Media
Decomposing Attention To Find Context-Sensitive Neurons
We study transformer language models, analyzing attention heads whose attention patterns are spread out, and whose attention scores depend weakly on content. We argue that the softmax denominators of these heads are stable when the underlying token distribution is fixed. By sampling softmax denominators from a "calibration text", we can combine together the outputs of multiple such stable heads in the first layer of GPT2-Small, approximating their combined output by a linear summary of the surrounding text. This approximation enables a procedure where from the weights alone - and a single calibration text - we can uncover hundreds of first layer neurons that respond to high-level contextual properties of the surrounding text, including neurons that didn't activate on the calibration text.
Can AI agents understand spoken conversations about data visualizations in online meetings?
Sharma, Rizul, Jiang, Tianyu, Lee, Seokki, Aurisano, Jillian
In this short paper, we present work evaluating an AI agent's understanding of spoken conversations about data visualizations in an online meeting scenario. There is growing interest in the development of AI-assistants that support meetings, such as by providing assistance with tasks or summarizing a discussion. The quality of this support depends on a model that understands the conversational dialogue. To evaluate this understanding, we introduce a dual-axis testing framework for diagnosing the AI agent's comprehension of spoken conversations about data. Using this framework, we designed a series of tests to evaluate understanding of a novel corpus of 72 spoken conversational dialogues about data visualizations. We examine diverse pipelines and model architectures, LLM vs VLM, and diverse input formats for visualizations (the chart image, its underlying source code, or a hybrid of both) to see how this affects model performance on our tests. Using our evaluation methods, we found that text-only input modalities achieved the best performance (96%) in understanding discussions of visualizations in online meetings.
HNote: Extending YNote with Hexadecimal Encoding for Fine-Tuning LLMs in Music Modeling
Chu, Hung-Ying, Wei, Shao-Yu, Chen, Guan-Wei, Hung, Tzu-Wei, Tsai, ChengYang, Lin, Yu-Cheng
Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have created new opportunities for symbolic music generation. However, existing formats such as MIDI, ABC, and MusicXML are either overly complex or structurally inconsistent, limiting their suitability for token-based learning architectures. To address these challenges, we propose HNote, a novel hexadecimal-based notation system extended from YNote, which encodes both pitch and duration within a fixed 32-unit measure framework. This design ensures alignment, reduces ambiguity, and is directly compatible with LLM architectures. We converted 12,300 Jiangnan-style songs generated from traditional folk pieces from YNote into HNote, and fine-tuned LLaMA-3.1(8B) using parameter-efficient LoRA. Experimental results show that HNote achieves a syntactic correctness rate of 82.5%, and BLEU and ROUGE evaluations demonstrate strong symbolic and structural similarity, producing stylistically coherent compositions. This study establishes HNote as an effective framework for integrating LLMs with cultural music modeling.
MedEBench: Diagnosing Reliability in Text-Guided Medical Image Editing
Liu, Minghao, He, Zhitao, Fan, Zhiyuan, Wang, Qingyun, Fung, Yi R.
Text-guided image editing has seen significant progress in natural image domains, but its application in medical imaging remains limited and lacks standardized evaluation frameworks. Such editing could revolutionize clinical practices by enabling personalized surgical planning, enhancing medical education, and improving patient communication. To bridge this gap, we introduce MedEBench1, a robust benchmark designed to diagnose reliability in text-guided medical image editing. MedEBench consists of 1,182 clinically curated image-prompt pairs covering 70 distinct editing tasks and 13 anatomical regions. It contributes in three key areas: (1) a clinically grounded evaluation framework that measures Editing Accuracy, Context Preservation, and Visual Quality, complemented by detailed descriptions of intended edits and corresponding Region-of-Interest (ROI) masks; (2) a comprehensive comparison of seven state-of-theart models, revealing consistent patterns of failure; and (3) a diagnostic error analysis technique that leverages attention alignment, using Intersection-over-Union (IoU) between model attention maps and ROI masks to identify mislocalization issues, where models erroneously focus on incorrect anatomical regions. MedEBench sets the stage for developing more reliable and clinically effective text-guided medical image editing tools.
China bets on Europe for self-driving tech expansion
MUNICH - Blocked from the U.S. market, Chinese self-driving technology firms are accelerating their push into Europe, setting up headquarters, striking data deals and road-testing -- prompting alarm from local rivals over competition concerns. In China, the world's largest car market, more than half of cars sold -- including many entry-level models -- now offer autonomous driving technology, sometimes as standard. Beijing is pushing its companies to dominate autonomous-vehicle development globally while crafting national regulations to provide a clear roadmap at home. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
AMD's shares surge on deal to supply AI chips to OpenAI
AMD's shares surge on deal to supply AI chips to OpenAI United States chipmaker AMD will supply artificial intelligence chips to OpenAI in a multi-year deal that would bring in tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give the ChatGPT creator the option to buy up to roughly 10 percent of the company. Shares of the chipmaker surged more than 34 percent on Monday when the deal was announced, putting them on track for their biggest one-day gain in more than nine years and adding roughly $80bn to the company's market value. "We view this deal as certainly transformative, not just for AMD, but for the dynamics of the industry," AMD executive vice president Forrest Norrod told the Reuters news agency. The agreement closely ties the startup at the centre of the AI boom to AMD, one of the strongest rivals of Nvidia, which recently agreed to make substantial investments in OpenAI. Analysts said it was a significant vote of confidence in AMD's AI chips and software but is unlikely to dent Nvidia's dominance, as the market leader continues to sell every AI chip it can make.
WIRED Roundup: The New Fake World of OpenAI's Social Video App
On this episode of, we break down some of the week's best stories, covering everything from Peter Thiel's obsession with the Antichrist to the launch of OpenAI's new Sora 2 video app. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. In today's episode, Zoรซ Schiffer is joined by WIRED's senior culture editor Manisha Krishnan to run through five of the best stories we published this week--from how federal workers are being told to blame Democrats for the government shutdown to Peter Thiel's ongoing obsession with the Antichrist. Then, Zoรซ and Manisha break down the news of OpenAI launching a new social app for AI-generated videos. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Today on the show, we're bringing you five stories that you need to know about this week. Including our scoop of how OpenAI just launched a social app dedicated completely to AI-generated videos. I'm joined today by our Senior Culture Editor, Manisha Krishnan. Our first story is about the thing that I feel like our whole newsroom is talking about, possibly the whole country is talking about.
I've seen AI try to ESCAPE labs. The apocalypse is already here... and our children will be the first victims
America's richest real estate tycoon disowns son with shockingly icy 12-word statement after'man cave' plans went terribly wrong Horrific stab wounds suffered by grease truck driver, 69, 'stabbed by Mark Sanchez' with NFL star facing up to six years in prison Taylor Swift makes surprise confession on her song'about ex Joe Alwyn' as she insists fans have'always had the wrong idea' about it Sinister notes that are plaguing remote county explodes as fears mount over creepy messages: 'What else could they do?' Key North Atlantic current is on the brink of COLLAPSING - plunging Europe into a'Little Ice Age', scientists warn Visionary billionaire died in a suspicious house fire. Then a mysterious will emerged... CBS staff in panic as anti-woke firebrand Bari Weiss takes control with no-nonsense show on America's most divisive issues Trump's war room plots savage bloodbath as countdown enters final hours: Live updates Trump sends Navy officers wild with powerful message to liberals claiming he's'unwell' We got hopelessly hooked on a trendy'wellness' tonic. We thought it was harmless but our descent into addiction left us depressed, in debt... and in rehab Judge speaks out after her $1.5m mansion'exploded' in suspected arson attack after she defied Trump order Mark Sanchez's alleged victim's family breaks silence as grim photos emerge after violent attack So many women suffer bloated, uncomfortable guts, says DR EMILY LEEMING. Here's the 7 simple cures I give my patients - you won't have read these before My son made a horrifying accusation about me in therapy... it's destroyed our relationship: DEAR JANE Ex-NFL star Mark Sanchez'thought he'd been shot and pounded on window of pub to get help', bartender reveals Nicole Kidman's friends tear into Keith Urban over bombshell split: 'Total 180 on who he is' Real Housewives of Atlanta vet Porsha Williams reveals she is dating a woman... after ex Simon was deported by ICE US billionaire retail estate tycoon is ordered to sell off his'exceptional' ยฃ36million London mansion in bitter divorce battle with ex-wife My husband works in Dubai and has cheated on me at least three times so far.
AI now sounds more like us โ should we be concerned?
AI now sounds more like us - should we be concerned? Several wealthy Italian businessmen received a surprising phone call earlier this year. The speaker, who sounded just like Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, had a special request: Please send money to help us free kidnapped Italian journalists in the Middle East. But it was not Crosetto at the end of the line. He only learned about the calls when several of the targeted businessmen contacted him about them.
The Download: introducing the 10 climate tech companies to watch for 2025
Every year, the newsroom produces a list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. It's an exercise that we hope brings positive attention to companies working to decarbonize major sectors of the economy, whether by spinning up new, cleaner sources of energy or reinventing how we produce foods and distribute goods. Though the political and funding landscape has shifted dramatically in the US since last year, nothing has altered the urgency of the climate dangers the world now faces--we need to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. This project highlights the firms making progress toward that end. Check out the third annual edition of the list, and learn more about why we selected these companies . It's a foregone conclusion that the world will not meet the goals for limiting emissions and global warming laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.