Publications

Open Problems in Technical AI Governance
Anka Reuel
Benjamin Bucknall
Stephen Casper
Timothy Fist
Lisa Soder
Onni Aarne
Lewis Hammond
Lujain Ibrahim
Alan Chan
Peter Wills
Markus Anderljung
Ben Garfinkel
Lennart Heim
Andrew Trask
Gabriel Mukobi
Rylan Schaeffer
Mauricio Baker
Sara Hooker
Irene Solaiman
Sasha Luccioni … (see 14 more)
Alexandra Luccioni
Nitarshan Rajkumar
Nicolas Moës
Jeffrey Ladish
David Bau
Paul Bricman
Neel Guha
Jessica Newman
Yoshua Bengio
Tobin South
Alex Pentland
Sanmi Koyejo
Mykel Kochenderfer
Robert Trager
AI progress is creating a growing range of risks and opportunities, but it is often unclear how they should be navigated. In many cases, the… (see more) barriers and uncertainties faced are at least partly technical. Technical AI governance, referring to technical analysis and tools for supporting the effective governance of AI, seeks to address such challenges. It can help to (a) identify areas where intervention is needed, (b) identify and assess the efficacy of potential governance actions, and (c) enhance governance options by designing mechanisms for enforcement, incentivization, or compliance. In this paper, we explain what technical AI governance is, why it is important, and present a taxonomy and incomplete catalog of its open problems. This paper is intended as a resource for technical researchers or research funders looking to contribute to AI governance.
2025-04-13
Transactions on Machine Learning Research (accepted)
doi.org
openreview.net
Predicting College Enrollment for Low-Socioeconomic-Status Students Using Machine Learning Approaches
Surina He
Mehrdad Yousefpoori-Naeim
Ying Cui
Maria Cutumisu
2025-04-11
Big Data and Cognitive Computing (published)
doi.org
BindGPT: A Scalable Framework for 3D Molecular Design via Language Modeling and Reinforcement Learning
Artem Zholus
Maksim Kuznetsov
Roman Schutski
Shayakhmetov Rim
Daniil Polykovskiy
A. Chandar
Alex Zhavoronkov
Generating novel active molecules for a given protein is an extremely challenging task for generative models that requires an understanding … (see more)of the complex physical interactions between the molecule and its environment. In this paper, we present a novel generative model, BindGPT which uses a conceptually simple but powerful approach to create 3D molecules within the protein's binding site. Our model produces molecular graphs and conformations jointly, eliminating the need for an extra graph reconstruction step. We pretrain BindGPT on a large-scale dataset and fine-tune it with reinforcement learning using scores from external simulation software. We demonstrate how a single pretrained language model can serve at the same time as a 3D molecular generative model, conformer generator conditioned on the molecular graph, and a pocket-conditioned 3D molecule generator. Notably, the model does not make any representational equivariance assumptions about the domain of generation. We show how such simple conceptual approach combined with pretraining and scaling can perform on par or better than the current best specialized diffusion models, language models, and graph neural networks while being two orders of magnitude cheaper to sample.
2025-04-10
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (published)
doi.org
arxiv.org
Designing Ambiguity Sets for Distributionally Robust Optimization Using Structural Causal Optimal Transport
Ahmad-reza Ehyaei
Golnoosh Farnadi
Samira Samadi
Distributionally robust optimization tackles out-of-sample issues like overfitting and distribution shifts by adopting an adversarial approa… (see more)ch over a range of possible data distributions, known as the ambiguity set. To balance conservatism and accuracy, these sets must include realistic probability distributions by leveraging information from the nominal distribution. Assuming that nominal distributions arise from a structural causal model with a directed acyclic graph
2025-04-10
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (published)
doi.org
arxiv.org
Engineering TCR-controlled fuzzy logic into CAR T cells enhances therapeutic specificity
Taisuke Kondo
François X.P. Bourassa
Sooraj Achar
MyLinh T. Duong
Anirvan Ghosh
Jérémy Biton
Grégoire Altan-Bonnet
Paul François
Naomi Taylor
2025-04-10
Cell (unknown)
doi.org
Enhancing Privacy in the Early Detection of Sexual Predators Through Federated Learning and Differential Privacy
Khaoula Chehbouni
Martine De Cock
Gilles Caporossi
Afaf Taïk
Reihaneh Rabbany
Golnoosh Farnadi
The increased screen time and isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a significant surge in cases of online grooming, which i… (see more)s the use of strategies by predators to lure children into sexual exploitation. Previous efforts to detect grooming in industry and academia have involved accessing and monitoring private conversations through centrally-trained models or sending private conversations to a global server. In this work, we implement a privacy-preserving pipeline for the early detection of sexual predators. We leverage federated learning and differential privacy in order to create safer online spaces for children while respecting their privacy. We investigate various privacy-preserving implementations and discuss their benefits and shortcomings. Our extensive evaluation using real-world data proves that privacy and utility can coexist with only a slight reduction in utility.
2025-04-10
AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (published)
doi.org
arxiv.org
FoMo: Multi-Modal, Multi-Scale and Multi-Task Remote Sensing Foundation Models for Forest Monitoring
Nikolaos Ioannis Bountos
Arthur Ouaknine
Ioannis Papoutsis
David Rolnick
Forests are vital to ecosystems, supporting biodiversity and essential services, but are rapidly changing due to land use and climate change… (see more). Understanding and mitigating negative effects requires parsing data on forests at global scale from a broad array of sensory modalities, and using them in diverse forest monitoring applications. Such diversity in data and applications can be effectively addressed through the development of a large, pre-trained foundation model that serves as a versatile base for various downstream tasks. However, remote sensing modalities, which are an excellent fit for several forest management tasks, are particularly challenging considering the variation in environmental conditions, object scales, image acquisition modes, spatio-temporal resolutions, etc. With that in mind, we present the first unified Forest Monitoring Benchmark (FoMo-Bench), carefully constructed to evaluate foundation models with such flexibility. FoMo-Bench consists of 15 diverse datasets encompassing satellite, aerial, and inventory data, covering a variety of geographical regions, and including multispectral, red-green-blue, synthetic aperture radar and LiDAR data with various temporal, spatial and spectral resolutions. FoMo-Bench includes multiple types of forest-monitoring tasks, spanning classification, segmentation, and object detection. To enhance task and geographic diversity in FoMo-Bench, we introduce TalloS, a global dataset combining satellite imagery with ground-based annotations for tree species classification across 1,000+ categories and hierarchical taxonomic levels. Finally, we propose FoMo-Net, a pre-training framework to develop foundation models with the capacity to process any combination of commonly used modalities and spectral bands in remote sensing.
2025-04-10
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (published)
doi.org
arxiv.org
A Layer Selection Approach to Test Time Adaptation
Sabyasachi Sahoo
Mostafa Elaraby
Jonas Ngnawe
Yann Batiste Pequignot
Frédéric Precioso
Christian Gagné
Test Time Adaptation (TTA) addresses the problem of distribution shift by adapting a pretrained model to a new domain during inference. When… (see more) faced with challenging shifts, most methods collapse and perform worse than the original pretrained model. In this paper, we find that not all layers are equally receptive to the adaptation, and the layers with the most misaligned gradients often cause performance degradation. To address this, we propose GALA, a novel layer selection criterion to identify the most beneficial updates to perform during test time adaptation. This criterion can also filter out unreliable samples with noisy gradients. Its simplicity allows seamless integration with existing TTA loss functions, thereby preventing degradation and focusing adaptation on the most trainable layers. This approach also helps to regularize adaptation to preserve the pretrained features, which are crucial for handling unseen domains. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed layer selection framework improves the performance of existing TTA approaches across multiple datasets, domain shifts, model architectures, and TTA losses.
2025-04-10
AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (published)
doi.org
openreview.net
AgentAda: Skill-Adaptive Data Analytics for Tailored Insight Discovery
Amirhossein Abaskohi
Amrutha Varshini Ramesh
Shailesh Nanisetty
Chirag Goel
David Vázquez
Christopher Pal
Spandana Gella
Giuseppe Carenini
Issam Hadj Laradji
2025-04-09
ArXiv (preprint)
doi.org
openreview.net
Efficient and scalable construction of clinical variable networks for complex diseases with RAMEN.
Yiwei Xiong
Jingtao Wang
Xiaoxiao Shang
Tingting Chen
Douglas D. Fraser
Gregory Fonseca
Simon Rousseau
Jun Ding
2025-04-09
Cell Reports Methods (published)
doi.org
Genetic modulation of brain dynamics in neurodevelopmental disorders: the impact of copy number variations on resting-state EEG
Adrien E. E. Dubois
Elisabeth Audet-Duchesne
Inga Sophia Knoth
Charles-Olivier Martin
Khadije Jizi
Petra Tamer
Nadine Younis
Sébastien Jacquemont
Guillaume Dumas
Sarah Lippé
Research has shown that many copy number variations (CNVs) increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism, ADHD, schizophre… (see more)nia). However, little is known about the effects of CNVs on brain development and function. Resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) is a suitable method to study the disturbances of neuronal functioning in CNVs. We aimed to determine whether there are resting-state EEG signatures that are characteristic of children with pathogenic CNVs. EEG resting-state brain activity of 109 CNV carriers (66 deletion carriers, 43 duplication carriers) aged 3 to 17 years was recorded for 4 minutes. To better account for developmental variations, EEG indices (power spectral density and functional connectivity) were corrected with a normative model estimated from 256 Healthy Brain Network controls. Results showed a decreased exponent of the aperiodic activity and a reduced alpha peak frequency in CNV carriers. Additionally, the study showed altered periodic components and connectivity in several frequency bands. Deletion and duplication carriers exhibited a similar overall pattern of deviations in spectral and connectivity measures, although the significance and effect sizes relative to the control group varied across frequency bands. Deletion and duplication carriers can be differentiated by their periodic power in the gamma band and connectivity in the low alpha band, with duplication carriers showing more disrupted alterations than deletion carriers. The distinctive alterations in spectral patterns were found to be most prominent during adolescence. The results suggest that CNV carriers show electrophysiological alterations compared to neurotypical controls, regardless of the gene dosage effect and their affected genomic region. At the same time, while duplications and deletions share common electrophysiological alterations, each exhibits distinct brain alteration signatures that reflect gene dosage-specific effects.
2025-04-09
Translational Psychiatry (published)
doi.org
Leveraging Machine Learning Techniques in Intrusion Detection Systems for Internet of Things
Saeid Jamshidi
Amin Nikanjam
Kawser Wazed Nafi
Foutse Khomh
As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand, ensuring the security of connected devices has become increasingly critical. Traditiona… (see more)l Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) often fall short in managing the dynamic and large-scale nature of IoT networks. This paper explores how Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques can significantly enhance IDS performance in IoT environments. We provide a thorough overview of various IDS deployment strategies and categorize the types of intrusions common in IoT systems. A range of ML methods -- including Support Vector Machines, Naive Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbors, Decision Trees, and Random Forests -- are examined alongside advanced DL models such as LSTM, CNN, Autoencoders, RNNs, and Deep Belief Networks. Each technique is evaluated based on its accuracy, efficiency, and suitability for real-world IoT applications. We also address major challenges such as high false positive rates, data imbalance, encrypted traffic analysis, and the resource constraints of IoT devices. In addition, we highlight the emerging role of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in improving threat detection, automating responses, and generating intelligent security policies. Finally, we discuss ethical and privacy concerns, underscoring the need for responsible and transparent implementation. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive framework for developing adaptive, intelligent, and secure IDS solutions tailored for the evolving landscape of IoT.
2025-04-08
ArXiv (preprint)
doi.org
arxiv.org