Evaluating retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) presents challenges, particularly for retrieval models within these systems. Traditional end-to-end evaluation methods are computationally expensive. Furthermore, evaluation of the retrieval model's performance based on query-document relevance labels shows a small correlation with the RAG system's downstream performance. We propose a novel evaluation approach, eRAG, where each document in the retrieval list is individually utilized by the large language model within the RAG system. The output generated for each document is then evaluated based on the downstream task ground truth labels. In this manner, the downstream performance for each document serves as its relevance label. We employ various downstream task metrics to obtain document-level annotations and aggregate them using set-based or ranking metrics. Extensive experiments on a wide range of datasets demonstrate that eRAG achieves a higher correlation with downstream RAG performance compared to baseline methods, with improvements in Kendall's $\tau$ correlation ranging from 0.168 to 0.494. Additionally, eRAG offers significant computational advantages, improving runtime and consuming up to 50 times less GPU memory than end-to-end evaluation.
We develop a Bayesian inference method for discretely-observed stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Inference is challenging for most SDEs, due to the analytical intractability of the likelihood function. Nevertheless, forward simulation via numerical methods is straightforward, motivating the use of approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). We propose a conditional simulation scheme for SDEs that is based on lookahead strategies for sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) and particle smoothing using backward simulation. This leads to the simulation of trajectories that are consistent with the observed trajectory, thereby increasing the ABC acceptance rate. We additionally employ an invariant neural network, previously developed for Markov processes, to learn the summary statistics function required in ABC. The neural network is incrementally retrained by exploiting an ABC-SMC sampler, which provides new training data at each round. Since the SDEs simulation scheme differs from standard forward simulation, we propose a suitable importance sampling correction, which has the added advantage of guiding the parameters towards regions of high posterior density, especially in the first ABC-SMC round. Our approach achieves accurate inference and is about three times faster than standard (forward-only) ABC-SMC. We illustrate our method in five simulation studies, including three examples from the Chan-Karaolyi-Longstaff-Sanders SDE family, a stochastic bi-stable model (Schl{\"o}gl) that is notoriously challenging for ABC methods, and a two dimensional biochemical reaction network.
Recent strides in nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) underscore a dependence on numerical advancements to efficiently and accurately solve large-scale problems. Given the substantial number of variables characterizing typical whole-body optimal control (OC) problems - often numbering in the thousands - exploiting the sparse structure of the numerical problem becomes crucial to meet computational demands, typically in the range of a few milliseconds. Addressing the linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) problem is a fundamental building block for computing Newton or Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) steps in direct optimal control methods. This paper concentrates on equality-constrained problems featuring implicit system dynamics and dual regularization, a characteristic of advanced interiorpoint or augmented Lagrangian solvers. Here, we introduce a parallel algorithm for solving an LQR problem with dual regularization. Leveraging a rewriting of the LQR recursion through block elimination, we first enhanced the efficiency of the serial algorithm and then subsequently generalized it to handle parametric problems. This extension enables us to split decision variables and solve multiple subproblems concurrently. Our algorithm is implemented in our nonlinear numerical optimal control library ALIGATOR. It showcases improved performance over previous serial formulations and we validate its efficacy by deploying it in the model predictive control of a real quadruped robot.
Efficiently modeling spatio-temporal (ST) physical processes and observations presents a challenging problem for the deep learning community. Many recent studies have concentrated on meticulously reconciling various advantages, leading to designed models that are neither simple nor practical. To address this issue, this paper presents a systematic study on existing shortcomings faced by off-the-shelf models, including lack of local fidelity, poor prediction performance over long time-steps,low scalability, and inefficiency. To systematically address the aforementioned problems, we propose an EarthFarseer, a concise framework that combines parallel local convolutions and global Fourier-based transformer architectures, enabling dynamically capture the local-global spatial interactions and dependencies. EarthFarseer also incorporates a multi-scale fully convolutional and Fourier architectures to efficiently and effectively capture the temporal evolution. Our proposal demonstrates strong adaptability across various tasks and datasets, with fast convergence and better local fidelity in long time-steps predictions. Extensive experiments and visualizations over eight human society physical and natural physical datasets demonstrates the state-of-the-art performance of EarthFarseer. We release our code at //github.com/easylearningscores/EarthFarseer.
The effectiveness of spectral-spatial feature learning is crucial for the hyperspectral image (HSI) classification task. Diffusion models, as a new class of groundbreaking generative models, have the ability to learn both contextual semantics and textual details from the distinct timestep dimension, enabling the modeling of complex spectral-spatial relations in HSIs. However, existing diffusion-based HSI classification methods only utilize manually selected single-timestep single-stage features, limiting the full exploration and exploitation of rich contextual semantics and textual information hidden in the diffusion model. To address this issue, we propose a novel diffusion-based feature learning framework that explores Multi-Timestep Multi-Stage Diffusion features for HSI classification for the first time, called MTMSD. Specifically, the diffusion model is first pretrained with unlabeled HSI patches to mine the connotation of unlabeled data, and then is used to extract the multi-timestep multi-stage diffusion features. To effectively and efficiently leverage multi-timestep multi-stage features,two strategies are further developed. One strategy is class & timestep-oriented multi-stage feature purification module with the inter-class and inter-timestep prior for reducing the redundancy of multi-stage features and alleviating memory constraints. The other one is selective timestep feature fusion module with the guidance of global features to adaptively select different timestep features for integrating texture and semantics. Both strategies facilitate the generality and adaptability of the MTMSD framework for diverse patterns of different HSI data. Extensive experiments are conducted on four public HSI datasets, and the results demonstrate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods for HSI classification, especially on the challenging Houston 2018 dataset.
In offline reinforcement learning, the challenge of out-of-distribution (OOD) is pronounced. To address this, existing methods often constrain the learned policy through policy regularization. However, these methods often suffer from the issue of unnecessary conservativeness, hampering policy improvement. This occurs due to the indiscriminate use of all actions from the behavior policy that generates the offline dataset as constraints. The problem becomes particularly noticeable when the quality of the dataset is suboptimal. Thus, we propose Adaptive Advantage-guided Policy Regularization (A2PR), obtaining high-advantage actions from an augmented behavior policy combined with VAE to guide the learned policy. A2PR can select high-advantage actions that differ from those present in the dataset, while still effectively maintaining conservatism from OOD actions. This is achieved by harnessing the VAE capacity to generate samples matching the distribution of the data points. We theoretically prove that the improvement of the behavior policy is guaranteed. Besides, it effectively mitigates value overestimation with a bounded performance gap. Empirically, we conduct a series of experiments on the D4RL benchmark, where A2PR demonstrates state-of-the-art performance. Furthermore, experimental results on additional suboptimal mixed datasets reveal that A2PR exhibits superior performance. Code is available at //github.com/ltlhuuu/A2PR.
We present new results to model and understand the role of encoder-decoder design in machine learning (ML) from an information-theoretic angle. We use two main information concepts, information sufficiency (IS) and mutual information loss (MIL), to represent predictive structures in machine learning. Our first main result provides a functional expression that characterizes the class of probabilistic models consistent with an IS encoder-decoder latent predictive structure. This result formally justifies the encoder-decoder forward stages many modern ML architectures adopt to learn latent (compressed) representations for classification. To illustrate IS as a realistic and relevant model assumption, we revisit some known ML concepts and present some interesting new examples: invariant, robust, sparse, and digital models. Furthermore, our IS characterization allows us to tackle the fundamental question of how much performance (predictive expressiveness) could be lost, using the cross entropy risk, when a given encoder-decoder architecture is adopted in a learning setting. Here, our second main result shows that a mutual information loss quantifies the lack of expressiveness attributed to the choice of a (biased) encoder-decoder ML design. Finally, we address the problem of universal cross-entropy learning with an encoder-decoder design where necessary and sufficiency conditions are established to meet this requirement. In all these results, Shannon's information measures offer new interpretations and explanations for representation learning.
Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Llama-2 have become prevalent in real-world applications, exhibiting impressive text generation performance. LLMs are fundamentally developed from a scenario where the input data remains static and lacks a clear structure. To behave interactively over time, LLM-based chat systems must integrate additional contextual information (i.e., chat history) into their inputs, following a pre-defined structure. This paper identifies how such integration can expose LLMs to misleading context from untrusted sources and fail to differentiate between system and user inputs, allowing users to inject context. We present a systematic methodology for conducting context injection attacks aimed at eliciting disallowed responses by introducing fabricated context. This could lead to illegal actions, inappropriate content, or technology misuse. Our context fabrication strategies, acceptance elicitation and word anonymization, effectively create misleading contexts that can be structured with attacker-customized prompt templates, achieving injection through malicious user messages. Comprehensive evaluations on real-world LLMs such as ChatGPT and Llama-2 confirm the efficacy of the proposed attack with success rates reaching 97%. We also discuss potential countermeasures that can be adopted for attack detection and developing more secure models. Our findings provide insights into the challenges associated with the real-world deployment of LLMs for interactive and structured data scenarios.
Accurate prediction of future trajectories for surrounding vehicles is vital for the safe operation of autonomous vehicles. This study proposes a Lane Graph Transformer (LGT) model with structure-aware capabilities. Its key contribution lies in encoding the map topology structure into the attention mechanism. To address variations in lane information from different directions, four Relative Positional Encoding (RPE) matrices are introduced to capture the local details of the map topology structure. Additionally, two Shortest Path Distance (SPD) matrices are employed to capture distance information between two accessible lanes. Numerical results indicate that the proposed LGT model achieves a significantly higher prediction performance on the Argoverse 2 dataset. Specifically, the minFDE$_6$ metric was decreased by 60.73% compared to the Argoverse 2 baseline model (Nearest Neighbor) and the b-minFDE$_6$ metric was reduced by 2.65% compared to the baseline LaneGCN model. Furthermore, ablation experiments demonstrated that the consideration of map topology structure led to a 4.24% drop in the b-minFDE$_6$ metric, validating the effectiveness of this model.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) merges retrieval methods with deep learning advancements to address the static limitations of large language models (LLMs) by enabling the dynamic integration of up-to-date external information. This methodology, focusing primarily on the text domain, provides a cost-effective solution to the generation of plausible but incorrect responses by LLMs, thereby enhancing the accuracy and reliability of their outputs through the use of real-world data. As RAG grows in complexity and incorporates multiple concepts that can influence its performance, this paper organizes the RAG paradigm into four categories: pre-retrieval, retrieval, post-retrieval, and generation, offering a detailed perspective from the retrieval viewpoint. It outlines RAG's evolution and discusses the field's progression through the analysis of significant studies. Additionally, the paper introduces evaluation methods for RAG, addressing the challenges faced and proposing future research directions. By offering an organized framework and categorization, the study aims to consolidate existing research on RAG, clarify its technological underpinnings, and highlight its potential to broaden the adaptability and applications of LLMs.
As an effective strategy, data augmentation (DA) alleviates data scarcity scenarios where deep learning techniques may fail. It is widely applied in computer vision then introduced to natural language processing and achieves improvements in many tasks. One of the main focuses of the DA methods is to improve the diversity of training data, thereby helping the model to better generalize to unseen testing data. In this survey, we frame DA methods into three categories based on the diversity of augmented data, including paraphrasing, noising, and sampling. Our paper sets out to analyze DA methods in detail according to the above categories. Further, we also introduce their applications in NLP tasks as well as the challenges.