair lending models. This approach equips financial institutions with a powerful tool to meet regulatory requirements for fair lending while maintaining the advantages of advanced machine learning techniques.

This paper introduces Ali-AUG, a novel single-step diffusion model for efficient labeled data augmentation in industrial applications. Our method addresses the challenge of limited labeled data by generating synthetic, labeled images with precise feature insertion. Ali-AUG utilizes a stable diffusion architecture enhanced with skip connections and LoRA modules to efficiently integrate masks and images, ensuring accurate feature placement without affecting unrelated image content. Experimental validation across various industrial datasets demonstrates Ali-AUG's superiority in generating high-quality, defect-enhanced images while maintaining rapid single-step inference. By offering precise control over feature insertion and minimizing required training steps, our technique significantly enhances data augmentation capabilities, providing a powerful tool for improving the performance of deep learning models in scenarios with limited labeled data. Ali-AUG is especially useful for use cases like defective product image generation to train AI-based models to improve their ability to detect defects in manufacturing processes. Using different data preparation strategies, including Classification Accuracy Score (CAS) and Naive Augmentation Score (NAS), we show that Ali-AUG improves model performance by 31% compared to other augmentation methods and by 45% compared to models without data augmentation. Notably, Ali-AUG reduces training time by 32% and supports both paired and unpaired datasets, enhancing flexibility in data preparation.

The stringent regulatory requirements on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from diesel compression ignition engines require accurate and reliable models for real-time monitoring and diagnostics. Although traditional methods such as physical sensors and virtual engine control module (ECM) sensors provide essential data, they are only used for estimation. Ubiquitous literature primarily focuses on deterministic models with little emphasis on capturing the uncertainties due to sensors. The lack of probabilistic frameworks restricts the applicability of these models for robust diagnostics. The objective of this paper is to develop and validate a probabilistic model to predict engine-out NOx emissions using Gaussian process regression. Our approach is as follows. We employ three variants of Gaussian process models: the first with a standard radial basis function kernel with input window, the second incorporating a deep kernel using convolutional neural networks to capture temporal dependencies, and the third enriching the deep kernel with a causal graph derived via graph convolutional networks. The causal graph embeds physics knowledge into the learning process. All models are compared against a virtual ECM sensor using both quantitative and qualitative metrics. We conclude that our model provides an improvement in predictive performance when using an input window and a deep kernel structure. Even more compelling is the further enhancement achieved by the incorporation of a causal graph into the deep kernel. These findings are corroborated across different validation datasets.

Aligning Large Language Models (LLM) to address subjectivity and nuanced preference levels requires adequate flexibility and control, which can be a resource-intensive and time-consuming procedure. Existing training-time alignment methods require full re-training when a change is needed and inference-time ones typically require access to the reward model at each inference step. To address these limitations, we introduce inference-time model alignment method that learns encoded representations of preference dimensions, called Alignment Vectors (AV). These representations are computed by subtraction of the base model from the aligned model as in model editing enabling dynamically adjusting the model behavior during inference through simple linear operations. Even though the preference dimensions can span various granularity levels, here we focus on three gradual response levels across three specialized domains: medical, legal, and financial, exemplifying its practical potential. This new alignment paradigm introduces adjustable preference knobs during inference, allowing users to tailor their LLM outputs while reducing the inference cost by half compared to the prompt engineering approach. Additionally, we find that AVs are transferable across different fine-tuning stages of the same model, demonstrating their flexibility. AVs also facilitate multidomain, diverse preference alignment, making the process 12x faster than the retraining approach. Aligning LLMs is crucial for adapting them to meet human preferences. Standard training-time alignment methods, such as RLHF (Ouyang et al., 2022) and DPO (Rafailov et al., 2024), are conducted during model training. However, making nuanced preference adjustments during inference with these approaches would necessitate retraining, which requires substantial amounts of time, preference data and computational resources. Inference-time LLM alignment, by contrast, delays the alignment process until inference (Wang et al., 2024). While preference alignment can be achieved through training-time methods or targeted prompting, fine-grained control over preferences at inference remains largely unexplored in current State-of-the-Art (SOTA) works (Sahoo et al., 2024; Guo et al., 2024).

Large language models (LLMs) are trained on vast amounts of data to generate natural language, enabling them to perform tasks like text summarization and question answering. These models have become popular in artificial intelligence (AI) assistants like ChatGPT and already play an influential role in how humans access information. However, the behavior of LLMs varies depending on their design, training, and use. In this paper, we uncover notable diversity in the ideological stance exhibited across different LLMs and languages in which they are accessed. We do this by prompting a diverse panel of popular LLMs to describe a large number of prominent and controversial personalities from recent world history, both in English and in Chinese. By identifying and analyzing moral assessments reflected in the generated descriptions, we find consistent normative differences between how the same LLM responds in Chinese compared to English. Similarly, we identify normative disagreements between Western and non-Western LLMs about prominent actors in geopolitical conflicts. Furthermore, popularly hypothesized disparities in political goals among Western models are reflected in significant normative differences related to inclusion, social inequality, and political scandals. Our results show that the ideological stance of an LLM often reflects the worldview of its creators. This raises important concerns around technological and regulatory efforts with the stated aim of making LLMs ideologically `unbiased', and it poses risks for political instrumentalization.

With models getting stronger, evaluations have grown more complex, testing multiple skills in one benchmark and even in the same instance at once. However, skill-wise performance is obscured when inspecting aggregate accuracy, under-utilizing the rich signal modern benchmarks contain. We propose an automatic approach to recover the underlying skills relevant for any evaluation instance, by way of inspecting model-generated rationales. After validating the relevance of rationale-parsed skills and inferring skills for $46$k instances over $12$ benchmarks, we observe many skills to be common across benchmarks, resulting in the curation of hundreds of skill-slices (i.e. sets of instances testing a common skill). Inspecting accuracy over these slices yields novel insights on model trade-offs: e.g., compared to GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, on average, Gemini 1.5 Pro is $18\%$ more accurate in "computing molar mass", but $19\%$ less accurate in "applying constitutional law", despite the overall accuracies of the three models differing by a mere $0.4\%$. Furthermore, we demonstrate the practical utility of our approach by showing that insights derived from skill slice analysis can generalize to held-out instances: when routing each instance to the model strongest on the relevant skills, we see a $3\%$ accuracy improvement over our $12$ dataset corpus. Our skill-slices and framework open a new avenue in model evaluation, leveraging skill-specific analyses to unlock a more granular and actionable understanding of model capabilities.

Pricing algorithms have demonstrated the capability to learn tacit collusion that is largely unaddressed by current regulations. Their increasing use in markets, including oligopolistic industries with a history of collusion, calls for closer examination by competition authorities. In this paper, we extend the study of tacit collusion in learning algorithms from basic pricing games to more complex markets characterized by perishable goods with fixed supply and sell-by dates, such as airline tickets, perishables, and hotel rooms. We formalize collusion within this framework and introduce a metric based on price levels under both the competitive (Nash) equilibrium and collusive (monopolistic) optimum. Since no analytical expressions for these price levels exist, we propose an efficient computational approach to derive them. Through experiments, we demonstrate that deep reinforcement learning agents can learn to collude in this more complex domain. Additionally, we analyze the underlying mechanisms and structures of the collusive strategies these agents adopt.

The emergence of diffusion models has transformed synthetic media generation, offering unmatched realism and control over content creation. These advancements have driven innovation across fields such as art, design, and scientific visualization. However, they also introduce significant ethical and societal challenges, particularly through the creation of hyper-realistic images that can facilitate deepfakes, misinformation, and unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted material. In response, the need for effective detection mechanisms has become increasingly urgent. This review examines the evolving adversarial relationship between diffusion model development and the advancement of detection methods. We present a thorough analysis of contemporary detection strategies, including frequency and spatial domain techniques, deep learning-based approaches, and hybrid models that combine multiple methodologies. We also highlight the importance of diverse datasets and standardized evaluation metrics in improving detection accuracy and generalizability. Our discussion explores the practical applications of these detection systems in copyright protection, misinformation prevention, and forensic analysis, while also addressing the ethical implications of synthetic media. Finally, we identify key research gaps and propose future directions to enhance the robustness and adaptability of detection methods in line with the rapid advancements of diffusion models. This review emphasizes the necessity of a comprehensive approach to mitigating the risks associated with AI-generated content in an increasingly digital world.

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Lindsey Graham is demanding answers on reporting that British International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan was accused of sexual misconduct at the same time he was pursuing criminal charges against Israeli officials. "Public reports indicate that allegations of harassment surfaced in early May--just a few days before Prosecutor Khan applied for arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Israel for alleged violations of law during the defensive Israeli-Hamas War," Graham wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. "The timing of the allegations is troubling, and only compounds the other strong legal, jurisdictional, and prudential objections I have expressed regarding the Prosecutor's decision to seek arrest warrants." On May 20, Khan requested arrest warrants for Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif. All three Hamas leaders have been killed in the past year.

The mother of a teenager who killed himself after becoming obsessed with an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot now accuses its maker of complicity in his death. Megan Garcia filed a civil suit against Character.ai, Her son Sewell Setzer III, 14, died in Orlando, Florida, in February. In the months leading up to his death, Setzer used the chatbot day and night, according to Garcia. "A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life," Garcia said in a press release.