We present MetaSpatial, the first reinforcement learning (RL)-based framework designed to enhance 3D spatial reasoning in vision-language models (VLMs), enabling real-time 3D scene generation without the need for hard-coded optimizations. MetaSpatial addresses two core challenges: (i) the lack of internalized 3D spatial reasoning in VLMs, which limits their ability to generate realistic layouts, and (ii) the inefficiency of traditional supervised fine-tuning (SFT) for layout generation tasks, as perfect ground truth annotations are unavailable. Our key innovation is a multi-turn RL-based optimization mechanism that integrates physics-aware constraints and rendered image evaluations, ensuring generated 3D layouts are coherent, physically plausible, and aesthetically consistent. Methodologically, MetaSpatial introduces an adaptive, iterative reasoning process, where the VLM refines spatial arrangements over multiple turns by analyzing rendered outputs, improving scene coherence progressively. Empirical evaluations demonstrate that MetaSpatial significantly enhances the spatial consistency and formatting stability of various scale models. Post-training, object placements are more realistic, aligned, and functionally coherent, validating the effectiveness of RL for 3D spatial reasoning in metaverse, AR/VR, digital twins, and game development applications.

The current generation of large language models (LLMs) is typically designed for broad, general-purpose applications, while domain-specific LLMs, especially in vertical fields like medicine, remain relatively scarce. In particular, the development of highly efficient and practical LLMs for the medical domain is challenging due to the complexity of medical knowledge and the limited availability of high-quality data. To bridge this gap, we introduce Baichuan-M1, a series of large language models specifically optimized for medical applications. Unlike traditional approaches that simply continue pretraining on existing models or apply post-training to a general base model, Baichuan-M1 is trained from scratch with a dedicated focus on enhancing medical capabilities. Our model is trained on 20 trillion tokens and incorporates a range of effective training methods that strike a balance between general capabilities and medical expertise. As a result, Baichuan-M1 not only performs strongly across general domains such as mathematics and coding but also excels in specialized medical fields. We have open-sourced Baichuan-M1-14B, a mini version of our model, which can be accessed through the following links.

LLMs demonstrate significant inference capacities in complicated machine learning tasks, using the Transformer model as its backbone. Motivated by the limited understanding of such models on the unsupervised learning problems, we study the learning guarantees of Transformers in performing multi-class clustering of the Gaussian Mixture Models. We develop a theory drawing strong connections between the Softmax Attention layers and the workflow of the EM algorithm on clustering the mixture of Gaussians. Our theory provides approximation bounds for the Expectation and Maximization steps by proving the universal approximation abilities of multivariate mappings by Softmax functions. In addition to the approximation guarantees, we also show that with a sufficient number of pre-training samples and an initialization, Transformers can achieve the minimax optimal rate for the problem considered. Our extensive simulations empirically verified our theory by revealing the strong learning capacities of Transformers even beyond the assumptions in the theory, shedding light on the powerful inference capacities of LLMs.

We give a comprehensive analysis of transformers as time series foundation models, focusing on their approximation and generalization capabilities. First, we demonstrate that there exist transformers that fit an autoregressive model on input univariate time series via gradient descent. We then analyze MOIRAI, a multivariate time series foundation model capable of handling an arbitrary number of covariates. We prove that it is capable of automatically fitting autoregressive models with an arbitrary number of covariates, offering insights into its design and empirical success. For generalization, we establish bounds for pretraining when the data satisfies Dobrushin's condition. Experiments support our theoretical findings, highlighting the efficacy of transformers as time series foundation models.

Despite the growing interest in human-AI decision making, experimental studies with domain experts remain rare, largely due to the complexity of working with domain experts and the challenges in setting up realistic experiments. In this work, we conduct an in-depth collaboration with radiologists in prostate cancer diagnosis based on MRI images. Building on existing tools for teaching prostate cancer diagnosis, we develop an interface and conduct two experiments to study how AI assistance and performance feedback shape the decision making of domain experts. In Study 1, clinicians were asked to provide an initial diagnosis (human), then view the AI's prediction, and subsequently finalize their decision (human-AI team). In Study 2 (after a memory wash-out period), the same participants first received aggregated performance statistics from Study 1, specifically their own performance, the AI's performance, and their human-AI team performance, and then directly viewed the AI's prediction before making their diagnosis (i.e., no independent initial diagnosis). These two workflows represent realistic ways that clinical AI tools might be used in practice, where the second study simulates a scenario where doctors can adjust their reliance and trust on AI based on prior performance feedback. Our findings show that, while human-AI teams consistently outperform humans alone, they still underperform the AI due to under-reliance, similar to prior studies with crowdworkers. Providing clinicians with performance feedback did not significantly improve the performance of human-AI teams, although showing AI decisions in advance nudges people to follow AI more. Meanwhile, we observe that the ensemble of human-AI teams can outperform AI alone, suggesting promising directions for human-AI collaboration.

Radiotherapy (RT) planning is complex, subjective, and time-intensive. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) promise to improve its precision, efficiency, and consistency, but progress is often limited by the scarcity of large, standardized datasets. To address this, we introduce the Automated Iterative RT Planning (AIRTP) system, a scalable solution for generating high-quality treatment plans. This scalable solution is designed to generate substantial volumes of consistently high-quality treatment plans, overcoming a key obstacle in the advancement of AI-driven RT planning. Our AIRTP pipeline adheres to clinical guidelines and automates essential steps, including organ-at-risk (OAR) contouring, helper structure creation, beam setup, optimization, and plan quality improvement, using AI integrated with RT planning software like Eclipse of Varian. Furthermore, a novel approach for determining optimization parameters to reproduce 3D dose distributions, i.e. a method to convert dose predictions to deliverable treatment plans constrained by machine limitations. A comparative analysis of plan quality reveals that our automated pipeline produces treatment plans of quality comparable to those generated manually, which traditionally require several hours of labor per plan. Committed to public research, the first data release of our AIRTP pipeline includes nine cohorts covering head-and-neck and lung cancer sites to support an AAPM 2025 challenge. This data set features more than 10 times the number of plans compared to the largest existing well-curated public data set to our best knowledge. Repo:{https://github.com/RiqiangGao/GDP-HMM_AAPMChallenge}

Most modern LLMs use Transformers [30] as their backbones, which demonstrate significant advantages over many existing neural network models. Transformers achieve many state-of-the-art performances in learning tasks including natural language processing [33] and computer vision [18]. However, the underlying mechanism for the success of Transformers remains largely a mystery to theoretical researchers. It has been discussed in a line of recent works [2, 4, 15, 38] that, instead of learning simple prediction rules (such as a linear model) Transformers are capable of learning to perform learning algorithms that can automatically generate new prediction rules. For instance, when a new dataset is organized as the input of a Transformer, the model can automatically perform linear regression on this new dataset to produce a newly fitted linear model and make predictions accordingly. This idea of treating Transformers as "algorithm approximators" has provided insights into the power of large language models. However, these existing works only provide guarantees for the in-context supervised learning capacities of Transformers. It remains unclear whether Transformers are capable of handling unsupervised tasks as well.

Data-driven soft sensors (DDSS) have become mainstream methods for predicting key performance indicators in process industries. However, DDSS development requires complex and costly customized designs tailored to various tasks during the modeling process. Moreover, DDSS are constrained to a single structured data modality, limiting their ability to incorporate additional contextual knowledge. Furthermore, DDSSs' limited representation learning leads to weak predictive performance with scarce data. To address these challenges, we propose a general framework named LLM-TKESS (large language model for text-based knowledge-embedded soft sensing), harnessing the powerful general problem-solving capabilities, cross-modal knowledge transfer abilities, and few-shot capabilities of LLM for enhanced soft sensing modeling. Specifically, an auxiliary variable series encoder (AVS Encoder) is proposed to unleash LLM's potential for capturing temporal relationships within series and spatial semantic relationships among auxiliary variables. Then, we propose a two-stage fine-tuning alignment strategy: in the first stage, employing parameter-efficient fine-tuning through autoregressive training adjusts LLM to rapidly accommodate process variable data, resulting in a soft sensing foundation model (SSFM). Subsequently, by training adapters, we adapt the SSFM to various downstream tasks without modifying its architecture. Then, we propose two text-based knowledge-embedded soft sensors, integrating new natural language modalities to overcome the limitations of pure structured data models. Furthermore, benefiting from LLM's pre-existing world knowledge, our model demonstrates outstanding predictive capabilities in small sample conditions. Using the thermal deformation of air preheater rotor as a case study, we validate through extensive experiments that LLM-TKESS exhibits outstanding performance.

Textual Attributed Graphs (TAGs) are crucial for modeling complex real-world systems, yet leveraging large language models (LLMs) for TAGs presents unique challenges due to the gap between sequential text processing and graph-structured data. We introduce AskGNN, a novel approach that bridges this gap by leveraging In-Context Learning (ICL) to integrate graph data and task-specific information into LLMs. AskGNN employs a Graph Neural Network (GNN)-powered structure-enhanced retriever to select labeled nodes across graphs, incorporating complex graph structures and their supervision signals. Our learning-to-retrieve algorithm optimizes the retriever to select example nodes that maximize LLM performance on graph. Experiments across three tasks and seven LLMs demonstrate AskGNN's superior effectiveness in graph task performance, opening new avenues for applying LLMs to graph-structured data without extensive fine-tuning.

Code Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate great versatility in adapting to various downstream tasks, including code generation and completion, as well as bug detection and fixing. However, Code LLMs often fail to capture existing coding standards, leading to the generation of code that conflicts with the required design patterns for a given project. As a result, developers must post-process to adapt the generated code to the project's design norms. In this work, we empirically investigate the biases of Code LLMs in software development. Through carefully designed experiments, we assess the models' understanding of design patterns across recognition, comprehension, and generation. Our findings reveal that biases in Code LLMs significantly affect the reliability of downstream tasks.