Canada

Deep learning models such as CNNs have surpassed human
performance in computer vision tasks such as image classi-
fication. However, despite their sophistication, these models
lack interpretability which can lead to biased outcomes re-
flecting existing prejudices in the data. We aim to make pre-
dictions made by a CNN interpretable. Hence, we present a
novel framework called NeSyFOLD to create a neurosym-
bolic (NeSy) model for image classification tasks. The model
is a CNN with all layers following the last convolutional layer
replaced by a stratified answer set program (ASP) derived
from the last layer kernels. The answer set program can be
viewed as a rule-set, wherein the truth value of each pred-
icate depends on the activation of the corresponding kernel
in the CNN. The rule-set serves as a global explanation for
the model and is interpretable. We also use our NeSyFOLD
framework with a CNN that is trained using a sparse kernel
learning technique called Elite BackProp (EBP). This leads to
a significant reduction in rule-set size without compromising
accuracy or fidelity thus improving scalability of the NeSy
model and interpretability of its rule-set. Evaluation is done
on datasets with varied complexity and sizes. We also pro-
pose a novel algorithm for labelling the predicates in the rule-
set with meaningful semantic concept(s) learnt by the CNN.
We evaluate the performance of our “semantic labelling algo-
rithm” to quantify the efficacy of the semantic labelling for
both the NeSy model and the NeSy-EBP model.

AAAI 2024

NeSyFOLD: A Framework for Interpretable Image Classification

neurosymbolic ai

machine learning

technical paper

We are pleased to announce the Thirty-Eighth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-24), which will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia at the Vancouver Convention Centre – West Building from 20-27 February, 2024.

The purpose of the AAAI conference series is to promote research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and foster scientific exchange between researchers, practitioners, scientists, students, and engineers across the entirety of AI and its affiliated disciplines. AAAI-24 will feature technical paper presentations, special tracks, invited speakers, workshops, tutorials, poster sessions, senior member presentations, competitions, and exhibit programs, and a range of other activities to be announced.

We expect for AAAI-24 to be an in-person conference – one author of all accepted papers will be expected to present work in person unless there are exceptional circumstances that prevent this.<br><br><br><br>

In order to access the AAAI-24 event page you need to register [here](https://aaai.org/aaai-conference/registration/)

The purpose of the AAAI conference series is to promote research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and foster scientific exchange between researchers, practitioners, scientists, students, and engineers across the entirety of AI and its affiliated disciplines. 

Deep learning-based surrogate models have demonstrated remarkable advantages over classical solvers in terms of speed, often achieving speedups of 10 to 1000 times over traditional partial differential equation (PDE) solvers. However, a significant challenge hindering their widespread adoption in both scientific and industrial domains is the lack of understanding about their prediction uncertainties, particularly in scenarios that involve critical decision making. To address this limitation, we propose a method that integrates efficient and precise uncertainty quantification into a deep learning-based surrogate model. Our method, termed Latent Evolution of PDEs with Uncertainty Quantification (LE-PDE-UQ), endows deep learning-based surrogate models with robust and efficient uncertainty quantification capabilities for both forward and inverse problems. LE-PDE-UQ leverages latent vectors within a latent space to evolve both the system's state and its corresponding uncertainty estimation. The latent vectors are decoded to provide predictions for the system's state as well as estimates of its uncertainty. In extensive experiments, we demonstrate the accurate uncertainty quantification performance of our approach, surpassing that of strong baselines including deep ensembles, Bayesian neural network layers, and dropout. Our method excels at propagating uncertainty over extended auto-regressive rollouts, making it suitable for scenarios involving long-term predictions. Our code is available at: https://github.com/AI4Science-WestlakeU/le-pde-uq.

Uncertainty Quantification for Forward and Inverse Problems of PDEs via Latent Global Evolution

The selection of the assumed effect size (AES) critically determines the duration of an experiment, and hence its accuracy and efficiency. Traditionally, experimenters determine AES based on domain knowledge. However, this method becomes impractical for online experimentation services managing numerous experiments, and  a more automated approach is hence of great  demand. We initiate the study of data-driven AES selection in for online experimentation services by introducing two  solutions. The first employs a three-layer Gaussian Mixture Model considering the heteroskedasticity across experiments, and it seeks to estimate the true expected effect size among  positive experiments. The second method, grounded in utility theory, aims to determine the optimal effect size by striking a balance between the experiment's cost and the precision of decision-making. Through comparisons with baseline methods using both simulated and real data, we showcase the superior performance of the proposed approaches.

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Numerous methods are proposed for the Traffic Signal Control (TSC) tasks aiming to provide efficient transportation and mitigate congestion waste. In recent, promising results have been attained by Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods through trial and error in simulators, bringing confidence in solving cities' congestion headaches. However, there still exist performance gaps when simulator-trained policies are deployed to the real world. This issue is mainly introduced by the system dynamic difference between the training simulator and the real-world environments. The Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on mass knowledge and proved to be equipped with astonishing inference abilities.
In this work, we leverage LLMs to understand and profile the system dynamics by a prompt-based grounded action transformation. Accepting the cloze prompt template, then filling in the answer based on accessible context, the pre-trained LLM's inference ability is exploited and applied to understand how weather conditions, traffic states, and road types influence traffic dynamics, being aware of this, the policies' action is taken and grounded based on realistic dynamics, thus help the agent learn a more realistic policy. We conduct experiments using DQN to show the effectiveness of the proposed PromptGAT's ability in mitigating the performance gap from simulation to reality (sim-to-real).

Prompt to Transfer: Sim-to-Real Transfer for Traffic Signal Control with Prompt Learning

Training deep learning models and performing hyperparameter tuning can be computationally demanding and time-consuming. Meanwhile, traditional machine learning methods like gradient-boosting algorithms remain the preferred choice for most tabular data applications, while neural network alternatives require extensive hyperparameter tuning or work only in toy datasets under limited settings. In this paper, we introduce HyperFast, a meta-trained hypernetwork designed for instant classification of tabular data in a single forward pass. HyperFast generates a task-specific neural network tailored to an unseen dataset that can be directly used for classification inference, removing the need for training a model. We report extensive experiments with OpenML and genomic data, comparing HyperFast to competing tabular data neural networks, traditional ML methods, AutoML systems, and boosting machines. HyperFast shows highly competitive results, while being significantly faster. Additionally, our approach demonstrates robust adaptability across a variety of classification tasks with little to no fine-tuning, positioning HyperFast as a strong solution for numerous applications and rapid model deployment. HyperFast introduces a promising paradigm for fast classification, with the potential to substantially decrease the computational burden of deep learning. Our code, which offers a scikit-learn-like interface, along with the trained HyperFast model, can be found at https://github.com/AI-sandbox/HyperFast.

HyperFast: Instant Classification for Tabular Data

In this paper we propose a method for the optimal allocation of observations between an intrinsically explainable glass box model and a black box model. An optimal allocation being defined as one which, for any given explainability level (i.e. the proportion of observations for which the explainable model is the prediction function), maximizes the performance of the ensemble on the underlying task, and maximizes performance of the explainable model on the observations allocated to it, subject to the maximal ensemble performance condition. The proposed method is shown to produce such explainability optimal allocations on a benchmark suite of tabular datasets across a variety of explainable and black box model types. These learned allocations are found to consistently maintain ensemble performance at very high explainability levels (explaining 74% of observations on average), and in some cases even outperform both the component explainable and black box models while improving explainability.

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Removing shadows requires an understanding of both lighting conditions and object textures in a scene. Existing methods typically learn pixel-level color mappings between
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NeSyFOLD: A Framework for Interpretable Image Classification

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