Unified framework for fair decision-making across diverse groups.
problem Statistical brittleness in fairness testing for small subgroups.
method Size-adaptive hypothesis testing framework.
result Validated approach for interpretable, statistically rigorous decisions.
The paper highlights AI brittleness and the need for robust testing out-of-distribution performance.
problem The brittleness of AI systems, especially Deep Neural Networks, limits their reliability and certification.
method Analysis of AI brittleness and OOD performance, emphasizing the need for resilience and improved evaluation methods.
result AI systems are more failure-prone than certified in critical systems, and OOD performance falls off gradually.
Machine learning predicts failure in brittle materials with high accuracy.
problem Predicting failure in brittle materials under repetitive loads.
method Phase-field model combined with supervised machine learning.
result Framework predicts failure with acceptable accuracy even in noisy data.
New method robust to semi-random sparse recovery, nearly-linear time.
problem Brittleness of fast sparse recovery algorithms under generative model changes.
method Designing a new iterative method robust to semi-random model.
result Proves robustness of new method to semi-random generative models.
We propose a machine learning approach to address a key challenge in materials science: predicting how fractures propagate in brittle materials under stress, and how these materials ultimately fail. Our methods use deep learning and train on simulation data from high-fidelity models, emulating the results of these mode…
Study identifies key parameters and input dimensions making LLMs and VLMs brittle.
problem Vulnerability of large language and vision-language models to perturbations.
method Proposed FI measure based on information geometry to quantify sensitivity.
result Small subset of high FI parameters significantly contribute to brittleness.
Standard neural network architectures are non-linear only by virtue of a simple element-wise activation function, making them both brittle and excessively large. In this paper, we consider methods for making the feed-forward layer more flexible while preserving its basic structure. We develop simple drop-in replacement…
AI needs causal inference to avoid being just a correlation machine.
problem AI's inability to distinguish correlation from causation.
method Develops a unified framework connecting various causal statistical estimators and proves a Statistical Necessity Theorem for causal generalization.
result AI systems without causal grounding are brittle and biased, highlighting the need for causal statistics.
Improves efficiency of simulators that fail to return.
problem Computational inefficiency in simulators that don't return for certain inputs.
method Trains a conditional normalizing flow to propose perturbations.
result Increased computational efficiency of simulators.
In this paper, five different approaches for reduced-order modeling of brittle fracture in geomaterials, specifically concrete, are presented and compared. Four of the five methods rely on machine learning (ML) algorithms to approximate important aspects of the brittle fracture problem. In addition to the ML algorithms…
ARO overfits by making constraints dependent on uncertainty, leading to brittleness.
problem ARO's adaptive policies become brittle when realizations fall outside the uncertainty set.
method Assigning constraint-specific uncertainty set sizes with probabilistic guarantees.
result Regularization through specific uncertainty set sizes ensures stability and flexibility.
New framework detects out-of-distribution samples efficiently.
problem Detecting samples from different distributions in deep neural networks.
method Statistical hypothesis testing framework combining evidence from entire network.
result Framework maintains Type I Error and achieves comparable results to state-of-the-art methods.
Recent reinforcement learning algorithms, though achieving impressive results in various fields, suffer from brittle training effects such as regression in results and high sensitivity to initialization and parameters. We claim that some of the brittleness stems from variance differences, i.e. when different environmen…
Polynomial-time algorithm finds planted hypercube vectors in Gaussian mixtures.
problem Clustering d-dimensional Gaussian mixtures with unknown covariance.
method Lattice-based methods using Lenstra--Lenstra--Lovasz reduction.
result Achieves statistically-optimal sample complexity of d+1 samples.
A model learns causal graphs from summary statistics of synthetic data.
problem Causal discovery algorithms are brittle with large sets of variables and limited data.
method A supervised model trained on synthetic data predicts causal graphs from summary statistics.
result The model generalizes well beyond its training set and runs on large graphs.
OPAL optimizes labeling strategy for precise inference from uncertain models.
problem Inference from uncertain machine learning models is brittle.
method OPAL learns a smooth policy to adaptively label data points based on model uncertainty.
result OPAL yields estimators with the lowest variance and achieves nominal coverage in finite samples.
Transformers simulate finite-state automata with fewer layers.
problem How do shallow, non-recurrent Transformers simulate complex computations?
method Hierarchical reparameterization of recurrent dynamics to simulate automata.
result Polynomial-sized, O(logT)-depth solutions exist and are common. Inference-Time Scaling can be extended to domains prone to systematic failure using intrinsic statistics.
problem Scaling inference time in domains prone to systematic failure
method Intrinsic Selection (iS), Intrinsic Particle Filtering (iPF), and Particle Distillation (dPF)
result Intrinsic Selection improves engineering design selection by 20% and pass@1 by 6.1 points on average.
DAFNO learns surrogates for complex systems on irregular geometries.
problem Learning accurate surrogates for complex physical systems on irregular geometries.
method DAFNO incorporates a smoothed characteristic function in the integral layer architecture of FNOs, leveraging FFT for rapid computations.
result DAFNO achieves state-of-the-art accuracy on material modeling and airfoil simulation datasets.
Adversarial examples have attracted significant attention in machine learning, but the reasons for their existence and pervasiveness remain unclear. We demonstrate that adversarial examples can be directly attributed to the presence of non-robust features: features derived from patterns in the data distribution that ar…
The risks and perils of overfitting in machine learning are well known. However most of the treatment of this, including diagnostic tools and remedies, was developed for the supervised learning case. In this work, we aim to offer new perspectives on the characterization and prevention of overfitting in deep Reinforceme…
Deep neural networks have been increasingly used in software engineering and program analysis tasks. They usually take a program and make some predictions about it, e.g., bug prediction. We call these models neural program analyzers. The reliability of neural programs can impact the reliability of the encompassing anal…
Novel Bayesian neural network method for robustness.
problem Adversarial robustness without online training.
method Distributes uncertainty across all inputs.
result Demonstrates robustness on benchmark datasets.
IGNIS uses neural networks to estimate copula parameters robustly.
problem Pathological properties of Archimedean copulas make traditional estimators brittle.
method Unified neural estimation framework with multi-input architecture and softplus output layer.
result Accurate and stable estimates for real-world datasets.
Optimizes structure topology for ductile and brittle fracture resistance.
problem Minimizing mass while ensuring structural damage and fracture resistance.
method Phase-field approach for modeling fracture, level-set topology optimization.
result Enhanced fracture resistance through two formulations.
While current benchmark reinforcement learning (RL) tasks have been useful to drive progress in the field, they are in many ways poor substitutes for learning with real-world data. By testing increasingly complex RL algorithms on low-complexity simulation environments, we often end up with brittle RL policies that gene…
New method calibrates models under covariate shifts.
problem Calibration of models can be lost under covariate shifts.
method Importance sampling based approach.
result Efficacy demonstrated on real-world and synthetic datasets.
Standard stochastic optimization methods are brittle, sensitive to stepsize choices and other algorithmic parameters, and they exhibit instability outside of well-behaved families of objectives. To address these challenges, we investigate models for stochastic minimization and learning problems that exhibit better robu…
Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) have developed into useful tools for probabilistic modelling due to recent advances in variational inference enabling large scale BNNs. However, BNNs remain brittle and hard to train, especially: (1) when using deep architectures consisting of many hidden layers and (2) in situations wit…
Introduces PCG for better counterfactual explanations in vision models.
problem Ambiguity in latent-space optimization methods for counterfactual explanations.
method Constructs counterfactuals by tracing geodesics under a perceptually Riemannian metric.
result PCG outperforms baselines and reveals hidden failure modes.
Recent work has shown that state-of-the-art classifiers are quite brittle, in the sense that a small adversarial change of an originally with high confidence correctly classified input leads to a wrong classification again with high confidence. This raises concerns that such classifiers are vulnerable to attacks and ca…
Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms for continuous action spaces are known to be brittle toward hyperparameters as well as \cut{being}sample inefficient. Soft Actor Critic (SAC) proposes an off-policy deep actor critic algorithm within the maximum entropy RL framework which offers greater stability and empiric…
Variational Proximal Policy Optimization improves reinforcement learning from human feedback.
problem Policy mode collapse and brittle exploration loops in reinforcement learning.
method Particle-based variational inference framework with Mixture-of-Experts architecture.
result Significant improvements in complex reasoning benchmarks.
Maximizes robustness in Bayesian experimental design under model uncertainty.
problem Brittleness of Bayesian experimental design under model misspecification.
method Formulates as a max--min game, uses Sibson's α-MI, and adopts PAC-Bayes framework.
result Establishes robust belief update and conditional information gain measure.
A robust approach compensates for small-data tasks in mixed linear regression.
problem Learning from small batches of data in tasks with many similar but insufficiently labeled examples.
method Spectral approach combining outlier-robust PCA and sum-of-squares algorithms.
result The approach achieves a graceful statistical trade-off, allowing smaller tasks than previously required.
A simple method treats heteroscedastic variance variatively, improving model calibration and sample quality.
problem Brittle optimization impacts model likelihoods for mean and variance estimation.
method Proposes a variational approach to heteroscedastic variance, improving predictive mean and variance calibration.
result The proposed method significantly improves parameter calibration and sample quality for regression and VAEs.
Modern deep neural networks are well known to be brittle in the face of unknown data instances and recognition of the latter remains a challenge. Although it is inevitable for continual-learning systems to encounter such unseen concepts, the corresponding literature appears to nonetheless focus primarily on alleviating…
K-means clustering improved for robustness to outliers and distribution shifts.
problem K-means is brittle to outliers, distribution shifts, and limited samples.
method Developed a distributionally robust variant using Wasserstein-2 ball around the empirical distribution.
result Substantial gains in outlier detection and robustness to noise demonstrated.
The DoD needs a robust process to evaluate AI/ML model performance and robustness.
problem AI/ML models are brittle and nonrobust, posing risks in national security.
method Reviews AI/ML development process and best practices for evaluation.
result Recommendations for DoD evaluators to ensure robust AI/ML capabilities.
The study assesses external validity by evaluating worst-case treatment effects across subpopulations.
problem Underrepresentation of marginalized groups and limited study populations.
method Develops a semiparametrically efficient estimator for worst-case treatment effects (WTE) and uses cross-fitting to guard against brittle findings.
result The proposed framework guards against invalid findings due to unanticipated population shifts.
Machine learning promises methods that generalize well from finite labeled data. However, the brittleness of existing neural net approaches is revealed by notable failures, such as the existence of adversarial examples that are misclassified despite being nearly identical to a training example, or the inability of recu…
Machine learning is currently dominated by largely experimental work focused on improvements in a few key tasks. However, the impressive accuracy numbers of the best performing models are questionable because the same test sets have been used to select these models for multiple years now. To understand the danger of ov…
We study the problem of using i.i.d. samples from an unknown multivariate probability distribution p to estimate the mutual information of p. This problem has recently received attention in two settings: (1) where p is assumed to be Gaussian and (2) where p is assumed only to lie in a large nonparametric smooth…
Extends DRFGP to make GPs more robust and adaptive for dynamic, noisy data.
problem Limited scalability, static targets, and brittleness to outliers in GPs.
method Introduces robust-filtering update and dynamic adaptation mechanism.
result Enhanced stability and accuracy in modeling dynamic, noisy data.
New method reduces over-pessimism in Bayesian control under parameter uncertainty.
problem Over-pessimism in Bayesian control due to misspecified priors.
method Distributionally robust Bayesian control (DRBC) with strong duality and optimization.
result Validated algorithm on synthetic and real data, reducing over-pessimism.
Deconfounding scores improve causal effect estimation with weak overlap.
problem Challenges in causal treatment effect estimation due to weak overlap in high-dimensional data.
method Propose deconfounding scores to preserve identification and target estimation while improving overlap.
result Prognostic scores are overlap-optimal under a broad family of generalized linear models with Gaussian features.
SmoothLLM defends LLMs from jailbreaking attacks by randomly perturbing inputs.
problem Adversaries can fool large language models into generating objectionable content.
method SmoothLLM randomly perturbs multiple copies of a prompt and aggregates predictions to detect adversarial inputs.
result SmoothLLM sets the state-of-the-art for robustness against various jailbreak attacks.
Framework uses LLMs to automate strategy finding in quantitative finance.
problem Brittleness of traditional deep learning models in financial applications.
method Three-stage framework with prompt-engineered LLMs, multimodal agent-based evaluation, and dynamic weight optimization.
result Robust performance in Chinese & US markets, superior risk-adjusted performance.