In this paper we investigate a neural network model in which weights between computational nodes are modified according to a local learning rule. To determine whether local learning rules are sufficient for learning, we encode the network architectures and learning dynamics genetically and then apply selection pressure to evolve networks capable of learning the four boolean functions of one variable. The successful networks are analysed and we show how learning behaviour emerges as a distributed property of the entire network. Finally the utility of genetic algorithms as a tool of discovery is discussed.

Abstract--The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) tools like Chat-GPT has created new opportunities and challenges for computing education. Existing research has primarily focused on GenAI's ability to complete educational tasks and its impact on student performance, often overlooking its effects on knowledge gains. In this study, we investigate how GenAI assistance compares to conventional online resources in supporting knowledge gains across different proficiency levels. We conducted a controlled user experiment with 24 undergraduate students of two different levels of programming experience (beginner, intermediate) to examine how students interact with ChatGPT while solving programming tasks. We analyzed task performance, conceptual understanding, and interaction behaviors. Our findings reveal that generating complete solutions with GenAI significantly improves task performance, especially for beginners, but does not consistently result in knowledge gains. Importantly, usage strategies differ by experience: beginners tend to rely heavily on GenAI toward task completion often without knowledge gain in the process, while intermediates adopt more selective approaches. We find that both over-reliance and minimal use result in weaker knowledge gains overall. Based on our results, we call on students and educators to adopt GenAI as a learning rather than a problem solving tool. Our study highlights the urgent need for guidance when integrating GenAI into programming education to foster deeper understanding. The rapid development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has led to its widespread adoption across various domains to boost productivity and streamline workflows. Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Codex, Google Gemini, and GitHub Copilot, have been integrated into domains including software engineering [1], [2], healthcare [3], education [4], creative writing [5], [6], and digital music [7], offering capabilities such as code generation, question answering, and image generation. These authors contributed equally to this work. Some studies evaluated GenAI's performance on programming tasks [8], user interface design education [9], and computer vision coursework [10]. Others focused on assessing the accuracy and usability of GenAIgenerated responses [11], [12].

The field of machine programming (MP), the automation of the development of software, is making notable research advances.

The rapid emergence of generative AI has changed the way that technology is designed, constructed, maintained, and evaluated. Decisions made when creating AI-powered systems may impact some users disproportionately, such as people with disabilities. In this paper, we report on an interview study with 25 AI practitioners across multiple roles (engineering, research, UX, and responsible AI) about how their work processes and artifacts may impact end users with disabilities. We found that practitioners experienced friction when triaging problems at the intersection of responsible AI and accessibility practices, navigated contradictions between accessibility and responsible AI guidelines, identified gaps in data about users with disabilities, and gathered support for addressing the needs of disabled stakeholders by leveraging informal volunteer and community groups within their company. Based on these findings, we offer suggestions for new resources and process changes to better support people with disabilities as end users of AI.

The field of machine programming (MP), the automation of the development of software, is making notable research advances.

Building upon a formal, event-centric model for the diachronic evolution of legal norms grounded in the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRMoo), this paper addresses the essential first step of publishing this model's foundational entity-the abstract legal Work (F1)-on the Semantic Web. We propose a detailed, property-by-property mapping of the LRMoo F1 Work to the widely adopted schema.org/Legislation vocabulary. Using Brazilian federal legislation from the Normas.leg.br portal as a practical case study, we demonstrate how to create interoperable, machine-readable descriptions via JSON-LD, focusing on stable URN identifiers, core metadata, and norm relationships. This structured mapping establishes a stable, URI-addressable anchor for each legal norm, creating a verifiable "ground truth". It provides the essential, interoperable foundation upon which subsequent layers of the model, such as temporal versions (Expressions) and internal components, can be built. By bridging formal ontology with web-native standards, this work paves the way for building deterministic and reliable Legal Knowledge Graphs (LKGs), overcoming the limitations of purely probabilistic models.

Abstract--Although the quality of human-robot interactions has improved with the advent of LLMs, there are still various factors that cause systems to be sub-optimal when compared to human-human interactions. The nature and criticality of failures are often dependent on the context of the interaction and so cannot be generalized across the wide range of scenarios and experiments which have been implemented in HRI research. In this work we propose the use of a technique overlooked in the field of HRI, ethnographic vignettes, to clearly highlight these failures, particularly those that are rarely documented. We describe the methodology behind the process of writing vignettes and create our own based on our personal experiences with failures in HRI systems. We emphasize the strength of vignettes as the ability to communicate failures from a multi-disciplinary perspective, promote transparency about the capabilities of robots, and document unexpected behaviours which would otherwise be omitted from research reports. We encourage the use of vignettes to augment existing interaction evaluation methods. High-quality dialogue with robots is a goal for many human-robot interaction (HRI) researchers [38]. Despite technological advancements, dialogues in HRI sometimes fail. In this paper, we propose vignette-writing as a method for reporting observations from failed interactions. The abilities of large language models (LLMs) to simulate human language have sparked an increased interest and optimism towards generating meaningful dialogues, despite their well-known shortcomings [6, 9, 24]. However, there is still much ground to cover towards flawless spoken interactions with robots [45]. One of the challenges that need to be addressed in order to move towards this goal lies in defining, describing and evaluating concrete interactions. In this paper, we propose that describing moments of failure in dialogues through ethnographic methods is one path to understanding, evaluating and defining human-robot interactions.

Interactive digital maps have revolutionized how people travel and learn about the world; however, they rely on preexisting structured data in GIS databases (e.g., road networks, POI indices), limiting their ability to address geo-visual questions related to what the world looks like. W e introduce our vision for Geo-Visual Agents--multimodal AI agents capable of understanding and responding to nuanced visual-spatial inquiries about the world by analyzing large-scale repositories of geospatial images, including streetscapes (e.g., Google Street View), place-based photos (e.g., TripAdvisor, Y elp), and aerial imagery (e.g., satellite photos) combined with traditional GIS data sources. W e define our vision, describe sensing and interaction approaches, provide three exemplars, and enumerate key challenges and opportunities for future work.

Autonomous trading strategies have been a subject of research within the field of artificial intelligence (AI) for aconsiderable period. Various AI techniques have been explored to develop autonomous agents capable of trading financial assets. These approaches encompass traditional methods such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, and reinforcement learning, as well as more recent advancements, including deep neural networks and deep reinforcement learning. Many developers report success in creating strategies that exhibit strong performance during simulations using historical price data, a process commonly referred to as backtesting. However, when these strategies are deployed in real markets, their performance often deteriorates, particularly in terms of risk-adjusted returns. In this study, we propose an AI-based strategy inspired by a classical investment paradigm: Value Investing. Financial AI models are highly susceptible to lookahead bias and other forms of bias that can significantly inflate performance in backtesting compared to live trading conditions. To address this issue, we conducted a series of computational simulations while controlling for these biases, thereby reducing the risk of overfitting. Our results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms major Brazilian market benchmarks. Moreover, the strategy, named AlphaX, demonstrated superior performance relative to widely used technical indicators such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Money Flow Index (MFI), with statistically significant results. Finally, we discuss several open challenges and highlight emerging technologies in qualitative analysis that may contribute to the development of a comprehensive AI-based Value Investing framework in the future

Building on prior research on Generative AI (GenAI) and related tools for programming education, we developed SCRIPT, a chatbot based on ChatGPT -4o-mini, to support novice learners. SCRIPT allows for open-ended interactions and structured guidance through predefined prompts. We evaluated the tool via an experiment with 136 students from an introductory programming course at a large German university and analyzed how students interacted with SCRIPT while solving programming tasks with a focus on their feedback preferences. The results reveal that students' feedback requests seem to follow a specific sequence. Moreover, the chatbot responses aligned well with students' requested feedback types (in 75%), and it adhered to the system prompt constraints. These insights inform the design of GenAI-based learning support systems and highlight challenges in balancing guidance and flexibility in AI-assisted tools.