Recent developments in Language Models (LMs) have shown their effectiveness in NLP tasks, particularly in knowledge-intensive tasks. However, the mechanisms underlying knowledge storage and memory access within their parameters remain elusive. In this paper, we investigate whether a generative LM (e.g., GPT-2) is able to access its memory sequentially or randomly. Through carefully-designed synthetic tasks, covering the scenarios of full recitation, selective recitation and grounded question answering, we reveal that LMs manage to sequentially access their memory while encountering challenges in randomly accessing memorized content. We find that techniques including recitation and permutation improve the random memory access capability of LMs. Furthermore, by applying this intervention to realistic scenarios of open-domain question answering, we validate that enhancing random access by recitation leads to notable improvements in question answering. The code to reproduce our experiments can be found at //github.com/sail-sg/lm-random-memory-access.
This study explores the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for automatic evaluation of knowledge graph (KG) completion models. Historically, validating information in KGs has been a challenging task, requiring large-scale human annotation at prohibitive cost. With the emergence of general-purpose generative AI and LLMs, it is now plausible that human-in-the-loop validation could be replaced by a generative agent. We introduce a framework for consistency and validation when using generative models to validate knowledge graphs. Our framework is based upon recent open-source developments for structural and semantic validation of LLM outputs, and upon flexible approaches to fact checking and verification, supported by the capacity to reference external knowledge sources of any kind. The design is easy to adapt and extend, and can be used to verify any kind of graph-structured data through a combination of model-intrinsic knowledge, user-supplied context, and agents capable of external knowledge retrieval.
The rapidly evolving multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs) urgently require new benchmarks to uniformly evaluate their performance on understanding and textually describing music. However, due to semantic gaps between Music Information Retrieval (MIR) algorithms and human understanding, discrepancies between professionals and the public, and low precision of annotations, existing music description datasets cannot serve as benchmarks. To this end, we present MuChin, the first open-source music description benchmark in Chinese colloquial language, designed to evaluate the performance of multimodal LLMs in understanding and describing music. We established the Caichong Music Annotation Platform (CaiMAP) that employs an innovative multi-person, multi-stage assurance method, and recruited both amateurs and professionals to ensure the precision of annotations and alignment with popular semantics. Utilizing this method, we built a dataset with multi-dimensional, high-precision music annotations, the Caichong Music Dataset (CaiMD), and carefully selected 1,000 high-quality entries to serve as the test set for MuChin. Based on MuChin, we analyzed the discrepancies between professionals and amateurs in terms of music description, and empirically demonstrated the effectiveness of annotated data for fine-tuning LLMs. Ultimately, we employed MuChin to evaluate existing music understanding models on their ability to provide colloquial descriptions of music. All data related to the benchmark, along with the scoring code and detailed appendices, have been open-sourced (//github.com/CarlWangChina/MuChin/).
Recent developments in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) have created a paradigm shift in multiple areas of society, and the use of these technologies is likely to become a defining feature of education in coming decades. GenAI offers transformative pedagogical opportunities, while simultaneously posing ethical and academic challenges. Against this backdrop, we outline a practical, simple, and sufficiently comprehensive tool to allow for the integration of GenAI tools into educational assessment: the AI Assessment Scale (AIAS). The AIAS empowers educators to select the appropriate level of GenAI usage in assessments based on the learning outcomes they seek to address. The AIAS offers greater clarity and transparency for students and educators, provides a fair and equitable policy tool for institutions to work with, and offers a nuanced approach which embraces the opportunities of GenAI while recognising that there are instances where such tools may not be pedagogically appropriate or necessary. By adopting a practical, flexible approach that can be implemented quickly, the AIAS can form a much-needed starting point to address the current uncertainty and anxiety regarding GenAI in education. As a secondary objective, we engage with the current literature and advocate for a refocused discourse on GenAI tools in education, one which foregrounds how technologies can help support and enhance teaching and learning, which contrasts with the current focus on GenAI as a facilitator of academic misconduct.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are frequently discussed in academia and the general public as support tools for virtually any use case that relies on the production of text, including software engineering. Currently there is much debate, but little empirical evidence, regarding the practical usefulness of LLM-based tools such as ChatGPT for engineers in industry. We conduct an observational study of 24 professional software engineers who have been using ChatGPT over a period of one week in their jobs, and qualitatively analyse their dialogues with the chatbot as well as their overall experience (as captured by an exit survey). We find that, rather than expecting ChatGPT to generate ready-to-use software artifacts (e.g., code), practitioners more often use ChatGPT to receive guidance on how to solve their tasks or learn about a topic in more abstract terms. We also propose a theoretical framework for how (i) purpose of the interaction, (ii) internal factors (e.g., the user's personality), and (iii) external factors (e.g., company policy) together shape the experience (in terms of perceived usefulness and trust). We envision that our framework can be used by future research to further the academic discussion on LLM usage by software engineering practitioners, and to serve as a reference point for the design of future empirical LLM research in this domain.
The landscape of maintenance in distributed systems is rapidly evolving with the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Also, as the complexity of computing continuum systems intensifies, the role of AI in predictive maintenance (Pd.M.) becomes increasingly pivotal. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the current state of Pd.M. in the computing continuum, with a focus on the combination of scalable AI technologies. Recognizing the limitations of traditional maintenance practices in the face of increasingly complex and heterogenous computing continuum systems, the study explores how AI, especially machine learning and neural networks, is being used to enhance Pd.M. strategies. The survey encompasses a thorough review of existing literature, highlighting key advancements, methodologies, and case studies in the field. It critically examines the role of AI in improving prediction accuracy for system failures and in optimizing maintenance schedules, thereby contributing to reduced downtime and enhanced system longevity. By synthesizing findings from the latest advancements in the field, the article provides insights into the effectiveness and challenges of implementing AI-driven predictive maintenance. It underscores the evolution of maintenance practices in response to technological advancements and the growing complexity of computing continuum systems. The conclusions drawn from this survey are instrumental for practitioners and researchers in understanding the current landscape and future directions of Pd.M. in distributed systems. It emphasizes the need for continued research and development in this area, pointing towards a trend of more intelligent, efficient, and cost-effective maintenance solutions in the era of AI.
Two goals - improving replicability and accountability of Machine Learning research respectively, have accrued much attention from the AI ethics and the Machine Learning community. Despite sharing the measures of improving transparency, the two goals are discussed in different registers - replicability registers with scientific reasoning whereas accountability registers with ethical reasoning. Given the existing challenge of the Responsibility Gap - holding Machine Learning scientists accountable for Machine Learning harms due to them being far from sites of application, this paper posits that reconceptualizing replicability can help bridge the gap. Through a shift from model performance replicability to claim replicability, Machine Learning scientists can be held accountable for producing non-replicable claims that are prone to eliciting harm due to misuse and misinterpretation. In this paper, I make the following contributions. First, I define and distinguish two forms of replicability for ML research that can aid constructive conversations around replicability. Second, I formulate an argument for claim-replicability's advantage over model performance replicability in justifying assigning accountability to Machine Learning scientists for producing non-replicable claims and show how it enacts a sense of responsibility that is actionable. In addition, I characterize the implementation of claim replicability as more of a social project than a technical one by discussing its competing epistemological principles, practical implications on Circulating Reference, Interpretative Labor, and research communication.
As the Windows OS stands out as one of the most targeted systems, the PowerShell language has become a key tool for malicious actors and cybersecurity professionals (e.g., for penetration testing). This work explores an uncharted domain in AI code generation by automatically generating offensive PowerShell code from natural language descriptions using Neural Machine Translation (NMT). For training and evaluation purposes, we propose two novel datasets with PowerShell code samples, one with manually curated descriptions in natural language and another code-only dataset for reinforcing the training. We present an extensive evaluation of state-of-the-art NMT models and analyze the generated code both statically and dynamically. Results indicate that tuning NMT using our dataset is effective at generating offensive PowerShell code. Comparative analysis against the most widely used LLM service ChatGPT reveals the specialized strengths of our fine-tuned models.
In pace with developments in the research field of artificial intelligence, knowledge graphs (KGs) have attracted a surge of interest from both academia and industry. As a representation of semantic relations between entities, KGs have proven to be particularly relevant for natural language processing (NLP), experiencing a rapid spread and wide adoption within recent years. Given the increasing amount of research work in this area, several KG-related approaches have been surveyed in the NLP research community. However, a comprehensive study that categorizes established topics and reviews the maturity of individual research streams remains absent to this day. Contributing to closing this gap, we systematically analyzed 507 papers from the literature on KGs in NLP. Our survey encompasses a multifaceted review of tasks, research types, and contributions. As a result, we present a structured overview of the research landscape, provide a taxonomy of tasks, summarize our findings, and highlight directions for future work.
In contrast to batch learning where all training data is available at once, continual learning represents a family of methods that accumulate knowledge and learn continuously with data available in sequential order. Similar to the human learning process with the ability of learning, fusing, and accumulating new knowledge coming at different time steps, continual learning is considered to have high practical significance. Hence, continual learning has been studied in various artificial intelligence tasks. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the recent progress of continual learning in computer vision. In particular, the works are grouped by their representative techniques, including regularization, knowledge distillation, memory, generative replay, parameter isolation, and a combination of the above techniques. For each category of these techniques, both its characteristics and applications in computer vision are presented. At the end of this overview, several subareas, where continuous knowledge accumulation is potentially helpful while continual learning has not been well studied, are discussed.
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have been studied from the lens of expressive power and generalization. However, their optimization properties are less well understood. We take the first step towards analyzing GNN training by studying the gradient dynamics of GNNs. First, we analyze linearized GNNs and prove that despite the non-convexity of training, convergence to a global minimum at a linear rate is guaranteed under mild assumptions that we validate on real-world graphs. Second, we study what may affect the GNNs' training speed. Our results show that the training of GNNs is implicitly accelerated by skip connections, more depth, and/or a good label distribution. Empirical results confirm that our theoretical results for linearized GNNs align with the training behavior of nonlinear GNNs. Our results provide the first theoretical support for the success of GNNs with skip connections in terms of optimization, and suggest that deep GNNs with skip connections would be promising in practice.