Rule-Based Reasoning
Large Language Model-Enhanced Symbolic Reasoning for Knowledge Base Completion
He, Qiyuan, Yu, Jianfei, Wang, Wenya
Integrating large language models (LLMs) with rule-based reasoning offers a powerful solution for improving the flexibility and reliability of Knowledge Base Completion (KBC). Traditional rule-based KBC methods offer verifiable reasoning yet lack flexibility, while LLMs provide strong semantic understanding yet suffer from hallucinations. With the aim of combining LLMs' understanding capability with the logical and rigor of rule-based approaches, we propose a novel framework consisting of a Subgraph Extractor, an LLM Proposer, and a Rule Reasoner. The Subgraph Extractor first samples subgraphs from the KB. Then, the LLM uses these subgraphs to propose diverse and meaningful rules that are helpful for inferring missing facts. To effectively avoid hallucination in LLMs' generations, these proposed rules are further refined by a Rule Reasoner to pinpoint the most significant rules in the KB for Knowledge Base Completion. Our approach offers several key benefits: the utilization of LLMs to enhance the richness and diversity of the proposed rules and the integration with rule-based reasoning to improve reliability. Our method also demonstrates strong performance across diverse KB datasets, highlighting the robustness and generalizability of the proposed framework.
Sinhala Transliteration: A Comparative Analysis Between Rule-based and Seq2Seq Approaches
De Mel, Yomal, Wickramasinghe, Kasun, de Silva, Nisansa, Ranathunga, Surangika
Due to reasons of convenience and lack of tech literacy, transliteration (i.e., Romanizing native scripts instead of using localization tools) is eminently prevalent in the context of low-resource languages such as Sinhala, which have their own writing script. In this study, our focus is on Romanized Sinhala transliteration. We propose two methods to address this problem: Our baseline is a rule-based method, which is then compared against our second method where we approach the transliteration problem as a sequence-to-sequence task akin to the established Neural Machine Translation (NMT) task. For the latter, we propose a Transformer-based Encode-Decoder solution. We witnessed that the Transformer-based method could grab many ad-hoc patterns within the Romanized scripts compared to the rule-based method. The code base associated with this paper is available on GitHub - https://github.com/kasunw22/Sinhala-Transliterator/
NiaAutoARM: Automated generation and evaluation of Association Rule Mining pipelines
Mlakar, Uroš, Fister, Iztok Jr., Fister, Iztok
The Numerical Association Rule Mining paradigm that includes concurrent dealing with numerical and categorical attributes is beneficial for discovering associations from datasets consisting of both features. The process is not considered as easy since it incorporates several processing steps running sequentially that form an entire pipeline, e.g., preprocessing, algorithm selection, hyper-parameter optimization, and the definition of metrics evaluating the quality of the association rule. In this paper, we proposed a novel Automated Machine Learning method, NiaAutoARM, for constructing the full association rule mining pipelines based on stochastic population-based meta-heuristics automatically. Along with the theoretical representation of the proposed method, we also present a comprehensive experimental evaluation of the proposed method.
ICM-Assistant: Instruction-tuning Multimodal Large Language Models for Rule-based Explainable Image Content Moderation
Wu, Mengyang, Zhao, Yuzhi, Cao, Jialun, Xu, Mingjie, Jiang, Zhongming, Wang, Xuehui, Li, Qinbin, Hu, Guangneng, Qin, Shengchao, Fu, Chi-Wing
Controversial contents largely inundate the Internet, infringing various cultural norms and child protection standards. Traditional Image Content Moderation (ICM) models fall short in producing precise moderation decisions for diverse standards, while recent multimodal large language models (MLLMs), when adopted to general rule-based ICM, often produce classification and explanation results that are inconsistent with human moderators. Aiming at flexible, explainable, and accurate ICM, we design a novel rule-based dataset generation pipeline, decomposing concise human-defined rules and leveraging well-designed multi-stage prompts to enrich short explicit image annotations. Our ICM-Instruct dataset includes detailed moderation explanation and moderation Q-A pairs. Built upon it, we create our ICM-Assistant model in the framework of rule-based ICM, making it readily applicable in real practice. Our ICM-Assistant model demonstrates exceptional performance and flexibility. Specifically, it significantly outperforms existing approaches on various sources, improving both the moderation classification (36.8\% on average) and moderation explanation quality (26.6\% on average) consistently over existing MLLMs. Code/Data is available at https://github.com/zhaoyuzhi/ICM-Assistant.
In Defence of Post-hoc Explainability
The widespread adoption of machine learning in scientific research has created a fundamental tension between model opacity and scientific understanding. Whilst some advocate for intrinsically interpretable models, we introduce Computational Interpretabilism (CI) as a philosophical framework for post-hoc interpretability in scientific AI. Drawing parallels with human expertise, where post-hoc rationalisation coexists with reliable performance, CI establishes that scientific knowledge emerges through structured model interpretation when properly bounded by empirical validation. Through mediated understanding and bounded factivity, we demonstrate how post-hoc methods achieve epistemically justified insights without requiring complete mechanical transparency, resolving tensions between model complexity and scientific comprehension.
An Intrinsically Explainable Approach to Detecting Vertebral Compression Fractures in CT Scans via Neurosymbolic Modeling
Inigo, Blanca, Shen, Yiqing, Killeen, Benjamin D., Song, Michelle, Krieger, Axel, Bradley, Christopher, Unberath, Mathias
Vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are a common and potentially serious consequence of osteoporosis. Yet, they often remain undiagnosed. Opportunistic screening, which involves automated analysis of medical imaging data acquired primarily for other purposes, is a cost-effective method to identify undiagnosed VCFs. In high-stakes scenarios like opportunistic medical diagnosis, model interpretability is a key factor for the adoption of AI recommendations. Rule-based methods are inherently explainable and closely align with clinical guidelines, but they are not immediately applicable to high-dimensional data such as CT scans. To address this gap, we introduce a neurosymbolic approach for VCF detection in CT volumes. The proposed model combines deep learning (DL) for vertebral segmentation with a shape-based algorithm (SBA) that analyzes vertebral height distributions in salient anatomical regions. This allows for the definition of a rule set over the height distributions to detect VCFs. Evaluation of VerSe19 dataset shows that our method achieves an accuracy of 96% and a sensitivity of 91% in VCF detection. In comparison, a black box model, DenseNet, achieved an accuracy of 95% and sensitivity of 91% in the same dataset. Our results demonstrate that our intrinsically explainable approach can match or surpass the performance of black box deep neural networks while providing additional insights into why a prediction was made. This transparency can enhance clinician's trust thus, supporting more informed decision-making in VCF diagnosis and treatment planning.
Goal-Driven Reasoning in DatalogMTL with Magic Sets
Wang, Shaoyu, Zhao, Kaiyue, Wei, Dongliang, Wałęga, Przemysław Andrzej, Wang, Dingmin, Cai, Hongming, Hu, Pan
DatalogMTL is a powerful rule-based language for temporal reasoning. Due to its high expressive power and flexible modeling capabilities, it is suitable for a wide range of applications, including tasks from industrial and financial sectors. However, due its high computational complexity, practical reasoning in DatalogMTL is highly challenging. To address this difficulty, we introduce a new reasoning method for DatalogMTL which exploits the magic sets technique -- a rewriting approach developed for (non-temporal) Datalog to simulate top-down evaluation with bottom-up reasoning. We implement this approach and evaluate it on several publicly available benchmarks, showing that the proposed approach significantly and consistently outperforms performance of the state-of-the-art reasoning techniques.
ActPC-Chem: Discrete Active Predictive Coding for Goal-Guided Algorithmic Chemistry as a Potential Cognitive Kernel for Hyperon & PRIMUS-Based AGI
We explore a novel paradigm (labeled ActPC-Chem) for biologically inspired, goal-guided artificial intelligence (AI) centered on a form of Discrete Active Predictive Coding (ActPC) operating within an algorithmic chemistry of rewrite rules. ActPC-Chem is envisioned as a foundational "cognitive kernel" for advanced cognitive architectures, such as the OpenCog Hyperon system, incorporating essential elements of the PRIMUS cognitive architecture. The central thesis is that general-intelligence-capable cognitive structures and dynamics can emerge in a system where both data and models are represented as evolving patterns of metagraph rewrite rules, and where prediction errors, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, and semantic constraints guide the continual reorganization and refinement of these rules. Using a virtual "robot bug" thought experiment, we illustrate how such a system might self-organize to handle challenging tasks involving delayed and context-dependent rewards, integrating causal rule inference (AIRIS) and probabilistic logical abstraction (PLN) to discover and exploit conceptual patterns and causal constraints. Next, we describe how continuous predictive coding neural networks, which excel at handling noisy sensory data and motor control signals, can be coherently merged with the discrete ActPC substrate. Finally, we outline how these ideas might be extended to create a transformer-like architecture that foregoes traditional backpropagation in favor of rule-based transformations guided by ActPC. This layered architecture, supplemented with AIRIS and PLN, promises structured, multi-modal, and logically consistent next-token predictions and narrative sequences.
Automated Root Cause Analysis System for Complex Data Products
Demarne, Mathieu, Cilimdzic, Miso, Falkowski, Tom, Johnson, Timothy, Gramling, Jim, Kuang, Wei, Hou, Hoobie, Aryan, Amjad, Subramaniam, Gayatri, Lee, Kenny, Mejia, Manuel, Liu, Lisa, Vermareddy, Divya
We present ARCAS (Automated Root Cause Analysis System), a diagnostic platform based on a Domain Specific Language (DSL) built for fast diagnostic implementation and low learning curve. Arcas is composed of a constellation of automated troubleshooting guides (Auto-TSGs) that can execute in parallel to detect issues using product telemetry and apply mitigation in near-real-time. The DSL is tailored specifically to ensure that subject matter experts can deliver highly curated and relevant Auto-TSGs in a short time without having to understand how they will interact with the rest of the diagnostic platform, thus reducing time-to-mitigate and saving crucial engineering cycles when they matter most. This contrasts with platforms like Datadog and New Relic, which primarily focus on monitoring and require manual intervention for mitigation. ARCAS uses a Large Language Model (LLM) to prioritize Auto-TSGs outputs and take appropriate actions, thus suppressing the costly requirement of understanding the general behavior of the system. We explain the key concepts behind ARCAS and demonstrate how it has been successfully used for multiple products across Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Fabric Synapse Data Warehouse.
TIMESAFE: Timing Interruption Monitoring and Security Assessment for Fronthaul Environments
Groen, Joshua, Di Valerio, Simone, Karim, Imtiaz, Villa, Davide, Zhang, Yiewi, Bonati, Leonardo, Polese, Michele, D'Oro, Salvatore, Melodia, Tommaso, Bertino, Elisa, Cuomo, Francesca, Chowdhury, Kaushik
5G and beyond cellular systems embrace the disaggregation of Radio Access Network (RAN) components, exemplified by the evolution of the fronthual (FH) connection between cellular baseband and radio unit equipment. Crucially, synchronization over the FH is pivotal for reliable 5G services. In recent years, there has been a push to move these links to an Ethernet-based packet network topology, leveraging existing standards and ongoing research for Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). However, TSN standards, such as Precision Time Protocol (PTP), focus on performance with little to no concern for security. This increases the exposure of the open FH to security risks. Attacks targeting synchronization mechanisms pose significant threats, potentially disrupting 5G networks and impairing connectivity. In this paper, we demonstrate the impact of successful spoofing and replay attacks against PTP synchronization. We show how a spoofing attack is able to cause a production-ready O-RAN and 5G-compliant private cellular base station to catastrophically fail within 2 seconds of the attack, necessitating manual intervention to restore full network operations. To counter this, we design a Machine Learning (ML)-based monitoring solution capable of detecting various malicious attacks with over 97.5% accuracy.