A Survey on Private Transformer Inference

Transformer models have revolutionized AI, enabling applications like content generation and sentiment analysis. However, their use in Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) raises significant privacy concerns, as centralized servers process sensitive user data. Private Transformer Inference (PTI) addresses these issues using cryptographic techniques such as Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and Homomorphic Encryption (HE), enabling secure model inference without exposing inputs or models. This paper reviews recent advancements in PTI, analyzing state-of-the-art solutions, their challenges, and potential improvements. We also propose evaluation guidelines to assess resource efficiency and privacy guarantees, aiming to bridge the gap between high-performance inference and data privacy.

Towards Adaptive Mechanism Activation in Language Agent

Language Agent could be endowed with different mechanisms for autonomous task accomplishment. Current agents typically rely on fixed mechanisms or a set of mechanisms activated in a predefined order, limiting their adaptation to varied potential task solution structures. To this end, this paper proposes \textbf{A}daptive \textbf{L}anguage \textbf{A}gent \textbf{M}echanism \textbf{A}ctivation Learning with Self-Exploration (\textbf{ALAMA}), which focuses on optimizing mechanism activation adaptability without reliance on expert models. Initially, it builds a harmonized agent framework (\textbf{UniAct}) to \textbf{Uni}fy different mechanisms via \textbf{Act}ions. Then it leverages a training-efficient optimization method based on self-exploration to enable the UniAct to adaptively activate the appropriate mechanisms according to the potential characteristics of the task. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvements in downstream agent tasks, affirming the effectiveness of our approach in facilitating more dynamic and context-sensitive mechanism activation.

One Mind, Many Tongues: A Deep Dive into Language-Agnostic Knowledge Neurons in Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) have learned vast amounts of factual knowledge through self-supervised pre-training on large-scale corpora. Meanwhile, LLMs have also demonstrated excellent multilingual capabilities, which can express the learned knowledge in multiple languages. However, the knowledge storage mechanism in LLMs still remains mysterious. Some researchers attempt to demystify the factual knowledge in LLMs from the perspective of knowledge neurons, and subsequently discover language-agnostic knowledge neurons that store factual knowledge in a form that transcends language barriers. However, the preliminary finding suffers from two limitations: 1) High Uncertainty in Localization Results. Existing study only uses a prompt-based probe to localize knowledge neurons for each fact, while LLMs cannot provide consistent answers for semantically equivalent queries. Thus, it leads to inaccurate localization results with high uncertainty. 2) Lack of Analysis in More Languages. The study only analyzes language-agnostic knowledge neurons on English and Chinese data, without exploring more language families and languages. Naturally, it limits the generalizability of the findings. To address aforementioned problems, we first construct a new benchmark called Rephrased Multilingual LAMA (RML-LAMA), which contains high-quality cloze-style multilingual parallel queries for each fact. Then, we propose a novel method named Multilingual Integrated Gradients with Uncertainty Estimation (MATRICE), which quantifies the uncertainty across queries and languages during knowledge localization. Extensive experiments show that our method can accurately localize language-agnostic knowledge neurons. We also further investigate the role of language-agnostic knowledge neurons in cross-lingual knowledge editing, knowledge enhancement and new knowledge injection.

Data Processing Efficiency Aware User Association and Resource Allocation in Blockchain Enabled Metaverse over Wireless Communications

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the Metaverse, enhanced by blockchain technology, the efficient processing of data has emerged as a critical challenge, especially in wireless communication systems. Addressing this need, our paper introduces the innovative concept of data processing efficiency (DPE), aiming to maximize processed bits per unit of resource consumption in blockchain-empowered Metaverse environments. To achieve this, we propose the DPE-Aware User Association and Resource Allocation (DAUR) algorithm, a tailored solution for these complex systems. The DAUR algorithm transforms the challenging task of optimizing the sum of DPE ratios into a solvable convex optimization problem. It uniquely alternates the optimization of key variables like user association, work offloading ratios, task-specific computing resource distribution, bandwidth allocation, user power usage ratios, and server computing resource allocation ratios. Our extensive numerical results demonstrate the DAUR algorithm's effectiveness in DPE.

LLaSA: Large Language and Structured Data Assistant

Structured data, such as tables, graphs, and databases, play a critical role in plentiful NLP tasks such as question answering and dialogue system. Recently, inspired by Vision-Language Models, Graph Neutral Networks (GNNs) have been introduced as an additional modality into the input of Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve their performance on Structured Knowledge Grounding (SKG) tasks. However, those GNN-enhanced LLMs have the following limitations: (1) They employ diverse GNNs to model varying types of structured data, rendering them unable to uniformly process various forms of structured data. (2) The pretraining of GNNs is coupled with specific LLMs, which prevents GNNs from fully aligning with the textual space and limits their adaptability to other LLMs. To address these issues, we propose \textbf{L}arge \textbf{L}anguage and \textbf{S}tructured Data \textbf{A}ssistant (LLaSA), a general framework for enhancing LLMs' ability to handle structured data. Specifically, we represent various types of structured data in a unified hypergraph format, and use self-supervised learning to pretrain a hypergraph encoder, and a G-Former compressing encoded hypergraph representations with cross-attention. The compressed hypergraph representations are appended to the serialized inputs during training and inference stages of LLMs. Experimental results on multiple SKG tasks show that our pretrained hypergraph encoder can adapt to various LLMs and enhance their ability to process different types of structured data. Besides, LLaSA, with LoRA fine-tuning, outperforms previous SOTA method using full parameters tuning.

DTELS: Towards Dynamic Granularity of Timeline Summarization

The rapid proliferation of online news has posed significant challenges in tracking the continuous development of news topics. Traditional timeline summarization constructs a chronological summary of the events but often lacks the flexibility to meet the diverse granularity needs. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a new paradigm, Dynamic-granularity TimELine Summarization, (DTELS), which aims to construct adaptive timelines based on user instructions or requirements. This paper establishes a comprehensive benchmark for DTLES that includes: (1) an evaluation framework grounded in journalistic standards to assess the timeline quality across four dimensions: Informativeness, Granular Consistency, Factuality, and Coherence; (2) a large-scale, multi-source dataset with multiple granularity timeline annotations based on a consensus process to facilitate authority; (3) extensive experiments and analysis with two proposed solutions based on Large Language Models (LLMs) and existing state-of-the-art TLS methods. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of LLM-based solutions. However, even the most advanced LLMs struggle to consistently generate timelines that are both informative and granularly consistent, highlighting the challenges of the DTELS task.

JoyVASA: Portrait and Animal Image Animation with Diffusion-Based Audio-Driven Facial Dynamics and Head Motion Generation

Audio-driven portrait animation has made significant advances with diffusion-based models, improving video quality and lipsync accuracy. However, the increasing complexity of these models has led to inefficiencies in training and inference, as well as constraints on video length and inter-frame continuity. In this paper, we propose JoyVASA, a diffusion-based method for generating facial dynamics and head motion in audio-driven facial animation. Specifically, in the first stage, we introduce a decoupled facial representation framework that separates dynamic facial expressions from static 3D facial representations. This decoupling allows the system to generate longer videos by combining any static 3D facial representation with dynamic motion sequences. Then, in the second stage, a diffusion transformer is trained to generate motion sequences directly from audio cues, independent of character identity. Finally, a generator trained in the first stage uses the 3D facial representation and the generated motion sequences as inputs to render high-quality animations. With the decoupled facial representation and the identity-independent motion generation process, JoyVASA extends beyond human portraits to animate animal faces seamlessly. The model is trained on a hybrid dataset of private Chinese and public English data, enabling multilingual support. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of our approach. Future work will focus on improving real-time performance and refining expression control, further expanding the applications in portrait animation. The code will be available at: https://jdhalgo.github.io/JoyVASA.

Commonsense Knowledge Editing Based on Free-Text in LLMs

Knowledge editing technology is crucial for maintaining the accuracy and timeliness of large language models (LLMs) . However, the setting of this task overlooks a significant portion of commonsense knowledge based on free-text in the real world, characterized by broad knowledge scope, long content and non instantiation. The editing objects of previous methods (e.g., MEMIT) were single token or entity, which were not suitable for commonsense knowledge in free-text form. To address the aforementioned challenges, we conducted experiments from two perspectives: knowledge localization and knowledge editing. Firstly, we introduced Knowledge Localization for Free-Text(KLFT) method, revealing the challenges associated with the distribution of commonsense knowledge in MLP and Attention layers, as well as in decentralized distribution. Next, we propose a Dynamics-aware Editing Method(DEM), which utilizes a Dynamics-aware Module to locate the parameter positions corresponding to commonsense knowledge, and uses Knowledge Editing Module to update knowledge. The DEM method fully explores the potential of the MLP and Attention layers, and successfully edits commonsense knowledge based on free-text. The experimental results indicate that the DEM can achieve excellent editing performance.

PGDiffSeg: Prior-Guided Denoising Diffusion Model with Parameter-Shared Attention for Breast Cancer Segmentation

Early detection through imaging and accurate diagnosis is crucial in mitigating the high mortality rate associated with breast cancer. However, locating tumors from low-resolution and high-noise medical images is extremely challenging. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel PGDiffSeg (Prior-Guided Diffusion Denoising Model with Parameter-Shared Attention) that applies diffusion denoising methods to breast cancer medical image segmentation, accurately recovering the affected areas from Gaussian noise. Firstly, we design a parallel pipeline for noise processing and semantic information processing and propose a parameter-shared attention module (PSA) in multi-layer that seamlessly integrates these two pipelines. This integration empowers PGDiffSeg to incorporate semantic details at multiple levels during the denoising process, producing highly accurate segmentation maps. Secondly, we introduce a guided strategy that leverages prior knowledge to simulate the decision-making process of medical professionals, thereby enhancing the model's ability to locate tumor positions precisely. Finally, we provide the first-ever discussion on the interpretability of the generative diffusion model in the context of breast cancer segmentation. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the superiority of our model over the current state-of-the-art approaches, confirming its effectiveness as a flexible diffusion denoising method suitable for medical image research. Our code will be publicly available later.

A Troublemaker with Contagious Jailbreak Makes Chaos in Honest Towns

With the development of large language models, they are widely used as agents in various fields. A key component of agents is memory, which stores vital information but is susceptible to jailbreak attacks. Existing research mainly focuses on single-agent attacks and shared memory attacks. However, real-world scenarios often involve independent memory. In this paper, we propose the Troublemaker Makes Chaos in Honest Town (TMCHT) task, a large-scale, multi-agent, multi-topology text-based attack evaluation framework. TMCHT involves one attacker agent attempting to mislead an entire society of agents. We identify two major challenges in multi-agent attacks: (1) Non-complete graph structure, (2) Large-scale systems. We attribute these challenges to a phenomenon we term toxicity disappearing. To address these issues, we propose an Adversarial Replication Contagious Jailbreak (ARCJ) method, which optimizes the retrieval suffix to make poisoned samples more easily retrieved and optimizes the replication suffix to make poisoned samples have contagious ability. We demonstrate the superiority of our approach in TMCHT, with 23.51%, 18.95%, and 52.93% improvements in line topology, star topology, and 100-agent settings. Encourage community attention to the security of multi-agent systems.