Large language models (LLMs) have been recently leveraged as training data generators for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks. While previous research has explored different approaches to training models using generated data, they generally rely on simple class-conditional prompts, which may limit the diversity of the generated data and inherit systematic biases of LLM. Thus, we investigate training data generation with diversely attributed prompts (e.g., specifying attributes like length and style), which have the potential to yield diverse and attributed generated data. Our investigation focuses on datasets with high cardinality and diverse domains, wherein we demonstrate that attributed prompts outperform simple class-conditional prompts in terms of the resulting model's performance.

Recent research has made significant strides in aligning large language models (LLMs) with helpfulness and harmlessness. In this paper, we argue for the importance of alignment for honesty, ensuring that LLMs proactively refuse to answer questions when they lack knowledge, while still not being overly conservative. However, a pivotal aspect of alignment for honesty involves discerning an LLM's knowledge boundaries, which demands comprehensive solutions in terms of metric development, benchmark creation, and training methodologies. We address these challenges by first establishing a precise problem definition and defining "honesty" inspired by the Analects of Confucius. This serves as a cornerstone for developing metrics that effectively measure an LLM's honesty by quantifying its progress post-alignment. Furthermore, we introduce a flexible training framework which is further instantiated by several efficient fine-tuning techniques that emphasize honesty without sacrificing performance on other tasks. Our extensive experiments reveal that these aligned models show a marked increase in honesty, as indicated by our proposed metrics.

Chatbots will be able to teach children more than twice as fast as teachers can within the next decade, the so-called godfather of AI has predicted. Geoffrey Hinton, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on the technology, also claimed AI personal tutors would'be much more efficient and less boring'. Speaking at Gitex Europe, the British computer scientist said: 'It's not there yet, but it's coming, and so we'll get much better education at many levels.' AI personal tutors are already being trialled in UK schools, with the technology now able to talk directly to the student and adapt lesson plans to their knowledge level. The government has already funnelled millions of pounds into AI education initiatives – though it has claimed the technology will'absolutely not' replace teachers.

During the 33rd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), held in Jeju, I had the opportunity to meet with one of the keynote speakers, Gillian Hadfield. We spoke about her interdisciplinary research, career trajectory, path into AI alignment, law, and general thoughts on AI systems. Transcript: Note: the transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. This is an interview with Professor Gillian Hadfield who was a keynote speaker at IJCAI 2024. She gave a very insightful talk about normative infrastructures and how they can guide our search for AI alignment. Kumar Kshitij Patel (KKP): Could you talk a bit about your background and career trajectory? I want our readers to understand how much interdisciplinary work you've done over the years. Gillian Hadfield (GH): I did a PhD in economics and a law degree, a JD, at Stanford, originally motivated by wanting to think about the big questions about the world. So I read John Rawls' theory of justice when I was an undergraduate, and those are the big questions: how do we organize the world and just institutions, but I was very interested in using more formal methods and social scientific approaches. That's why I decided to do that joint degree. So, this is in the 1980s, and in the early days of starting to use a lot of game theory. I studied information theory, a student of Canaro and Paul Milgram at the economics department at Stanford. I did work on contract theory, bargaining theory, but I was still very interested in going to law school, not to practice law, but to learn about legal institutions and how those work. I was a member of this emerging area of law and economics early in my career, which of course, was interdisciplinary, using economics to think about law and legal institutions.

Larry Niven is one of the biggest names in the history of science fiction, and it was a privilege to interview him via Zoom at his home in Los Angeles recently. His 1970 novel Ringworld is the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club, but he has also written a whole space-fleet-load of novels and short stories over the years, including my favourite sci-fi of all time, A World Out of Time. At 87 years of age, he is very much still writing. I spoke to him about Ringworld, his start in sci-fi, his favourite work over the years, his current projects and whether he thinks humankind will ever leave this solar system. This is an edited version of our conversation.

SAVE 18%: As of May 14, you can get the Narwal Freo Z10 Robot Vacuum and Mop for 899.99, down from 1,099.99, at Amazon. It's also the lowest price we've seen for this model yet. Paying over a grand for a robot vacuum is a little ridiculous, if you can get one with all the bells and whistles for less. The Narwal Freo Z10 Robot Vacuum and Mop (one of Narwal's newest releases) is currently on sale for 899.99 (with an on-screen coupon), down from 1,099.99. It's also the lowest price we've ever seen for this model. If you haven't heard of it, Narwal is known for its AI-powered cleaning robots.

AI performance on demanding benchmarks continues to improve. Performance of advanced AI systems on new benchmarks introduced in 2023 has increased sharply. AI systems also made major strides in generating high-quality video. AI is increasingly embedded in everyday life. In 2023, the FDA (in the US) approved 223 AI-enabled medical devices, up from just six in 2015.

On a crisp Saturday in March, beneath a canopy of pixelated cherry blossoms, two avatars stood in front of a digital altar crafted from shimmering quartz blocks and flickering redstone torches. They were surrounded by a sprawling Minecraft village, complete with custom-coded NPCs reciting lore about the couple's decade-long digital courtship. Nearby, pixelated foxes darted between guests--each one logged in from across the world, dressed in custom skins as forest druids and rogue mages. After the vows (typed and read aloud on Discord), guests dispersed for side quests, scavenger hunts, and an enchanted maze culminating in a virtual fireworks show. This wasn't a rehearsal for an in-person wedding--this was the wedding.

On May 9th, Vladimir Putin will oversee a parade in Moscow's Red Square, commemorating the Soviet Union's victory in the Second World War, an annual display of military bravado that, since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, has taken on more explicit political undertones. The country's triumph over Nazism is presented as proof of its righteousness in the current war--and of it's role as a global power. Last year, as intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads rolled across the square, Putin linked the "radiant memory" of those who gave up their lives in the Second World War with "our brothers-in-arms who have fallen in the struggle against neo-Nazism and in the righteous fight for Russia"--that is, Russian soldiers killed in the current war in Ukraine. The Lede Reporting and commentary on what you need to know today. This year, the celebrations in Moscow serve another purpose: a way for Putin to show that he is not geopolitically isolated--China's Xi Jinping and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are expected to attend.

As AI enters the workforce and seeps into all facets of our lives at unprecedented speed, we're told by leaders across industries that if you're not using it, you're falling behind. Yet when AI's use in art enters the conversation, some retreat in discomfort, shunning it as an affront to the very essence of art. This ongoing debate continues to create disruptions among artists. AI is fundamentally changing the creative process, and its purpose, significance, and influence are subjective to one's own values--making its trajectory hard to predict, and even harder to confront. Miami-based Panamanian photographer Dahlia Dreszer stands out as an optimist and believer in AI's powers.