A key component to a MoE model is the routing (gating) strategy.

With the rapid adoption of large language models (LLMs) in natural language processing, the ability to follow instructions has emerged as a key metric for evaluating their practical utility. However, existing evaluation methods often focus on single-language scenarios, overlooking the challenges and differences present in multilingual and cross-lingual contexts. To address this gap, we introduce MaXIFE: a comprehensive evaluation benchmark designed to assess instruction-following capabilities across 23 different languages with 1667 verifiable instruction tasks. MaXIFE integrates both Rule-Based Evaluation and Model-Based Evaluation, ensuring a balance of efficiency and accuracy. We applied MaXIFE to evaluate several leading commercial LLMs, establishing baseline results for future comparisons. By providing a standardized tool for multilingual instruction-following evaluation, MaXIFE aims to advance research and development in natural language processing.

The lifespan of a games console has extended a lot since I was a child. In the 1990s, this kind of technology would be out of date after just a couple of years. There would be some tantalising new machine out before you knew it, everybody competing to be on the cutting edge: the Game Boy and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1989 were followed by the Game Gear in 1990 and the Super NES in 1991. Five years was a long life for a gaming machine. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released in a couple of weeks, more than eight years since I first picked an original Switch up off its dock and marvelled at the instant transition to portable play.

Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) has emerged as a widely adopted technique in text-to-image models, enabling precise rendering of multiple distinct elements, such as characters and styles, in multi-concept image generation. However, current approaches face significant challenges when composing these LoRAs for multi-concept image generation, resulting in diminished generated image quality. In this paper, we initially investigate the role of LoRAs in the denoising process through the lens of the Fourier frequency domain. Based on the hypothesis that applying multiple LoRAs could lead to "semantic conflicts", we find that certain LoRAs amplify high-frequency features such as edges and textures, whereas others mainly focus on low-frequency elements, including the overall structure and smooth color gradients. Building on these insights, we devise a frequency domain based sequencing strategy to determine the optimal order in which LoRAs should be integrated during inference. This strategy offers a methodical and generalizable solution compared to the naive integration commonly found in existing LoRA fusion techniques. To fully leverage our proposed LoRA order sequence determination method in multi-LoRA composition tasks, we introduce a novel, training-free framework, Cached Multi-LoRA (CMLoRA), designed to efficiently integrate multiple LoRAs while maintaining cohesive image generation. With its flexible backbone for multi-LoRA fusion and a non-uniform caching strategy tailored to individual LoRAs, CMLoRA has the potential to reduce semantic conflicts in LoRA composition and improve computational efficiency. Our experimental evaluations demonstrate that CMLoRA outperforms state-of-the-art training-free LoRA fusion methods by a significant margin -- it achieves an average improvement of $2.19\%$ in CLIPScore, and $11.25\%$ in MLLM win rate compared to LoraHub, LoRA Composite, and LoRA Switch.

The days of game consoles being ready for action as soon as they're plugged in are long gone, I'm afraid. Whether you've gone for an Xbox, PlayStation or Switch, your machine will need time to download the latest firmware updates before you can play anything. Depending on your broadband connection this can take anything from one to eight hours, so if you're a parent, you may want to think about how you're going to keep everyone entertained until that's done. If it's not already beautifully wrapped, it may even be worth sneakily unpacking the console and doing this prep-work before Christmas morning. If you have a spare ethernet cable (or can nick one from your PC for a day), consider setting up your console with a wired connection to your router rather than over wifi – this usually gives you a faster, more reliable connection.

Online multiplayer has become part and parcel with many video games these days, but finding something you can play on the couch with a loved one has gotten tougher. If you're looking for some cooperative fun, though, we can help. Below are 25 of the best couch co-op games we've played across the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Note that we're focusing on genuine co-op experiences, not games that have local multiplayer but aren't truly cooperative in practice. Even still, our list encompasses everything from platformers and puzzlers to RPGs and arcade shooters. You know the broad strokes of any Super Mario game by now. Within the series, though, 3D World stands out for using a largely fixed camera and levels that are more semi-3D than the totally open spaces of games like Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Galaxy.

Since the Nintendo Switch launched back in 2017, it has been marred by reports of'Joy-Con drift', where the detachable controllers register movements without the users touching them. The bug can make video games unplayable and has left many consumers out of pocket having to buy expensive replacement controllers, which can cost around £70. Now, an experiment by Which? has tested faulty controllers, revealing a crucial design flaw that is to blame. Based on the findings, Which? is calling on Nintendo to act urgently to fix the issues. Since the Nintendo Switch launched back in 2017, it has been marred by reports of'Joy-Con drift', where the detachable controllers register movements without the users touching them Gamers who use the Nintendo Switch have complained of a defect in their controllers dubbed'Joy-Con Drift.' 'Drift' is an infuriating flaw which causes video game characters to move about on screen or cameras to zoom out awkwardly without the player even touching the control stick. It first surfaced as a problem soon after the console was launched in 2017.

Since its 2017 release, the Nintendo Switch has become a household game console for gamers and non-gamers alike. Few consoles penetrate the mainstream deeply enough to have parents referring to a console by its proper name, instead of their children's "Gameboy" or "Wii". Even fewer come together as a complete package that ties together the ideologies and technical ideas of their preceding consoles like the Nintendo Switch has. This graphic visualizes the Nintendo Switch sales success story alongside more than 20 years of Nintendo console sales. Nintendo has a long and storied history in gaming--but since the release of the original Game Boy in 1989, the company has favored a two-pronged approach with its game consoles: having both a portable handheld console and a home console which connects to a TV on the market.

Games have always been an important part of the Christmas experience – whether we like it or not. Back in the middle ages, households gathered together in the bleak midwinter to play versions of blind man's buff and truth or dare; Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was inspired by a game played in aristocratic households where the masters and servants swapped roles for a night on the last day of Christmas. The Victorians were famous for their parlour games with charades and twenty questions as important to the 19th century experience of Christmas as roasted goose and rampant diphtheria. During my own childhood in the 1970s and 1980s, board games ruled the festive period. Frankly, was it even Christmas until someone (me) flipped the dining room table during a particularly sociopathic game of Monopoly?

Last week, like many Americans, I traveled home for Thanksgiving. I chose not to bring my Switch with me because, well, I've sort of moved on. It's old and underpowered compared to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and, besides, the last couple years of being a homebody (thanks to lockdowns and remote work) have rendered its portability meaningless to me. And then I actually caught (a very mild case of) COVID and was stranded in Kansas for an extra week with no video games. Readers, I've never appreciated the Switch more than I did when it would have saved me from a week of extreme boredom.