Multi-agent debate often wastes compute by using a fixed adversarial stance, aggregating without deliberation, or stopping on heuristics. We introduce MACI, an active controller with two independent dials that decouple information from behavior: an information dial that gates evidence by quality, and a behavior dial that schedules contentiousness from exploration to consolidation. A moderator tracks disagreement, overlap, evidence quality, and argument quality, and halts when gains plateau. We provide theory-lite guarantees for nonincreasing dispersion and provable termination, with a budget-feasible scheduler. Across clinical diagnosis and news-bias tasks, MACI improves accuracy and calibration while reducing tokens, and converts residual uncertainty into precision RAG plans that specify what to retrieve next. We use a cross-family LLM judge (CRIT) as a conservative soft weight and stop signal, validated for order invariance and judge-swap stability; stability depends on using high-capability judges. MACI turns debate into a budget-aware, measurable, and provably terminating controller.

Despite extensive investment in artificial intelligence, 95% of enterprises report no measurable profit impact from AI deployments (MIT, 2025). In this theoretical paper, we argue that this gap reflects paradigmatic lock-in that channels AI into incremental optimization rather than structural transformation. Using a cross-case analysis, we propose a 2x2 framework that reconceptualizes AI strategy along two independent dimensions: the degree of transformation achieved (incremental to transformational) and the treatment of human contribution (reduced to amplified). The framework surfaces four patterns now dominant in practice: individual augmentation, process automation, workforce substitution, and a less deployed frontier of collaborative intelligence. Evidence shows that the first three dimensions reinforce legacy work models and yield localized gains without durable value capture. Realizing collaborative intelligence requires three mechanisms: complementarity (pairing distinct human and machine strengths), co-evolution (mutual adaptation through interaction), and boundary-setting (human determination of ethical and strategic parameters). Complementarity and boundary-setting are observable in regulated and high-stakes domains; co-evolution is largely absent, which helps explain limited system-level impact. Our findings in a case study analysis illustrated that advancing toward collaborative intelligence requires material restructuring of roles, governance, and data architecture rather than additional tools. The framework reframes AI transformation as an organizational design challenge: moving from optimizing the division of labor between humans and machines to architecting their convergence, with implications for operating models, workforce development, and the future of work.

Decentralized machine learning has broadened its scope recently with the invention of Federated Learning (FL), Split Learning (SL), and their hybrids like Split Federated Learning (SplitFed or SFL). The goal of SFL is to reduce the computational power required by each client in FL and parallelize SL while maintaining privacy. This paper investigates the robustness of SFL against packet loss on communication links. The performance of various SFL aggregation strategies is examined by splitting the model at two points -- shallow split and deep split -- and testing whether the split point makes a statistically significant difference to the accuracy of the final model. Experiments are carried out on a segmentation model for human embryo images and indicate the statistically significant advantage of a deeper split point.

As AI applications for mobile devices become more prevalent, there is an increasing need for faster execution and lower energy consumption for deep learning model inference. Historically, the models run on mobile devices have been smaller and simpler in comparison to large state-of-the-art research models, which can only run on the cloud. However, cloud-only inference has drawbacks such as increased network bandwidth consumption and higher latency. In addition, cloud-only inference requires the input data (images, audio) to be fully transferred to the cloud, creating concerns about potential privacy breaches. There is an alternative approach: shared mobile-cloud inference. Partial inference is performed on the mobile in order to reduce the dimensionality of the input data and arrive at a compact feature tensor, which is a latent space representation of the input signal. The feature tensor is then transmitted to the server for further inference. This strategy can reduce inference latency, energy consumption, and network bandwidth usage, as well as provide privacy protection, because the original signal never leaves the mobile. Further performance gain can be achieved by compressing the feature tensor before its transmission.

Implementing existing federated learning in massive Internet of Things (IoT) networks faces critical challenges such as imbalanced and statistically heterogeneous data and device diversity. To this end, we propose a semi-federated learning (SemiFL) framework to provide a potential solution for the realization of intelligent IoT. By seamlessly integrating the centralized and federated paradigms, our SemiFL framework shows high scalability in terms of the number of IoT devices even in the presence of computing-limited sensors. Furthermore, compared to traditional learning approaches, the proposed SemiFL can make better use of distributed data and computing resources, due to the collaborative model training between the edge server and local devices. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our SemiFL framework for massive IoT networks. The code can be found at https://github.com/niwanli/SemiFL_IoT.

Conversational AI is playing an increasing role in customer service contact centres. It can greet customers, handle routine requests in a conversational manner, and more accurately route interactions to the service agents who can best assist. But when a customer reaches out to a contact centre, they are often frustrated because they have unsuccessfully tried to solve their problem online, and they expect their request to be met with empathy and urgency. Irritation can take over if the user reaches an AI bot when they need a human conversation; or if they have to wait for a human when an AI could resolve the issue more efficiently. When seeking immediate answers and information, 36% of customers choose self-service chat or a virtual agent.

In the early 19th century, textile workers in Nottingham rebelled against their factory owners As factory owners began to use new machinery that reduced the number of employees and factories they needed, workers felt that their skillset was being wasted and their livelihoods threatened. This rebellion was the Luddite movement. The term ‘Luddite’ has since been used to describe those who opposed industrialisation, automation, and in more recent times some cutting-edge technologies threatening to disrupt the mainstream. When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), you can sympathise with the Luddite philosophy to an extent. The idea that we can teach

Whether it's athletes on a sporting field or celebrities in the jungle, nothing holds our attention like the drama of vying for a single prize. And when it comes to the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), some of the most captivating moments have also been delivered in nailbiting finishes. In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue chess computer was pitted against grandmaster and reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, having lost to him the previous year. But this time, the AI won. The popular Chinese game Go was next, in 2016, and again there was a collective intake of breath when Google's AI was victorious.

Whether it's athletes on a sporting field or celebrities in the jungle, nothing holds our attention like the drama of vying for a single prize. And when it comes to the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), some of the most captivating moments have also been delivered in nailbiting finishes. In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue chess computer was pitted against grandmaster and reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, having lost to him the previous year. But this time, the AI won. The popular Chinese game Go was next, in 2016, and again there was a collective intake of breath when Google's AI was victorious.

Whether it's athletes on a sporting field or celebrities in the jungle, nothing holds our attention like the drama of vying for a single prize. And when it comes to the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), some of the most captivating moments have also been delivered in nailbiting finishes. In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue chess computer was pitted against grandmaster and reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, having lost to him the previous year. But this time, the AI won. The popular Chinese game Go was next, in 2016, and again there was a collective intake of breath when Google's AI was victorious.