inability
On the inability of Gaussian process regression to optimally learn compositional functions
We rigorously prove that deep Gaussian process priors can outperform Gaussian process priors if the target function has a compositional structure. To this end, we study information-theoretic lower bounds for posterior contraction rates for Gaussian process regression in a continuous regression model. We show that if the true function is a generalized additive function, then the posterior based on any mean-zero Gaussian process can only recover the truth at a rate that is strictly slower than the minimax rate by a factor that is polynomially suboptimal in the sample size $n$.
CAPTURe: Evaluating Spatial Reasoning in Vision Language Models via Occluded Object Counting
Pothiraj, Atin, Stengel-Eskin, Elias, Cho, Jaemin, Bansal, Mohit
Recognizing and reasoning about occluded (partially or fully hidden) objects is vital to understanding visual scenes, as occlusions frequently occur in real-world environments and act as obstacles for spatial comprehension. To test models' ability to reason about multiple occluded objects, we introduce a novel task, Counting Amodally for Patterns Through Unseen REgions (CAPTURe), which requires a model to count objects arranged in a pattern by inferring how the pattern continues behind an occluder (an object which blocks parts of the scene). CAPTURe requires both recognizing visual patterns and reasoning, making it a useful testbed for evaluating vision-language models (VLMs) on whether they understand occluded patterns and possess spatial understanding skills. By requiring models to reason about occluded objects, CAPTURe also tests VLMs' ability to form world models that would allow them to fill in missing information. CAPTURe consists of two parts: (1) CAPTURe-real, with manually filtered images of real objects in patterns and (2) CAPTURe-synthetic, a controlled diagnostic with generated patterned images. We evaluate four strong VLMs (GPT-4o, Intern-VL2, Molmo, and Qwen2-VL) on CAPTURe, finding that models struggle to count on both occluded and unoccluded patterns. Crucially, we find that models perform worse with occlusion, suggesting that VLMs are also deficient in inferring unseen spatial relationships: even the strongest VLMs like GPT-4o fail to count with occlusion. In contrast, we find that humans achieve very little error on CAPTURe. We also find that providing auxiliary information of occluded object locations increases performance, underscoring that the model error comes both from an inability to handle occlusion as well as difficulty in counting in images. Code and data: https://github.com/atinpothiraj/CAPTURe
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LUNAR: LLM Unlearning via Neural Activation Redirection
Shen, William F., Qiu, Xinchi, Kurmanji, Meghdad, Iacob, Alex, Sani, Lorenzo, Chen, Yihong, Cancedda, Nicola, Lane, Nicholas D.
Large Language Models (LLMs) benefit from training on ever larger amounts of textual data, but as a result, they increasingly incur the risk of leaking private information. The ability to selectively remove knowledge from LLMs is, therefore, a highly desirable capability. In this paper, we propose LUNAR, a novel unlearning methodology grounded in the Linear Representation Hypothesis. LUNAR operates by redirecting the representations of unlearned data to regions that trigger the model's inherent ability to express its inability to answer. LUNAR achieves state-of-the-art unlearning performance while significantly enhancing the controllability of the unlearned model during inference. Specifically, LUNAR achieves between 2.9x to 11.7x improvements on combined "unlearning efficacy" and "model utility" score ("Deviation Score") on the PISTOL dataset across various base models. We also demonstrate, through quantitative analysis and qualitative examples, LUNAR's superior controllability in generating coherent and contextually aware responses, mitigating undesired side effects of existing methods. Moreover, we demonstrate that LUNAR is robust against white-box adversarial attacks and versatile in handling real-world scenarios, such as processing sequential unlearning requests.
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On the inability of Gaussian process regression to optimally learn compositional functions
We rigorously prove that deep Gaussian process priors can outperform Gaussian process priors if the target function has a compositional structure. To this end, we study information-theoretic lower bounds for posterior contraction rates for Gaussian process regression in a continuous regression model. We show that if the true function is a generalized additive function, then the posterior based on any mean-zero Gaussian process can only recover the truth at a rate that is strictly slower than the minimax rate by a factor that is polynomially suboptimal in the sample size n .
Predicting Individual Depression Symptoms from Acoustic Features During Speech
Rodriguez, Sebastian, Dumpala, Sri Harsha, Dikaios, Katerina, Rempel, Sheri, Uher, Rudolf, Oore, Sageev
Current automatic depression detection systems provide predictions directly without relying on the individual symptoms/items of depression as denoted in the clinical depression rating scales. In contrast, clinicians assess each item in the depression rating scale in a clinical setting, thus implicitly providing a more detailed rationale for a depression diagnosis. In this work, we make a first step towards using the acoustic features of speech to predict individual items of the depression rating scale before obtaining the final depression prediction. For this, we use convolutional (CNN) and recurrent (long short-term memory (LSTM)) neural networks. We consider different approaches to learning the temporal context of speech. Further, we analyze two variants of voting schemes for individual item prediction and depression detection. We also include an animated visualization that shows an example of item prediction over time as the speech progresses.
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Tesla recalls almost all its vehicles sold in the US over warning light problems
Tesla is recalling nearly all of the vehicles it has sold in the US because some warning lights on the instrument panel are too small. The recall of nearly 2.2m vehicles announced on Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a sign of stepped-up scrutiny of the electric vehicle maker. The agency also said it has upgraded a 2023 investigation into Tesla steering problems to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer to a recall. Documents said the update will increase warnings and alerts to drivers. The agency says that the brake, park and antilock brake warning lights have a smaller font size than required by federal safety standards.
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Do YOU notice anything unusual in this video? If not, you might suffer from inattentional blindness
For many of us, hazard perception was one of the more fun and less nerve-wracking parts of the driving test. But if spotting the unexpected doesn't fall within your skillset, scientists warn you may experience'inattentional blindness'. Researchers at New York University (NYU) have recreated the classic'invisible gorilla test' from over 20 years ago in an effort to understand our capabilities. More than 1,500 participants were shown unsuspecting footage of six people throwing two basketballs between them. While viewers were asked to simply count how many times those wearing white pass the ball, this was not the real test at all.
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Google improves Bard to compete with ChatGPT: here's what's new
Google has recently improved its AI chatbot, Bard, in an effort to rival its competitor, ChatGPT. The tech giant has optimized the AI responses in some areas and made improvements to the chatbot's abilities in mathematics and logic. The first feedback on Bard was not positive, with testers criticizing the many restrictions put in place by Google. In response, the company padlocked the experience to avoid abuses. To address the limitations of Bard, Google has pledged to make improvements to its artificial intelligence.
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