Deep learning models like AlphaFold2 have revolutionized protein structure prediction, achieving unprecedented accuracy. However, the dependence on robust multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) continues to pose a challenge, especially for proteins that lack a wealth of homologous sequences. To overcome this limitation, we introduce MSA-Generator, a self-supervised generative protein language model. Trained on a sequence-to-sequence task using an automatically constructed dataset, MSA-Generator employs protein-specific attention mechanisms to harness large-scale protein databases, generating virtual MSAs that enrich existing ones and boost prediction accuracy. Our experiments on CASP14 and CASP15 benchmarks reveal significant improvements in LDDT scores, particularly for complex and challenging sequences, enhancing the performance of both AlphaFold2 and RoseTTAFold.

Most applications of machine learning to classification assume a closed set of balanced classes. This is at odds with the real world, where class occurrence statistics often follow a long-tailed power-law distribution and it is unlikely that all classes are seen in a single sample. Nonparametric Bayesian models naturally capture this phenomenon, but have significant practical barriers to widespread adoption, namely implementation complexity and computational inefficiency. To address this, we present a method for extracting the inductive bias from a nonparametric Bayesian model and transferring it to an artificial neural network. By simulating data with a nonparametric Bayesian prior, we can metalearn a sequence model that performs inference over an unlimited set of classes. After training, this neural circuit has distilled the corresponding inductive bias and can successfully perform sequential inference over an open set of classes. Our experimental results show that the metalearned neural circuit achieves comparable or better performance than particle filter-based methods for inference in these models while being faster and simpler to use than methods that explicitly incorporate Bayesian nonparametric inference.

We present PANORAMIA, a privacy leakage measurement framework for machine learning models that relies on membership inference attacks using generated data as non-members. By relying on generated non-member data, PANORAMIA eliminates the common dependency of privacy measurement tools on in-distribution non-member data. As a result, PANORAMIA does not modify the model, training data, or training process, and only requires access to a subset of the training data. We evaluate PANORAMIA on ML models for image and tabular data classification, as well as on large-scale language models.

In recent years, multi-objective optimization (MOO) emerges as a foundational problem underpinning many multi-agent multi-task learning applications. However, existing algorithms in MOO literature remain limited to centralized learning settings, which do not satisfy the distributed nature and data privacy needs of such multi-agent multi-task learning applications. This motivates us to propose a new federated multi-objective learning (FMOL) framework with multiple clients distributively and collaboratively solving an MOO problem while keeping their training data private. Notably, our FMOL framework allows a different set of objective functions across different clients to support a wide range of applications, which advances and generalizes the MOO formulation to the federated learning paradigm for the first time. For this FMOL framework, we propose two new federated multi-objective optimization (FMOO) algorithms called federated multi-gradient descent averaging (FMGDA) and federated stochastic multi-gradient descent averaging (FSMGDA). Both algorithms allow local updates to significantly reduce communication costs, while achieving the {\em same} convergence rates as those of their algorithmic counterparts in the single-objective federated learning. Our extensive experiments also corroborate the efficacy of our proposed FMOO algorithms.

Advancements in multimodal learning, particularly in video understanding and generation, require high-quality video-text datasets for improved model performance.

Recent developments of vision large language models (LLMs) have seen remarkable progress, yet still encounter challenges towards multimodal generalists, such as coarse-grained instance-level understanding, lack of unified support for both images and videos, and insufficient coverage across various vision tasks. In this paper we present Vitron, a universal pixel-level vision LLM designed for comprehensive understanding, generating, segmenting, and editing of both static images and dynamic videos. Building on top of an LLM backbone, Vitron incorporates encoders for images, videos, and pixel-level regional visuals within its frontend modules, while employing state-of-the-art visual specialists as its backend, via which Vitron supports a spectrum of vision end tasks, spanning visual comprehension to visual generation, from low level to high level. To ensure an effective and precise message passing from LLM to backend modules for function invocation, we propose a novel hybrid method by simultaneously integrating discrete textual instructions and continuous signal embeddings. Further, we design various pixel-level spatiotemporal vision-language alignment learning for Vitron to reach the best fine-grained visual capability. Finally, a cross-task synergy module is advised to learn to maximize the task-invariant fine-grained visual features, enhancing the synergy between different visual tasks. Demonstrated over 12 visual tasks and evaluated across 22 datasets, Vitron showcases its extensive capabilities in the four main vision task clusters. Overall, this work illuminates the great potential of developing a more unified multimodal generalist.

Text-to-image diffusion models particularly Stable Diffusion, have revolutionized the field of computer vision. However, the synthesis quality often deteriorates when asked to generate images that faithfully represent complex prompts involving multiple attributes and objects. While previous studies suggest that blended text embeddings lead to improper attribute binding, few have explored this in depth. In this work, we critically examine the limitations of the CLIP text encoder in understanding attributes and investigate how this affects diffusion models. We discern a phenomenon of attribute bias in the text space and highlight a contextual issue in padding embeddings that entangle different concepts. We propose Magnet, a novel training-free approach to tackle the attribute binding problem. We introduce positive and negative binding vectors to enhance disentanglement, further with a neighbor strategy to increase accuracy. Extensive experiments show that Magnet significantly improves synthesis quality and binding accuracy with negligible computational cost, enabling the generation of unconventional and unnatural concepts.

Many algorithms for aligning LLMs with human preferences assume that human preferences are binary and deterministic.However, human preferences can vary across individuals, and therefore should be represented distributionally.In this work, we introduce the distributional soft preference labels and improve Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) with a weighted geometric average of the LLM output likelihood in the loss function.This approach adjusts the scale of learning loss based on the soft labels such that the loss would approach zero when the responses are closer to equally preferred.This simple modification can be easily applied to any DPO-based methods and mitigate over-optimization and objective mismatch, which prior works suffer from.Our experiments simulate the soft preference labels with AI feedback from LLMs and demonstrate that geometric averaging consistently improves performance on standard benchmarks for alignment research. In particular, we observe more preferable responses than binary labels and significant improvements where modestly-confident labels are in the majority.

A famous detail in the Battle of Hastings is based on a major misunderstanding. The Battle of Hastings is famously recounted across the Bayeux Tapestry. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. One of history's most famous military marches has been misunderstood for centuries. According to the prevailing English accounts, King Harold made a momentous, 200-mile march over land to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 CE after dismissing his naval fleet.

Omnidirectional (or 360-degree) images are increasingly being used for 3D applications since they allow the rendering of an entire scene with a single image. Existing works based on neural radiance fields demonstrate successful 3D reconstruction quality on egocentric videos, yet they suffer from long training and rendering times. Recently, 3D Gaussian splatting has gained attention for its fast optimization and real-time rendering.