Online services rely on CAPTCHAs as a first line of defense against automated abuse, yet recent advances in multi-modal large language models (MLLMs) have eroded the effectiveness of conventional designs that focus on text recognition or 2D image understanding. To address this challenge, we present Spatial CAPTCHA, a novel human-verification framework that leverages fundamental differences in spatial reasoning between humans and MLLMs. Unlike existing CAPTCHAs which rely on low-level perception tasks that are vulnerable to modern AI, Spatial CAPTCHA generates dynamic questions requiring geometric reasoning, perspective-taking, occlusion handling, and mental rotation. These skills are intuitive for humans but difficult for state-of-the-art (SOTA) AI systems. The system employs a procedural generation pipeline with constraint-based difficulty control, automated correctness verification, and human-in-the-loop validation to ensure scalability, robustness, and adaptability. Evaluation on a corresponding benchmark, Spatial-CAPTCHA-Bench, demonstrates that humans vastly outperform 10 state-of-the-art MLLMs, with the best model achieving only 31.0% Pass@1 accuracy. Furthermore, we compare Spatial CAPTCHA with Google reCAPTCHA, which confirms its effectiveness as both a security mechanism and a diagnostic tool for spatial reasoning in AI.

Ensuring that critical IoT systems function safely and smoothly depends a lot on finding anomalies quickly. As more complex systems, like smart healthcare, energy grids and industrial automation, appear, it is easier to see the shortcomings of older methods of detection. Monitoring failures usually happen in dynamic, high dimensional situations, especially when data is incomplete, messy or always evolving. Such limits point out the requirement for adaptive, intelligent systems that always improve and think. LLMs are now capable of significantly changing how context is understood and semantic inference is done across all types of data. This proposal suggests using an LLM supported contextual reasoning method along with XAI agents to improve how anomalies are found in significant IoT environments. To discover hidden patterns and notice inconsistencies in data streams, it uses attention methods, avoids dealing with details from every time step and uses memory buffers with meaning. Because no code AI stresses transparency and interpretability, people can check and accept the AI's decisions, helping ensure AI follows company policies. The two architectures are put together in a test that compares the results of the traditional model with those of the suggested LLM enhanced model. Important measures to check are the accuracy of detection, how much inaccurate information is included in the results, how clearly the findings can be read and how fast the system responds under different test situations. The metaheuristic is tested in simulations of real world smart grid and healthcare contexts to check its adaptability and reliability. From the study, we see that the new approach performs much better than most existing models in both accuracy and interpretation, so it could be a good fit for future anomaly detection tasks in IoT

Background: Pleural Effusions (PE) is a common finding in many different clinical conditions, but accurately measuring their volume from CT scans is challenging. Purpose: To improve PE segmentation and quantification for enhanced clinical management, we have developed and trained a semi-supervised deep learning framework on contrast-enhanced CT volumes. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study collected CT Pulmonary Angiogram (CTPA) data from internal and external datasets. A subset of 100 cases was manually annotated for model training, while the remaining cases were used for testing and validation. A novel semi-supervised deep learning framework, Teacher-Teaching Assistant-Student (TTAS), was developed and used to enable efficient training in non-segmented examinations. Segmentation performance was compared to that of state-of-the-art models. Results: 100 patients (mean age, 72 years, 28 [standard deviation]; 55 men) were included in the study. The TTAS model demonstrated superior segmentation performance compared to state-of-the-art models, achieving a mean Dice score of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.79 - 0.84) versus 0.73 for nnU-Net (p < 0.0001, Student's T test). Additionally, TTAS exhibited a four-fold lower mean Absolute Volume Difference (AbVD) of 6.49 mL (95% CI, 4.80 - 8.20) compared to nnU-Net's AbVD of 23.16 mL (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The developed TTAS framework offered superior PE segmentation, aiding accurate volume determination from CT scans.

Designing system algorithms remains challenging, where the discontinuous nature of the solution space often forces system engineers to rely on generic heuristics at the expense of performance. We study whether LLMs can practically drive algorithm generation, and find that they are biased towards well-known generic designs, rather than making the creative leaps needed to navigate the discontinuous solution space. To address this limitation, we introduce MetaMuse, a framework for creative ideation built on three self-reflection principles: (1) quantifying solution diversity and usefulness in measurable performance space, rather than abstract idea space, (2) steering ideation through external stimuli, rather than internal randomness, and (3) constructing executable solutions using waypoint reasoning, rather than free-form chain-of-thought. Extensive evaluation shows that MetaMuse can generate high-performing solutions for two critical problems at a global cloud provider: cache replacement (reducing cache misses by up to 35.76%) and online bin packing (reducing bin usage by up to 30.93%).

Small language models (SLMs; 1-12B params, sometimes up to 20B) are sufficient and often superior for agentic workloads where the objective is schema- and API-constrained accuracy rather than open-ended generation. We synthesize recent evidence across open and proprietary SLMs (Phi-4-Mini, Qwen-2.5-7B, Gemma-2-9B, Llama-3.2-1B/3B, Ministral-3B/8B, Apple on-device 3B, DeepSeek-R1-Distill) and connect it to modern evaluations (BFCL v3/v4, StableToolBench) and serving stacks (vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT-LLM) paired with guided decoding libraries (XGrammar, Outlines). We formalize SLM-default, LLM-fallback systems with uncertainty-aware routing and verifier cascades, and propose engineering metrics that reflect real production goals: cost per successful task (CPS), schema validity rate, executable call rate, p50/p95 latency, and energy per request. Guided decoding, strict JSON Schema outputs, and validator-first tool execution close much of the capability gap with larger models and often let SLMs match or surpass LLMs on tool use, function calling, and RAG at 10x-100x lower token cost with materially better latency and energy. We provide design patterns for agent stacks that prioritize SLMs: schema-first prompting, type-safe function registries, confidence scoring with verifier rollups, and lightweight adaptation via LoRA/QLoRA. We also delineate limits where fallback remains valuable (open-domain reasoning and some long-horizon planning). The result is a practical blueprint for building fast, inexpensive, and reliable agents that default to SLMs while preserving headroom with targeted LLM assistance. Keywords: small language models, agents, function calling, structured outputs, JSON Schema, guided decoding, LoRA/QLoRA, routing, energy efficiency, edge inference

Objective: Electronic health records (EHR) data are prone to missingness and errors. Previously, we devised an "enriched" chart review protocol where a "roadmap" of auxiliary diagnoses (anchors) was used to recover missing values in EHR data (e.g., a diagnosis of impaired glycemic control might imply that a missing hemoglobin A1c value would be considered unhealthy). Still, chart reviews are expensive and time-intensive, which limits the number of patients whose data can be reviewed. Now, we investigate the accuracy and scalability of a roadmap-driven algorithm, based on ICD-10 codes (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision), to mimic expert chart reviews and recover missing values. Materials and Methods: In addition to the clinicians' original roadmap from our previous work, we consider new versions that were iteratively refined using large language models (LLM) in conjunction with clinical expertise to expand the list of auxiliary diagnoses. Using chart reviews for 100 patients from the EHR at an extensive learning health system, we examine algorithm performance with different roadmaps. Using the larger study of $1000$ patients, we applied the final algorithm, which used a roadmap with clinician-approved additions from the LLM. Results: The algorithm recovered as much, if not more, missing data as the expert chart reviewers, depending on the roadmap. Discussion: Clinically-driven algorithms (enhanced by LLM) can recover missing EHR data with similar accuracy to chart reviews and can feasibly be applied to large samples. Extending them to monitor other dimensions of data quality (e.g., plausability) is a promising future direction.

Manually editing pasted code is a long-standing developer pain point. In internal software development at Google, we observe that code is pasted 4 times more often than it is manually typed. These paste actions frequently require follow-up edits, ranging from simple reformatting and renaming to more complex style adjustments and cross-language translations. Prior work has shown deep learning can be used to predict these edits. In this work, we show how to iteratively develop and scale Smart Paste, an IDE feature for post-paste edit suggestions, to Google's development environment. This experience can serve as a guide for AI practitioners on a holistic approach to feature development, covering user experience, system integration, and model capabilities. Since deployment, Smart Paste has had overwhelmingly positive feedback with a 45% acceptance rate. At Google's enterprise scale, these accepted suggestions account substantially for over 1% of all code written company-wide.

This position paper presents A4FN, an Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) architecture for intent-driven automation in Flying Networks (FNs) using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as access nodes. A4FN leverages Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to enable real-time, context-aware network control via a distributed agentic system. It comprises two components: the Perception Agent (PA), which semantically interprets multimodal input -- including imagery, audio, and telemetry data -- from UAV-mounted sensors to derive Service Level Specifications (SLSs); and the Decision-and-Action Agent (DAA), which reconfigures the network based on inferred intents. A4FN embodies key properties of Agentic AI, including autonomy, goal-driven reasoning, and continuous perception-action cycles. Designed for mission-critical, infrastructure-limited scenarios such as disaster response, it supports adaptive reconfiguration, dynamic resource management, and interoperability with emerging wireless technologies. The paper details the A4FN architecture, its core innovations, and open research challenges in multi-agent coordination and Agentic AI integration in next-generation FNs.

Abstract: Addressing the core problem of insufficient trustworthiness in industrial fault diagnosis, stemming from the limitations of existing methods -- both traditional and deep learning - based -- in terms of interpretability, generalization, and uncertainty quantification, this paper proposes a trustworthy industrial fault diagnosis architecture, the Hierarchical Cognitive Arbitration Architecture (HCAA), which integrates probabilistic models with Large Language Models (LLMs). The architecture conducts a preliminary analysis via a diagnostic engine based on a Bayesian network and features an LLM - driven cognitive arbitration module with multimodal input capabilities. This module performs expert - level arbitration on the initial diagnosis by analyzing structured features and diagnostic charts, holding the priority to make the final decision upon detecting conflicts. To ensure the reliability of the system's output, the architecture integrates a confidence calibration module based on Temperature Scaling and a risk assessment module, which objectively quantify system trustworthiness using metrics like Expected Calibration Error (ECE). Experimental results on a dataset containing multiple fault types demonstrate that the proposed framework improves diagnostic accuracy by over 28 percentage points compared to baseline models, while the post - calibration ECE is reduced by more than 75%. Case studies confirm that the HCAA effectively corrects misjudgments from traditional models caused by complex feature patterns or knowledge gaps, providing a novel and practical engineering solution for building high - trust, explainable AI diagnostic systems for industrial applications. Keywords: Industrial Fault Diagnosis; Large Language Model (LLM); Hierarchical Cognitive Arbitration; Probabilistic Model; Confidence Calibration; Trustworthy AI 1. Introduction With the deep development of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing concepts, modern industrial systems are evolving towards high levels of automation and intelligence. In this process, the reliability and safety of equipment have become key factors determining production efficiency and operational costs. Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), as a core technology, plays an indispensable role in improving equipment reliability, reducing unplanned downtime, and optimizing maintenance costs by monitoring equipment status in real - time, diagnosing potential faults, and predicting remaining useful life [1], [2].

Denoising is a core operation in modern video pipelines. In codecs, in-loop filters suppress sensor noise and quantisation artefacts to improve rate-distortion performance; in cinema post-production, denoisers are used for restoration, grain management, and plate clean-up. However, state-of-the-art deep denoisers are computationally intensive and, at scale, are typically deployed on GPUs, incurring high power and cost for real-time, high-resolution streams. This paper presents Real-Time Denoise (ReTiDe), a hardware-accelerated denoising system that serves inference on data-centre Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). A compact convolutional model is quantised (post-training quantisation plus quantisation-aware fine-tuning) to INT8 and compiled for AMD Deep Learning Processor Unit (DPU)-based FPGAs. A client-server integration offloads computation from the host CPU/GPU to a networked FPGA service, while remaining callable from existing workflows, e.g., NUKE, without disrupting artist tooling. On representative benchmarks, ReTiDe delivers 37.71$\times$ Giga Operations Per Second (GOPS) throughput and 5.29$\times$ higher energy efficiency than prior FPGA denoising accelerators, with negligible degradation in Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR)/Structural Similarity Index (SSIM). These results indicate that specialised accelerators can provide practical, scalable denoising for both encoding pipelines and post-production, reducing energy per frame without sacrificing quality or workflow compatibility. Code is available at https://github.com/RCSL-TCD/ReTiDe.