Personal Assistant Systems
Mapping Transformer Leveraged Embeddings for Cross-Lingual Document Representation
Tashu, Tsegaye Misikir, Kontos, Eduard-Raul, Sabatelli, Matthia, Valdenegro-Toro, Matias
The rapid expansion of online information from diverse sources and the growing multilingual nature of the web underscore the escalating significance of information retrieval (IR) and recommender systems (RS). Today's web is no longer limited to a single language, but is increasingly rich in multiple languages, mirroring the multilingual capacities of its global users Steichen et al. [2014], Tashu et al. [2023]. This diversity highlights the urgent need for cross-lingual recommender systems. Traditional recommender systems often prioritize content in a single language, sidelining a wealth of multilingual documents that may hold valuable insights. This gap leads to the emergence of cross-language information access, where recommender systems suggest items in different languages based on user queries Lops et al. [2010], Narducci et al. [2016], Salamon et al. [2021]. Machine Learning and Deep Learning, which have significantly impacted language representation and processing, are pivotal to enhancing information retrieval and recommender systems, especially in the realm of document recom-The result presented in this work is based on Eduard-Raul Kontos's bachelor project while he was at the University of Groningen
Improving Graph Convolutional Networks with Transformer Layer in social-based items recommendation
Hoang, Thi Linh, Pham, Tuan Dung, Ta, Viet Cuong
In this work, we have proposed an approach for improving the GCN for predicting ratings in social networks. Our model is expanded from the standard model with several layers of transformer architecture. The main focus of the paper is on the encoder architecture for node embedding in the network. Using the embedding layer from the graph-based convolution layer, the attention mechanism could rearrange the feature space to get a more efficient embedding for the downstream task. The experiments showed that our proposed architecture achieves better performance than GCN on the traditional link prediction task.
A Comprehensive Survey of Evaluation Techniques for Recommendation Systems
The effectiveness of recommendation systems is pivotal to user engagement and satisfaction in online platforms. As these recommendation systems increasingly influence user choices, their evaluation transcends mere technical performance and becomes central to business success. This paper addresses the multifaceted nature of recommendations system evaluation by introducing a comprehensive suite of metrics, each tailored to capture a distinct aspect of system performance. We discuss * Similarity Metrics: to quantify the precision of content-based filtering mechanisms and assess the accuracy of collaborative filtering techniques. * Candidate Generation Metrics: to evaluate how effectively the system identifies a broad yet relevant range of items. * Predictive Metrics: to assess the accuracy of forecasted user preferences. * Ranking Metrics: to evaluate the effectiveness of the order in which recommendations are presented. * Business Metrics: to align the performance of the recommendation system with economic objectives. Our approach emphasizes the contextual application of these metrics and their interdependencies. In this paper, we identify the strengths and limitations of current evaluation practices and highlight the nuanced trade-offs that emerge when optimizing recommendation systems across different metrics. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for selecting and interpreting these metrics to not only improve system performance but also to advance business goals. This work is to aid researchers and practitioners in critically assessing recommendation systems and fosters the development of more nuanced, effective, and economically viable personalization strategies. Our code is available at GitHub - https://github.com/aryan-jadon/Evaluation-Metrics-for-Recommendation-Systems.
Samsung's adorable Ballie robot will roll right into your heart
Samsung showed off a remodeled Ballie, a sunshine-yellow autonomously driving robot, at CES 2024. Described as an "at-home assistant," this bowling ball of a robot is designed to answer your phone calls, play calming music, display the hottest news stories, and more. Maybe I'm the type of person that's easily charmed by whimsical things, but this little dude knocked the contrarian right out of me. One of the cooler things about Ballie is its built-in 1080p projector and spatial LiDAR sensor. That means it'll project movies and conference calls on the floor, wall, or any other hard surface.
US Embassy warns Americans not to use dating apps in Colombia after eight 'suspicious deaths'
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., sits down with'FOX & Friends Weekend' to discuss Ukraine funding, Biden's border policies and attacks on U.S. bases in the Middle East. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, is warning Americans traveling to the country not to use dating apps after eight "suspicious deaths" of private U.S. citizens. According to the embassy, the deaths -- potentially involuntary drug overdoes or suspected homicides -- took place in Medellin between November 1 and December 31, 2023. "Over the last year, the Embassy has seen an increase in reports of incidents involving the use of online dating applications to lure victims, typically foreigners, for robbery by force or using sedatives to drug and rob individuals," the embassy said. The Embassy said it regularly receives reports of such incidents occurring in major cities, like Medellin, Cartagena, and Bogota.
Welcome to Harvard, where you can spend 317,800 to learn about 'queering the world,' threesome dating apps
Harvard University offers a behemoth of courses that teach its students topics including "Queering Education," "Black Radicalism" and sexual fetishes. However, its course catalog – while offering many topics some would consider strongly critical of America – shows it does not offer significant courses focusing on American patriotism in depth despite taking in hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year. In 2021, Harvard received 625 million from American taxpayers, all the while the Ivy League boasts over 50 billion in its endowment. Some companies and prospective students are starting to question their interest in Harvard, particularly after scandals relating to alleged pervasive antisemitism and pro-Hamas sentiment on its campus – prompting legal action and a civil rights investigation from the U.S. Department of Education. Harvard's education department for prospective K-12 teachers elaborates on how one can bring queerness and transgenderism into schools.
MultiSlot ReRanker: A Generic Model-based Re-Ranking Framework in Recommendation Systems
Xiao, Qiang Charles, Muralidharan, Ajith, Tiwana, Birjodh, Jia, Johnson, Borisyuk, Fedor, Gupta, Aman, Woodard, Dawn
In this paper, we propose a generic model-based re-ranking framework, MultiSlot ReRanker, which simultaneously optimizes relevance, diversity, and freshness. Specifically, our Sequential Greedy Algorithm (SGA) is efficient enough (linear time complexity) for large-scale production recommendation engines. It achieved a lift of $+6\%$ to $ +10\%$ offline Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC) which is mainly due to explicitly modeling mutual influences among items of a list, and leveraging the second pass ranking scores of multiple objectives. In addition, we have generalized the offline replay theory to multi-slot re-ranking scenarios, with trade-offs among multiple objectives. The offline replay results can be further improved by Pareto Optimality. Moreover, we've built a multi-slot re-ranking simulator based on OpenAI Gym integrated with the Ray framework. It can be easily configured for different assumptions to quickly benchmark both reinforcement learning and supervised learning algorithms.
Sprout: Designing Expressivity for Robots Using Fiber-Embedded Actuator
Koike, Amy, Wehner, Michael, Mutlu, Bilge
In this paper, we explore how techniques from soft robotics can help create a new form of robot expression. We present Sprout, a soft expressive robot that conveys its internal states by changing its body shape. Sprout can extend, bend, twist, and expand using fiber-embedded actuators integrated into its construction. These deformations enable Sprout to express its internal states, for example, by expanding to express anger and bending its body sideways to express curiosity. Through two user studies, we investigated how users interpreted Sprout's expressions, their perceptions of Sprout, and their expectations from future iterations of Sprout's design. We argue that the use of soft actuators opens a novel design space for robot expressions to convey internal states, emotions, and intent.
Rabbit R1 is an adorable AI-powered assistant co-designed by Teenage Engineering
Yes, you probably already have a virtual assistant in your pocket on your phone. Heck, if you're reading Engadget, I'm willing to bet you've got at least one smart speaker floating around your home as well that you can ask to complete basic tasks. But a new start up called Rabbit seems to think these are less than ideal implementations of AI (if you can really call Siri and Alexa that). It envisions a world where you trade apps for conversation and, rather than a distracting device shoving icons in your face, you interact with what amounts to a walkie-talkie for an AI. The R1 is the first device to be launched by Rabbit and it's an objectively adorable little square in an endearingly bright shade of orange.
Unpacking Human-AI interactions: From interaction primitives to a design space
Tsiakas, Kostas, Murray-Rust, Dave
This paper aims to develop a semi-formal design space for Human-AI interactions, by building a set of interaction primitives which specify the communication between users and AI systems during their interaction. We show how these primitives can be combined into a set of interaction patterns which can provide an abstract specification for exchanging messages between humans and AI/ML models to carry out purposeful interactions. The motivation behind this is twofold: firstly, to provide a compact generalisation of existing practices, that highlights the similarities and differences between systems in terms of their interaction behaviours; and secondly, to support the creation of new systems, in particular by opening the space of possibilities for interactions with models. We present a short literature review on frameworks, guidelines and taxonomies related to the design and implementation of HAI interactions, including human-in-the-loop, explainable AI, as well as hybrid intelligence and collaborative learning approaches. From the literature review, we define a vocabulary for describing information exchanges in terms of providing and requesting particular model-specific data types. Based on this vocabulary, a message passing model for interactions between humans and models is presented, which we demonstrate can account for existing systems and approaches. Finally, we build this into design patterns as mid-level constructs that capture common interactional structures. We discuss how this approach can be used towards a design space for Human-AI interactions that creates new possibilities for designs as well as keeping track of implementation issues and concerns.