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Decision-Aware Training for Sample-Based Generative Models
Raeth, Kornelius, Ludwig, Nicole
Kornelius Raeth 1 Nicole Ludwig 1 2 Abstractscoring rules distribute the training gradient in proportion to Sample-based generative models are increasingly data density, with no awareness of the decision maker's cost structure. The model's limited capacity is allocated globused for probabilistic forecasting in high-stakes ally, leaving decision-critical regions of the output space decision settings, yet their training objectives are potentially underserved. These models are commonly trained with strictly proper Given a forecast, a decision maker with cost function c(a,y), scoring rules, such as the energy score, which al-of action aand outcome y, selects the action that minimises locate their training signal in proportion to dataexpected cost under the forecast distribution; a point forecast density, with no awareness of where forecast eris insufficient to evaluate this expectation. A good forecast rors are most costly for downstream decisions. Crucially, the energy score objective with a differentiable deci-observed cost of the optimal action is itself a proper scoring sion loss that directly penalises the cost incurredrule (Hartline et al., 2025; Kleinberg et al., 2023), placing by acting on the model's forecast. This combinedit in the same family as the energy score which licenses loss is theoretically grounded, as the decision losstheir combination as a theoretically well-founded training is itself a proper scoring rule. Introduction score acts as that anchor, preventing the model from collapsing outside cost-sensitive regions. Our method is theo-tion based on a temperature forecast, balancing asset loss against the cost of intervention. In the weather domain, retically grounded and leads to better downstream decisions state-of-the-art forecasting systems (Lang et al., 2024; Pricewhile retaining full probabilistic forecasts, as validated on et al., 2023) are trained with strictly proper scoring rulessynthetic and real-world forecasting tasks. A gradient analysis showing which regions benefitscore reduces to the continuous ranked probability score from the decision loss and why, based on the cost (CRPS), widely used in meteorological forecast verificafunction structure. Both model classes introduced above are commonly trained by minimising strictly proper sion calibration.
Deep Multitask Learning for Mixed-Type Outcomes with Shared Sparsity
Li, Huichao, Wang, Tong, Zhang, Sanguo, Ma, Shuangge
Most existing multitask learning approaches are limited by their reliance on task-specific loss functions tailored to the scale and type of each outcome. When outcomes differ across tasks, these losses are generally not directly comparable, which makes it difficult to formulate a unified objective and may limit information sharing across tasks. We propose a multitask transformation framework in which task-specific responses may differ through unknown monotone transformations. Motivated by high-dimensional biological applications in which the predictor dimension may diverge with the sample size while only a common subset of predictors is informative, we consider shared sparsity across tasks. Under this framework, we estimate the target functions and identify important predictors by optimizing a smoothed rank-based criterion with a group-Lasso penalty, implemented through a multitask deep neural network with a shared first layer. We establish the nonasymptotic excess-risk bounds, and variable-selection consistency for the proposed estimator. Simulation studies show that the proposed method achieves competitive prediction and variable-selection performance compared with competing approaches. Analyses of gene-expression studies with continuous, binary, and mixed outcomes further illustrate that the proposed method improves prediction and identifies biologically meaningful shared predictors.
Ghost in the Kernel: In-Context Learning with Efficient Transformers via Domain Generalization
Transformer-based large models have demonstrated remarkable generalization abilities across different tasks by leveraging a context-aware attention module for in-context learning. With richer context, transformers adapt more effectively to the current use case without any parameter updates. However, the quadratic computational and memory complexity with respect to context length significantly slows data processing in softmax transformers. Linear transformers were proposed to address this issue by reducing the complexity to linear dependence on context length, but the design and understanding of the feature mapping in linear attention, from a theoretical viewpoint, remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate the approximation and generalization abilities of linear transformers under a two-staged sampling process from domain generalization. We show that linear transformers perform in-context learning as learning a mapping from context distributions to response functions. A dimension-independent convergence rate is obtained for our generalization analysis, which also exhibits the tradeoff between the regularities of data distributions and latent features. Guided by our theoretical framework, we propose a new perspective on activation and loss design for linearizing pretrained softmax large language models.
Prototype Language Models
Ley, Dan, Nguyen, Giang, Lakkaraju, Himabindu, Adebayo, Julius
Knowing which training examples drive outputs is fundamental to auditing, correcting, and understanding language models, yet for modern LLMs this remains expensive, approximate, and largely post-hoc. Standard language models generate tokens through a dense network pathway, causing training data's influence to be distributed across parameters rather than organized along explicit, traceable components. We introduce a prototype language model architecture, Prototypes for Interpretable Sequence Modeling (PRISM), that forms each prediction via a sparse, non-negative mixture of learned prototypes, trained with clustering objectives that anchor each prototype to coherent neighborhoods of training examples. Across architectures from 130M to 1.6B parameters trained on up to 50B tokens, prototype language models either surpass or remain within 2.5 percentage points on average downstream accuracy of matched dense baselines. We show that sparse prototype structure localizes curvature in the loss landscape, yielding a more tractable Hessian and enabling training data attribution that is ~500x faster than post hoc baselines when consuming equivalent memory. Calibrating linear prototype controllers can improve downstream accuracy by roughly 3 points while tracing those corrections back to training neighborhoods, and targeted prototype suppression can remove model behaviors without finetuning or measurable loss in generation quality.
Active-GRPO: Adaptive Imitation and Self-Improving Reasoning for Molecular Optimization
Liu, Xuefeng, Cao, Mingxuan, Huang, Qinan, Brettin, Thomas, Stevens, Rick, Cong, Le
Scientific reasoning is an increasingly important capability of large language models, yet improving the robustness and efficiency of training such reasoning remains a key open challenge. We study this problem in instruction-based molecular optimization, where answer-only supervised fine-tuning (SFT) collapses multi-step reasoning and reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) suffers from sparse feedback. Reference-guided Policy Optimization (RePO) mitigates both by anchoring policy updates to dataset-provided references, but its effectiveness is tightly coupled to reference quality: weak or misaligned references impose a performance ceiling. To overcome this ceiling, we propose active reasoning, a paradigm in which the policy actively decides, on a per-instance basis, when to imitate a reference and when to reinforce its own discoveries, while continuously upgrading what it imitates. We instantiate this paradigm as Active Group Relative Policy Optimization (Active-GRPO), realized through two coupled mechanisms: active imitate-reinforce and active referencing. The former performs imitation learning when the reference still outperforms the policy's own candidates, and shifts to self-improvement via reinforcement learning once the policy has generated molecules that surpass the reference. The latter continuously upgrades the reference itself by replacing it with the best policy-generated candidate discovered so far, progressively raising the imitation target and ensuring that reference guidance remains informative--rather than restrictive--throughout training. Across TOMG-Bench MOLOPT, Active-GRPO improves average SR Sim from 0.0959 for GRPO and 0.1665 for RePO to 0.1773 under matched three-seed evaluation, with statistically significant gains on LogP, MR, and QED.
Convolutional Symmetric AutoEncoders: enhancing latent stability via differential geometry
Causi, G. Li, Tonicello, N., Magri, L., Rozza, G.
Autoencoders (AEs) have emerged as powerful tools for non-linear dimensionality reduction, often surpassing traditional linear methods such as Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) in scenarios characterized by slowly decaying Kolmogorov $n$-widths. In the realm of Reduced-Order Modelling (ROM), these models are increasingly utilized to learn low-dimensional representations of solution manifolds associated with parametric Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). However, the high expressivity of AEs presents a challenge: although trained networks typically minimize reconstruction error, they often struggle to capture the essential properties necessary for building accurate and robust ROMs. Recent works by arXiv:2307.15288v2 and arXiv:2506.11641v1 have tackled this challenge in fully connected AEs by proposing representation-consistent architectures, which preserve some of the properties belonging to POD. This study builds upon that concept by extending representation consistency for convolutional layers. We introduce a novel class of symmetric Convolutional AutoEncoders (CAEs) designed to embody the primary properties of manifold parametrization mappings. When integrated into a ROM framework, this architecture demonstrates significantly improved predictive capabilities. Specifically, we compared the performance of the ROMs based on classical and symmetric CAEs on three one dimensional academic test cases, namely the Linear Advection, the Viscous Burger and the Kuramoto Sivashinsky equation. Numerical results demonstrate that our proposed symmetric approach consistently yields more accurate latent trajectories, lower reconstruction errors, and enhanced model robustness.
AI summaries of Tripadvisor hotel reviews downplay serious complaints, investigation finds
Travel, said users should'scroll past these summaries and look at guest reviews'. Travel, said users should'scroll past these summaries and look at guest reviews'. AI-generated overview found to gloss over allegations of sexual harassment and describes hotel being sued over hygiene as'spotless' A hotel being sued for mass food poisonings was described as "spotless" and a resort where guests complained of sexual harassment by staff was praised for "friendly" service by an AI intended to summarise millions of Tripadvisor reviews. The overviews of customer feedback downplayed serious complaints, ranging from the stench of mould to a lack of mains water, according to an investigation by the consumer campaign organisation Which? The AI-generated reviews appear on the travel website's hotel webpages to help holidaymakers decide where to book.
US signs 1 lease with Israel to build permanent embassy in West Jerusalem
The US and Israel have signed a deal allocating land for a permanent US embassy in West Jerusalem, years after a temporary one was established during Trump's first term in office. The move is yet another blow to the hopes of a future Palestinian capital. How AI is being weaponised against India's Muslim women