AI For Young Learners Pdf

AI For Young Learners Pdf — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Shell Control Box

    Shell Control Box

    Shell Control Box (SCB) is a network security appliance that controls privileged access to remote IT systems, records activities in replayable audit trails, and prevents malicious actions. For example, it records as a system administrator updates a file server or a third-party network operator configures a router. The recorded audit trails can be replayed like a movie to review the events as they occurred. The content of the audit trails is indexed to make searching for events and automatic reporting possible. SCB is a Linux-based device developed by Balabit. It is an application level proxy gateway. In 2017, Balabit changed the name of the product to Privileged Session Management (PSM) and repositioned it as the core module of its Privileged Access Management solution. == Main Features == Balabit’s Privileged Session Management (PSM), Shell Control Box (SCB) is a device that controls, monitors, and audits remote administrative access to servers and network devices. It is a tool to oversee system administrators by controlling the encrypted connections used for administration. PSM (SCB) has full control over the SSH, RDP, Telnet, TN3270, TN5250, Citrix ICA, and VNC connections, providing a framework (with solid boundaries) for the work of the administrators. === Gateway Authentication === PSM (SCB) acts as an authentication gateway, enforcing strong authentication before users access IT assets. PSM can also integrate to user directories (for example, a Microsoft Active Directory) to resolve the group memberships of the users who access the protected servers. Credentials for accessing the server are retrieved transparently from PSM’s credential store or a third-party password management system by PSM impersonating the authenticated user. This automatic password retrieval protects the confidentiality of passwords as users can never access them. === Access Control === PSM controls and audits privileged access over the most wide-spread protocols such as SSH, RDP, or HTTP(s). The detailed access management helps to control who can access what and when on servers. It is also possible to control advanced features of the protocols, like the type of channels permitted. For example, unneeded channels like file transfer or file sharing can be disabled, reducing the security risk on the server. With PSM policies for privileged access can be enforced in one single system. === 4-eyes Authorization === To avoid accidental misconfiguration and other human errors, PSM supports the 4-eyes authorization principle. This is achieved by requiring an authorizer to allow administrators to access the server. The authorizer also has the possibility to monitor – and terminate - the session of the administrator in real-time, as if they were watching the same screen. === Real-time Monitoring and Session Termination === PSM can monitor the network traffic in real time, and execute various actions if a certain pattern (for example, a suspicious command, window title or text) appears on the screen. PSM can also detect specific patterns such as credit card numbers. In case of detecting a suspicious user action, PSM can send an e-mail alert or immediately terminate the connection. For example, PSM can block the connection before a destructive administrator command, such as the „rm” comes into effect. === Session Recording === PSM makes user activities traceable by recording them in tamper-proof and confidential audit trails. It records the selected sessions into encrypted, timestamped, and digitally signed audit trails. Audit trails can be browsed online, or followed real-time to monitor the activities of the users. PSM replays the recorded sessions just like a movie – actions of the users can be seen exactly as they appeared on their monitor. The Balabit Desktop Player enables fast forwarding during replays, searching for events (for example, typed commands or pressing Enter) and texts seen by the user. In the case of any problems (database manipulation, unexpected shutdown, etc.) the circumstances of the event are readily available in the trails, thus the cause of the incident can be identified. In addition to recording audit trails, transferred files can be also recorded and extracted for further analysis.

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  • Privacy Lost

    Privacy Lost

    Privacy Lost is a 2023 short science fiction film directed by Peter Stoel and Robert Berger. It follows a family using augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) devices capable of reading emotional states, raising questions about privacy and manipulation. == Premise == Privacy Lost follows a family using AR glasses that capture and interpret emotions in real time. As the parents argue in a restaurant, their emotional states and even hidden feelings become visible through these glasses. An AI-driven waiter adapts its appearance for each family member, employing emotional data to influence their decisions. == Cast == Brian Kant as Waiter Michael Krass as Husband Estelle Levinson as Waitress Thor van der Linden as Scotty Carlijn van Ramshorst as Wife == Production == Filming took place at HeadQ Productions, a virtual studio located in Amsterdam. The creators sought to depict a near-future scenario in which real-time emotion analysis becomes part of daily interactions. The film was screened at the Augmented World Expo (AWE), where it was noted for its thematic focus on AI-driven manipulation and emotional tracking. The depiction of AR glasses and AI characters integrates modern visual effects to show how devices might analyze emotional responses in real time. It also depicts how AI-driven interactions could influence consumer decisions, pointing to concerns over potential misuse. == Themes == Privacy Lost focuses on the intersection of advanced AI capabilities and AR environments, showing how real-time emotional analysis can be leveraged for targeted persuasion. The film aims to highlight the social and ethical implications of emerging AR and AI technologies, underlining how establishing clear regulatory frameworks for them is necessary to protect individual privacy, govern the storage of emotion-based data, and prevent manipulative practices. Critics describe the film’s theme as dystopian and note that such a reality is unlikely to occur in the near future. However, despite the exaggerated scenario, the film emphasizes the importance of a responsible approach by developers toward emerging technologies.

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  • AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

    AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

    The AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence is a leading international academic conference in artificial intelligence held annually. It ranks 4th in terms of H5 Index in Google Scholar's list of top AI publications, after ICLR, NeurIPS, and ICML. It is supported by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), after which it is named. Precise dates vary from year to year, but paper submissions are generally due at the end of August to beginning of September, and the conference is generally held during the following February. The first AAAI was held in 1980 at Stanford University, Stanford California. During AAAI-20 conference, AI pioneers and 2018 Turing Award winners (often referred to as the Nobel Prize of Computing) Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio, among eight other researchers, were honored as the AAAI 2020 Fellows. Along with other conferences such as NeurIPS and ICML, AAAI uses an artificial-intelligence algorithm to assign papers to reviewers. == Sponsors == Many leading technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon (company), IBM, Baidu, Bytedance, and Huawei, generously sponsor and participate in AAAI to publish and showcase their latest theoretical and applied research. Sponsoring companies also actively recruit AI talents at the conference. == Locations == AAAI-2026 Singapore Expo, Singapore AAAI-2025 Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States AAAI-2024 Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada AAAI-2023 Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C., United States AAAI-2022 Virtual Conference AAAI-2021 Virtual Conference AAAI-2020 Hilton New York Midtown, New York, New York, United States AAAI-2019 Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States AAAI-2018 Hilton New Orleans Riverside, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States AAAI-2017 San Francisco, California, United States AAAI-2016 Phoenix, Arizona, United States AAAI-2015 Austin, Texas, United States AAAI-2014 Québec Convention Center, Québec City, Québec, Canada AAAI-2013 Bellevue, Washington, United States AAAI-2012 Toronto, Ontario, Canada AAAI-2011 San Francisco, California, United States AAAI-2010 Westin Peachtree Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia, United States AAAI-2008 Chicago, Illinois, United States AAAI-2007 Toronto, Ontario, Canada AAAI-2006 Boston, Massachusetts, United States AAAI-2005 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States AAAI-2004 San Jose, California, United States AAAI-2002 Shaw conference center in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada AAAI-2000 Austin, Texas, United States AAAI-1999 Orlando, Florida, United States AAAI-1998 Madison, Wisconsin, United States AAAI-1997 Providence, Rhode Island, United States AAAI-1996 Portland, Oregon, United States AAAI-1994 Seattle, Washington, United States AAAI-1993 Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C., United States AAAI-1992 San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California, United States AAAI-1991 Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California, United States AAAI-1990 Boston, Massachusetts, United States AAAI-1988 Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States AAAI-1987 Seattle, Washington, United States AAAI-1986 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States AAAI-1984 University of Texas, Austin, Texas, United States AAAI-1983 Washington, D.C., United States AAAI-1982 Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States AAAI-1980 Stanford, California, United States

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  • Deepfake pornography

    Deepfake pornography

    Deepfake pornography is a form of non-consensual AI pornography created by altering existing photographs or videos using deepfake technology to modify the appearance of the participants. The use of deepfake pornography has sparked controversy because it involves the making and sharing of realistic videos featuring non-consenting individuals and is sometimes used for revenge porn. Many countries have criminalized this "new voyeurism" through legislative measures and technological solutions. == History == The term "deepfake" was coined in 2017 on a Reddit forum where users shared altered pornographic videos created using machine learning algorithms. It is a combination of the word "deep learning", which refers to the program used to create the videos, and "fake" meaning the videos are not real. Deepfake pornography was originally created on a small individual scale using a combination of machine learning algorithms, computer vision techniques, and AI software. The process began by gathering a large amount of source material (including both images and videos) of a person's face, and then using a deep learning model to train a Generative Adversarial Network to create a fake video that convincingly swaps the face of the source material onto the body of a pornographic performer. However, the production process has significantly evolved since 2018, with the advent of several public apps that have largely automated the process. While several AI "nudification" apps emerged on mainstream platforms like Google Play and the Apple App Store around 2023, major tech storefronts have since implemented stricter policies and automated detection to ban such software. Consequently, the proliferation of non-consensual deepfake pornography has largely shifted to decentralized websites, specialized online forums, and third-party messaging bot ecosystems. Deepfake pornography is sometimes confused with fake nude photography, but the two are mostly different. Fake nude photography typically uses non-sexual images and merely makes it appear that the people in them are nude. == Notable cases == Deepfake technology has been used to create non-consensual and pornographic images and videos of famous women. One of the earliest examples occurred in 2017 when a deepfake pornographic video of Gal Gadot was created by a Reddit user and quickly spread online. Since then, there have been numerous instances of similar deepfake content targeting other female celebrities, such as Emma Watson, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson. Johansson spoke publicly on the issue in December 2018, condemning the practice but also refusing legal action because she views the harassment as inevitable. === Rana Ayyub === In 2018, Rana Ayyub, an Indian investigative journalist, was the target of an online hate campaign stemming from her condemnation of the Indian government, specifically her speaking out against the rape of an eight-year-old Kashmiri girl. Ayyub was bombarded with rape and death threats, and had a doctored pornographic video of her circulated online. In a Huffington Post article, Ayyub discussed the long-lasting psychological and social effects this experience has had on her. She explained that she continued to struggle with her mental health and how the images and videos continued to resurface whenever she took a high-profile case. === Atrioc controversy === In 2023, Twitch streamer Atrioc stirred controversy when he accidentally revealed deepfake pornographic material featuring female Twitch streamers while on live. The influencer has since admitted to paying for AI generated porn, and apologized to the women and his fans. === Taylor Swift === In January 2024, AI-generated sexually explicit images of American singer Taylor Swift were posted on X (formerly Twitter), and spread to other platforms such as Facebook, Reddit and Instagram. One tweet with the images was viewed over 45 million times before being removed. A report from 404 Media found that the images appeared to have originated from a Telegram group, whose members used tools such as Microsoft Designer to generate the images, using misspellings and keyword hacks to work around Designer's content filters. After the material was posted, Swift's fans posted concert footage and images to bury the deepfake images, and reported the accounts posting the deepfakes. Searches for Swift's name were temporarily disabled on X, returning an error message instead. Graphika, a disinformation research firm, traced the creation of the images back to a 4chan community. A source close to Swift told the Daily Mail that she would be considering legal action, saying, "Whether or not legal action will be taken is being decided, but there is one thing that is clear: These fake AI-generated images are abusive, offensive, exploitative, and done without Taylor's consent and/or knowledge." The controversy drew condemnation from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, and SAG-AFTRA. Several US politicians called for federal legislation against deepfake pornography. Later in the month, US senators Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow victims to sue individuals who produced or possessed "digital forgeries" with intent to distribute, or those who received the material knowing it was made non-consensually. === 2024 Telegram deepfake scandal === It emerged in South Korea in August 2024, that many teachers and female students were victims of deepfake images created by users who utilized AI technology. Journalist Ko Narin of The Hankyoreh uncovered the deepfake images through Telegram chats. On Telegram, group chats were created specifically for image-based sexual abuse of women, including middle and high school students, teachers, and even family members. Women with photos on social media platforms like KakaoTalk, Instagram, and Facebook are often targeted as well. Perpetrators use AI bots to generate fake images, which are then sold or widely shared, along with the victims' social media accounts, phone numbers, and KakaoTalk usernames. One Telegram group reportedly drew around 220,000 members, according to a Guardian report. Investigations revealed numerous chat groups on Telegram where users, mainly teenagers, create and share explicit deepfake images of classmates and teachers. The issue came in the wake of a troubling history of digital sex crimes, notably the notorious Nth Room case in 2019. The Korean Teachers Union estimated that more than 200 schools had been affected by these incidents. Activists called for a "national emergency" declaration to address the problem. South Korean police reported over 800 deepfake sex crime cases by the end of September 2024, a stark rise from just 156 cases in 2021, with most victims and offenders being teenagers. On September 21, 6,000 people gathered at Marronnier Park in northeastern Seoul to demand stronger legal action against deepfake crimes targeting women. On September 26, following widespread outrage over the Telegram scandal, South Korean lawmakers passed a bill criminalizing the possession or viewing of sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, imposing penalties that include prison terms and fines. Under the new law, those caught buying, saving, or watching such material could face up to three years in prison or fines up to 30 million won ($22,600). At the time the bill was proposed, creating sexually explicit deepfakes for distribution carried a maximum penalty of five years, but the new legislation would increase this to seven years, regardless of intent. By October 2024, it was estimated that "nudify" deep fake bots on Telegram were up to four million monthly users. === 2025–2026 Grok/X chatbot deepfake scandal === In December 2025, Bloomberg reported that X users found Grok would comply with unconsensual requests to digitally undress individuals, including minors, or show them performing sexually explicit acts. The majority of these prompts were targeted at women and girls. An analysis of 20,000 images generated by Grok between December 25, 2025 and January 1, 2026 showed 2% were of people in bikinis or transparent clothes and appeared to be 18 or younger, including 30 of "young or very young" women or girls. A separate analysis conducted over 24 hours from January 5 to 6 calculated that users had Grok create 6,700 sexually suggestive or nudified images per hour. xAI responded to requests for comment from media organizations with the automated reply, "Legacy Media Lies". The bot's image generation sparked an international backlash and calls for legal or regulatory action from officials in the European Union, United Kingdom, Poland, France, India, Malaysia, and Brazil. === Fernandes–Ulmen case === German TV presenter Collien Fernandes, filed a complaint against her ex-husband, actor Christian Ulmen, for several accusation including, ident

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  • Apache OpenNLP

    Apache OpenNLP

    The Apache OpenNLP library is a machine learning based toolkit for the processing of natural language text. It supports the most common NLP tasks, such as language detection, tokenization, sentence segmentation, part-of-speech tagging, named entity extraction, chunking, parsing and coreference resolution. These tasks are usually required to build more advanced text processing services.

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  • Type-1 OWA operators

    Type-1 OWA operators

    Type-1 OWA operators are a set of aggregation operators that generalise the Yager's OWA (ordered weighted averaging) operators in the interest of aggregating fuzzy sets rather than crisp values in soft decision making and data mining. These operators provide a mathematical technique for directly aggregating uncertain information with uncertain weights via OWA mechanism in soft decision making and data mining, where these uncertain objects are modelled by fuzzy sets. The two definitions for type-1 OWA operators are based on Zadeh's Extension Principle and α {\displaystyle \alpha } -cuts of fuzzy sets. The two definitions lead to equivalent results. == Definitions == === Definition 1 === Let F ( X ) {\displaystyle F(X)} be the set of fuzzy sets with domain of discourse X {\displaystyle X} , a type-1 OWA operator is defined as follows: Given n linguistic weights { W i } i = 1 n {\displaystyle \left\{{W^{i}}\right\}_{i=1}^{n}} in the form of fuzzy sets defined on the domain of discourse U = [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle U=[0,1]} , a type-1 OWA operator is a mapping, Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } , Φ : F ( X ) × ⋯ × F ( X ) ⟶ F ( X ) {\displaystyle \Phi \colon F(X)\times \cdots \times F(X)\longrightarrow F(X)} ( A 1 , ⋯ , A n ) ↦ Y {\displaystyle (A^{1},\cdots ,A^{n})\mapsto Y} such that μ Y ( y ) = sup ∑ k = 1 n w ¯ i a σ ( i ) = y ( μ W 1 ( w 1 ) ∧ ⋯ ∧ μ W n ( w n ) ∧ μ A 1 ( a 1 ) ∧ ⋯ ∧ μ A n ( a n ) ) {\displaystyle \mu _{Y}(y)=\displaystyle \sup _{\displaystyle \sum _{k=1}^{n}{\bar {w}}_{i}a_{\sigma (i)}=y}\left({\begin{array}{{1}l}\mu _{W^{1}}(w_{1})\wedge \cdots \wedge \mu _{W^{n}}(w_{n})\wedge \mu _{A^{1}}(a_{1})\wedge \cdots \wedge \mu _{A^{n}}(a_{n})\end{array}}\right)} where w ¯ i = w i ∑ i = 1 n w i {\displaystyle {\bar {w}}_{i}={\frac {w_{i}}{\sum _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}}}}} , and σ : { 1 , ⋯ , n } ⟶ { 1 , ⋯ , n } {\displaystyle \sigma \colon \{1,\cdots ,n\}\longrightarrow \{1,\cdots ,n\}} is a permutation function such that a σ ( i ) ≥ a σ ( i + 1 ) , ∀ i = 1 , ⋯ , n − 1 {\displaystyle a_{\sigma (i)}\geq a_{\sigma (i+1)},\ \forall i=1,\cdots ,n-1} , i.e., a σ ( i ) {\displaystyle a_{\sigma (i)}} is the i {\displaystyle i} th highest element in the set { a 1 , ⋯ , a n } {\displaystyle \left\{{a_{1},\cdots ,a_{n}}\right\}} . === Definition 2 === Using the alpha-cuts of fuzzy sets: Given the n linguistic weights { W i } i = 1 n {\displaystyle \left\{{W^{i}}\right\}_{i=1}^{n}} in the form of fuzzy sets defined on the domain of discourse U = [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle U=[0,\;\;1]} , then for each α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle \alpha \in [0,\;1]} , an α {\displaystyle \alpha } -level type-1 OWA operator with α {\displaystyle \alpha } -level sets { W α i } i = 1 n {\displaystyle \left\{{W_{\alpha }^{i}}\right\}_{i=1}^{n}} to aggregate the α {\displaystyle \alpha } -cuts of fuzzy sets { A i } i = 1 n {\displaystyle \left\{{A^{i}}\right\}_{i=1}^{n}} is: Φ α ( A α 1 , … , A α n ) = { ∑ i = 1 n w i a σ ( i ) ∑ i = 1 n w i | w i ∈ W α i , a i ∈ A α i , i = 1 , … , n } {\displaystyle \Phi _{\alpha }\left({A_{\alpha }^{1},\ldots ,A_{\alpha }^{n}}\right)=\left\{{{\frac {\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}a_{\sigma (i)}}}{\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}}}}\left|{w_{i}\in W_{\alpha }^{i},\;a_{i}}\right.\in A_{\alpha }^{i},\;i=1,\ldots ,n}\right\}} where W α i = { w | μ W i ( w ) ≥ α } , A α i = { x | μ A i ( x ) ≥ α } {\displaystyle W_{\alpha }^{i}=\{w|\mu _{W_{i}}(w)\geq \alpha \},A_{\alpha }^{i}=\{x|\mu _{A_{i}}(x)\geq \alpha \}} , and σ : { 1 , ⋯ , n } → { 1 , ⋯ , n } {\displaystyle \sigma :\{\;1,\cdots ,n\;\}\to \{\;1,\cdots ,n\;\}} is a permutation function such that a σ ( i ) ≥ a σ ( i + 1 ) , ∀ i = 1 , ⋯ , n − 1 {\displaystyle a_{\sigma (i)}\geq a_{\sigma (i+1)},\;\forall \;i=1,\cdots ,n-1} , i.e., a σ ( i ) {\displaystyle a_{\sigma (i)}} is the i {\displaystyle i} th largest element in the set { a 1 , ⋯ , a n } {\displaystyle \left\{{a_{1},\cdots ,a_{n}}\right\}} . == Representation theorem of Type-1 OWA operators == Given the n linguistic weights { W i } i = 1 n {\displaystyle \left\{{W^{i}}\right\}_{i=1}^{n}} in the form of fuzzy sets defined on the domain of discourse U = [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle U=[0,\;\;1]} , and the fuzzy sets A 1 , ⋯ , A n {\displaystyle A^{1},\cdots ,A^{n}} , then we have that Y = G {\displaystyle Y=G} where Y {\displaystyle Y} is the aggregation result obtained by Definition 1, and G {\displaystyle G} is the result obtained by in Definition 2. == Programming problems for Type-1 OWA operators == According to the Representation Theorem of Type-1 OWA Operators, a general type-1 OWA operator can be decomposed into a series of α {\displaystyle \alpha } -level type-1 OWA operators. In practice, this series of α {\displaystyle \alpha } -level type-1 OWA operators is used to construct the resulting aggregation fuzzy set. So we only need to compute the left end-points and right end-points of the intervals Φ α ( A α 1 , ⋯ , A α n ) {\displaystyle \Phi _{\alpha }\left({A_{\alpha }^{1},\cdots ,A_{\alpha }^{n}}\right)} . Then, the resulting aggregation fuzzy set is constructed with the membership function as follows: μ G ( x ) = ⋁ α : x ∈ Φ α ( A α 1 , ⋯ , A α n ) α ⁡ α {\displaystyle \mu _{G}(x)=\operatorname {\bigvee } \limits _{\alpha :x\in \Phi _{\alpha }\left({A_{\alpha }^{1},\cdots ,A_{\alpha }^{n}}\right)_{\alpha }}\alpha } For the left end-points, we need to solve the following programming problem: Φ α ( A α 1 , ⋯ , A α n ) − = min W α − i ≤ w i ≤ W α + i A α − i ≤ a i ≤ A α + i ⁡ ∑ i = 1 n w i a σ ( i ) / ∑ i = 1 n w i {\displaystyle \Phi _{\alpha }\left({A_{\alpha }^{1},\cdots ,A_{\alpha }^{n}}\right)_{-}=\operatorname {\min } \limits _{\begin{array}{l}W_{\alpha -}^{i}\leq w_{i}\leq W_{\alpha +}^{i}A_{\alpha -}^{i}\leq a_{i}\leq A_{\alpha +}^{i}\end{array}}\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}a_{\sigma (i)}/\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}}}} while for the right end-points, we need to solve the following programming problem: Φ α ( A α 1 , ⋯ , A α n ) + = max W α − i ≤ w i ≤ W α + i A α − i ≤ a i ≤ A α + i ⁡ ∑ i = 1 n w i a σ ( i ) / ∑ i = 1 n w i {\displaystyle \Phi _{\alpha }\left({A_{\alpha }^{1},\cdots ,A_{\alpha }^{n}}\right)_{+}=\operatorname {\max } \limits _{\begin{array}{l}W_{\alpha -}^{i}\leq w_{i}\leq W_{\alpha +}^{i}A_{\alpha -}^{i}\leq a_{i}\leq A_{\alpha +}^{i}\end{array}}\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}a_{\sigma (i)}/\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}{w_{i}}}} A fast method has been presented to solve two programming problem so that the type-1 OWA aggregation operation can be performed efficiently, for details, please see the paper. == Alpha-level approach to Type-1 OWA operation == Three-step process: Step 1—To set up the α {\displaystyle \alpha } - level resolution in [0, 1]. Step 2—For each α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle \alpha \in [0,1]} , Step 2.1—To calculate ρ α + i 0 ∗ {\displaystyle \rho _{\alpha +}^{i_{0}^{\ast }}} Let i 0 = 1 {\displaystyle i_{0}=1} ; If ρ α + i 0 ≥ A α + σ ( i 0 ) {\displaystyle \rho _{\alpha +}^{i_{0}}\geq A_{\alpha +}^{\sigma (i_{0})}} , stop, ρ α + i 0 {\displaystyle \rho _{\alpha +}^{i_{0}}} is the solution; otherwise go to Step 2.1-3. i 0 ← i 0 + 1 {\displaystyle i_{0}\leftarrow i_{0}+1} , go to Step 2.1-2. Step 2.2 To calculate ρ α − i 0 ∗ {\displaystyle \rho _{\alpha -}^{i_{0}^{\ast }}} Let i 0 = 1 {\displaystyle i_{0}=1} ; If ρ α − i 0 ≥ A α − σ ( i 0 ) {\displaystyle \rho _{\alpha -}^{i_{0}}\geq A_{\alpha -}^{\sigma (i_{0})}} , stop, ρ α − i 0 {\displaystyle \rho _{\alpha -}^{i_{0}}} is the solution; otherwise go to Step 2.2-3. i 0 ← i 0 + 1 {\displaystyle i_{0}\leftarrow i_{0}+1} , go to step Step 2.2-2. Step 3—To construct the aggregation resulting fuzzy set G {\displaystyle G} based on all the available intervals [ ρ α − i 0 ∗ , ρ α + i 0 ∗ ] {\displaystyle \left[{\rho _{\alpha -}^{i_{0}^{\ast }},\;\rho _{\alpha +}^{i_{0}^{\ast }}}\right]} : μ G ( x ) = ⋁ α : x ∈ [ ρ α − i 0 ∗ , ρ α + i 0 ∗ ] ⁡ α {\displaystyle \mu _{G}(x)=\operatorname {\bigvee } \limits _{\alpha :x\in \left[{\rho _{\alpha -}^{i_{0}^{\ast }},\;\rho _{\alpha +}^{i_{0}^{\ast }}}\right]}\alpha } == Some Examples == The type-1 OWA operator with the weights shown in the top figure is used to aggregate the fuzzy sets (solide lines) in the bottom figure, and the dashed line is the aggregation result. == Special cases == Any OWA operators, like maximum, minimum, mean operators; Join operators of (type-1) fuzzy sets, i.e., fuzzy maximum operators; Meet operators of (type-1) fuzzy sets, i.e., fuzzy minimum operators; Join-like operators of (type-1) fuzzy sets; Meet-like operators of (type-1) fuzzy sets. == Generalizations == Type-2 OWA operators have been suggested to aggregate the type-2 fuzzy sets for soft decision making. == Applications == Type-1 OWA operators have been applied to different domains for soft decision making. Improved efficiency of computing approach ; Type reduction of type-2 fuzzy sets ; Group decision making ; Credit risk evaluation ; Information fusion ; Linguistic expressions and symbolic translation ; Sentiment analysis ; Ro

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  • AI@50

    AI@50

    AI@50, formally known as the "Dartmouth Artificial Intelligence Conference: The Next Fifty Years" (July 13–15, 2006), was a conference organized by James H. Moor, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Dartmouth workshop which effectively inaugurated the history of artificial intelligence. Five of the original ten attendees were present: Marvin Minsky, Ray Solomonoff, Oliver Selfridge, Trenchard More, and John McCarthy. While sponsored by Dartmouth College, General Electric, and the Frederick Whittemore Foundation, a $200,000 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) called for a report of the proceedings that would: Analyze progress on AI's original challenges during the first 50 years, and assess whether the challenges were "easier" or "harder" than originally thought and why Document what the AI@50 participants believe are the major research and development challenges facing this field over the next 50 years, and identify what breakthroughs will be needed to meet those challenges Relate those challenges and breakthroughs against developments and trends in other areas such as control theory, signal processing, information theory, statistics, and optimization theory. A summary report by the conference director, James H. Moor, was published in AI Magazine. == Conference Program and links to published papers == James H. Moor, conference Director, Introduction Carol Folt and Barry Scherr, Welcome Carey Heckman, Tonypandy and the Origins of Science === AI: Past, Present, Future === John McCarthy, What Was Expected, What We Did, and AI Today Marvin Minsky, The Emotion Machine === The Future Model of Thinking === Ron Brachman and Hector Levesque, A Large Part of Human Thought David Mumford, What is the Right Model for 'Thought'? Stuart Russell, The Approach of Modern AI === The Future of Network Models === Geoffrey Hinton & Simon Osindero, From Pandemonium to Graphical Models and Back Again Rick Granger, From Brain Circuits to Mind Manufacture === The Future of Learning & Search === Oliver Selfridge, Learning and Education for Software: New Approaches in Machine Learning Ray Solomonoff, Machine Learning — Past and Future Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Learning to be Intelligent Peter Norvig, Web Search as a Product of and Catalyst for AI === The Future of AI === Rod Brooks, Intelligence and Bodies Nils Nilsson, Routes to the Summit Eric Horvitz, In Pursuit of Artificial Intelligence: Reflections on Challenges and Trajectories === The Future of Vision === Eric Grimson, Intelligent Medical Image Analysis: Computer Assisted Surgery and Disease Monitoring Takeo Kanade, Artificial Intelligence Vision: Progress and Non-Progress Terry Sejnowski, A Critique of Pure Vision === The Future of Reasoning === Alan Bundy, Constructing, Selecting and Repairing Representations of Knowledge Edwina Rissland, The Exquisite Centrality of Examples Bart Selman, The Challenge and Promise of Automated Reasoning === The Future of Language and Cognition === Trenchard More The Birth of Array Theory and Nial Eugene Charniak, Why Natural Language Processing is Now Statistical Natural Language Processing Pat Langley, Intelligent Behavior in Humans and Machines === The Future of the Future === Ray Kurzweil, Why We Can Be Confident of Turing Test Capability Within a Quarter Century George Cybenko, The Future Trajectory of AI Charles J. Holland, DARPA's Perspective === AI and Games === Jonathan Schaeffer, Games as a Test-bed for Artificial Intelligence Research Danny Kopec, Chess and AI Shay Bushinsky, Principle Positions in Deep Junior's Development === Future Interactions with Intelligent Machines === Daniela Rus, Making Bodies Smart Sherry Turkle, From Building Intelligences to Nurturing Sensibilities === Selected Submitted Papers: Future Strategies for AI === J. Storrs Hall, Self-improving AI: An Analysis Selmer Bringsjord, The Logicist Manifesto Vincent C. Müller, Is There a Future for AI Without Representation? Kristinn R. Thórisson, Integrated A.I. Systems === Selected Submitted Papers: Future Possibilities for AI === Eric Steinhart, Survival as a Digital Ghost Colin T. A. Schmidt, Did You Leave That 'Contraption' Alone With Your Little Sister? Michael Anderson & Susan Leigh Anderson, The Status of Machine Ethics Marcello Guarini, Computation, Coherence, and Ethical Reasoning

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  • Fuzzy relation

    Fuzzy relation

    A fuzzy relation is the cartesian product of mathematical fuzzy sets. Two fuzzy sets are taken as input, the fuzzy relation is then equal to the cross product of the sets which is created by vector multiplication. Usually, a rule base is stored in a matrix notation which allows the fuzzy controller to update its internal values. From a historical perspective, the first fuzzy relation was mentioned in the year 1971 by Lotfi A. Zadeh. A practical approach to describe a fuzzy relation is based on a 2d table. At first, a table is created which consists of fuzzy values from 0..1. The next step is to apply the if-then-rules to the values. The resulting numbers are stored in the table as an array. Fuzzy relations can be utilized in fuzzy databases.

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  • Bitstrips

    Bitstrips

    Bitstrips, Inc. was a Canadian media and technology company based in Toronto, founded in 2007 by Jacob Blackstock, David Kennedy, Shahan Panth, Dorian Baldwin, and Jesse Brown. The company created and offered a web application, Bitstrips.com, which allowed users to create comic strips using personalized avatars, and preset templates and poses. Brown and Blackstock explained that the service was meant to enable self-expression without the need to have artistic skills. Bitstrips was first presented in 2008 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and the service later piloted and launched a version designed for use as educational software. The service achieved increasing prominence following the launch of versions for Facebook and mobile platforms. In 2014, Bitstrips launched a spin-off app known as Bitmoji, which allows users to create personalized stickers for use in instant messaging. In July 2016, Snapchat Inc. announced that it had acquired the company; the Bitstrips comic service was shut down, but Bitmoji remains operational, and has subsequently been given greater prominence within Snapchat's overall platform. == History == Bitstrips was co-developed by Toronto-based comic artist Jacob Blackstock and his high school friend, journalist Jesse Brown. The service was originally envisioned as a means to allow anyone to create their own comic strip without needing artistic skills. Brown explained that "it's so difficult and time-consuming to tell a story in comic book form, drawing the same characters again and again in these tiny little panels, and just the amount of craftsmanship required. And even if you can do it well, which I never could, it takes years to make a story." Brown stated that the service would be "groundwork for a whole new way to communicate", and went as far as describing the service as being a "YouTube for comics". Blackstock explained that the concept of Bitstrips was influenced by his own use of comics as a form of socialization; a student, Blackstock and his friends drew comics featuring each other and shared them during classes. He felt that Bitstrips was a "medium for self-expression", stating that "It's not just about you making the comics, but since you and your friends star in these comics, it's like you're the medium. The visual nature of comics just speaks so much louder than text." The service was publicly unveiled at South by Southwest in 2008. In 2009, the service introduced a version oriented towards the educational market, Bitstrips for Schools, which was initially piloted at a number of schools in Ontario. The service was praised by educators for being engaging to students, especially within language classes. Brown noted that students were using the service to create comics outside of class as well, stating that it was "so gratifying and shocking what people do with your tool to make their own stories in ways that you never would have anticipated. Some of them are just brilliant." In December 2012, Bitstrips launched a version for Facebook; by July 2013, Bitstrips had 10 million unique users on Facebook, having created over 50 million comics. In October 2013, Bitstrips launched a mobile app; in two months, Bitstrips became a top-downloaded app in 40 countries, and over 30 million avatars had been created with it. In November 2013, Bitstrips secured a round of funding from Horizons Ventures and Li Ka-shing. In October 2014, Bitstrips launched Bitmoji, a spin-off app that allows users to create stickers featuring Bitstrips characters in various templates. In July 2016, following unconfirmed reports earlier in the year, Snapchat Inc. announced that it had acquired Bitstrips. The company's staff continue to operate out of Toronto, but the original Bitstrips comic service was shut down in favour of focusing exclusively on Bitmoji, leaving many Bitstrips users to call for a reboot of the comic service.

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  • The Last Question

    The Last Question

    "The Last Question" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly; and in the anthologies in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959), The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), Robot Dreams (1986), The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov (1986), the retrospective Opus 100 (1969), and Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 (1990). While he also considered it one of his best works, "The Last Question" was Asimov's favorite short story of his own authorship, and is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac. Through successive generations, humanity questions Multivac on the subject of entropy. The story blends science fiction, theology, and philosophy. It has been recognized as a counterpoint to Fredric Brown's short short story "Answer", published two years earlier. == History == In conceiving Multivac, Asimov was extrapolating the trend towards centralization that characterized computation technology planning in the 1950s to an ultimate centrally managed global computer. After seeing a planetarium adaptation of his work, Asimov "privately" concluded that the story was his best science fiction yet written. He placed it just higher than "The Ugly Little Boy" (September 1958) and "The Bicentennial Man" (1976). The story asks the question of humanity's fate, and human existence as a whole, highlighting Asimov's focus on important aspects of our future like population growth and environmental issues. "The Last Question" ranks with "Nightfall" (1941) as one of Asimov's best-known and most acclaimed short stories. He wrote in 1973 that he appreciated how easy the story was to write after he had the idea. He was so often approached by fans who remembered the story but not the title, that in one instance he gave the answer, correctly, before the fan had even described the story. == Plot summary == By the year 2061, Multivac, a self-adjusting and self-correcting computer, has allowed mankind to reach beyond the planetary confines of Earth and harness solar energy. Two technicians, Adell and Lupov, celebrate Multivac's role in this development. Over drinks, they discuss that the sun will expire due to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy inevitably increases. When Adell asks Multivac whether this can be reversed, the computer responds that it has insufficient data to answer. In several episodes over ten trillion years, increasingly advanced humans pose the same question to the computers of their time. Each time the computer gives the same response. At the heat death of the universe, the last disembodied consciousness of Man asks the question a final time of a computer that resides in hyperspace before merging with it. After collecting the last data from the dead universe, the computer continues to process it alone and finds an answer to the last question. Having no one to tell it to, it proceeds to demonstrate by saying "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" == Themes == === Philosophy === Although science and religion are frequently presented as having an oppositional relationship, "The Last Question" explores some biblical contexts ("Let there be light"). In Asimov's story, aspects like the great meaning of existence are culminated through both technology and human knowledge. The evolution from Multivac to AC also emulates a sort of cycle of existence. === Dystopian happy ending === Multivac's purpose was conceptualized with a desire for knowledge, promoting the idea that more knowledge will lead to a better and more fruitful future for humanity. However, the computer's answers regarding the future suggest an inevitable exhaustion of the Sun, and this thirst for knowledge becomes an obsession with the future. The story's end displays a dichotomy between annihilation and peace. == Dramatic adaptations == === Planetarium shows === "The Last Question" was first adapted for the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University (in 1966), featuring the voice of Leonard Nimoy, as Asimov wrote in his autobiography In Joy Still Felt (1980). It was adapted for the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York (in 1969), under the direction of Ian C. McLennan. It was adapted for the Edmonton Space Sciences Centre in Edmonton, Alberta (early 1970s), under the direction of John Hault. It was adapted for the Gates Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Natural History in 1973 under the direction of Mark B. Peterson It subsequently played at the: Fels Planetarium of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1973 Planetarium of the Reading School District in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1974 Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh in 1974 The Space Transit Planetarium of the Museum of Science in Miami during 1977 Vanderbilt Planetarium in Centerport New York, in 1978, read by singer-songwriter and Long Island resident Harry Chapin. Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah (in 1980 and 1989) A reading of the story was played on BBC Radio 7 in 2008 and 2009. Gates Planetarium in Denver, Colorado (in early 2020) In 1989 Asimov updated the star show adaptation to add in quasars and black holes. The story was adapted as a comic book by Don Thompson and drawn by John Estes in the third issue of ORBiT.

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  • Riffusion

    Riffusion

    Riffusion is a neural network, designed by Seth Forsgren and Hayk Martiros, that generates music using images of sound rather than audio. The resulting music has been described as "de otro mundo" (otherworldly), although unlikely to replace man-made music. The model was made available on December 15, 2022, with the code also freely available on GitHub. The first version of Riffusion was created as a fine-tuning of Stable Diffusion, an existing open-source model for generating images from text prompts, on spectrograms, resulting in a model which used text prompts to generate image files which could then be put through an inverse Fourier transform and converted into audio files. While these files were only several seconds long, the model could also use latent space between outputs to interpolate different files together (using the img2img capabilities of SD). It was one of many models derived from Stable Diffusion. In December 2022, Mubert similarly used Stable Diffusion to turn descriptive text into music loops. In January 2023, Google published a paper on their own text-to-music generator called MusicLM. Forsgren and Martiros formed a startup, also called Riffusion, and raised $4 million in venture capital funding in October 2023.

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  • Taylor Swift deepfake pornography controversy

    Taylor Swift deepfake pornography controversy

    In late January 2024, sexually explicit AI-generated deepfake images of American musician Taylor Swift were proliferated on social media platforms 4chan and X (formerly Twitter). Several artificial images of Swift of a sexual or violent nature were quickly spread, with one post reported to have been seen over 47 million times before its eventual removal. The images led Microsoft to enhance Microsoft Designer's text-to-image model to prevent future abuse. Moreover, these images prompted responses from anti-sexual assault advocacy groups, US politicians, Swifties, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, among others, and it has been suggested that Swift's influence could result in new legislation regarding the creation of deepfake pornography. A similar controversy emerged in August 2025, when The Verge reported AI image and video tool Grok Imagine generated sexually explicit images and videos of Swift from an otherwise innocuous text prompt. == Background == American musician Taylor Swift has been the target of misogyny and slut-shaming throughout her career. American technology corporation Microsoft offers AI image creators called Microsoft Designer and Bing Image Creator, which employ censorship safeguards to prevent users from generating unsafe or objectionable content. Members of a Telegram group discussed ways to circumvent these censors to create pornographic images of celebrities. Graphika, a disinformation research firm, traced the creation of the images back to a 4chan community. == Reactions == For some, the deepfake images of Swift immediately became a source of controversy and outrage. Other internet users found them humorous and absurd, such as the image making it appear as though Swift was to engage in sexual intercourse with Oscar the Grouch. The images drew condemnations from Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and SAG-AFTRA. The latter group, who had been following issues regarding AI-generated media prior to Swift's involvement, considered the images "upsetting, harmful and deeply concerning." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company's products were believed to be used to make these images, responded to the controversy as "alarming and terrible", further stating his belief that "we all benefit when the online world is a safe world." === Taylor Swift === A source close to Swift told the Daily Mail that she would be considering legal action, saying, "Whether or not legal action will be taken is being decided, but there is one thing that is clear: These fake AI-generated images are abusive, offensive, exploitative, and done without Taylor's consent and/or knowledge." === Politicians === White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed concern over the counterfeit images, deeming them "alarming", and emphasized the obligation of social media platforms to curb the dissemination of misinformation. Several members of American politics called for legislation against AI-generated pornography. Later in the month, a bipartisan bill was introduced by US senators Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley. The bill would allow victims to sue individuals who produced or possessed "digital forgeries" with intent to distribute, or those who received the material knowing it was made without consent. The European Union struck a deal in February 2024 on a similar bill that would criminalize deepfake pornography, as well as online harassment and revenge porn, by mid-2027. === Social media platforms === X responded to the sharing of these images on their own website with claims they would suspend accounts that participated in their spread. Despite this, the photos continued to be reshared among accounts of X, and spread to other platforms including Instagram and Reddit. X enforces a "synthetic and manipulated media policy", which has been criticized for its efficacy. They briefly blocked searches of Swift's name on January 27, 2024, reinstating them two days later. === Swifties === Fans of Taylor Swift, known as Swifties, responded to the circulation of these images by pushing the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift to trend on X. They also flooded other hashtags related to the images with more positive images and videos of her live performances. == Cultural significance == Deepfake pornography has remained highly controversial and has affected figures from other celebrities to ordinary people, most of whom are women. Journalists have opined that the involvement of a prominent public figure such as Swift in the dissemination of AI-generated pornography could bring public awareness and political reform to the issue.

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  • DAvE (Infineon)

    DAvE (Infineon)

    DAVE, or Digital Application Virtual Engineer, is a software development and code generation tool for microcontroller applications created in C/C++. == Versions == === Version 4 (beta) === The successor of the Eclipse-based development environment for C/C++ and/or graphical user interface (GUI) based development using application software (apps). It generates code for the latest XMC1xxx and XMC4xxx microcontrollers using ARM Cortex-M processors. DAVE software development kit (SDK) is a free integrated development environment to set up its own apps for DAVE. === Version 3 === Automatic code generation is based on the use of case-oriented, configurable, and tested software (SW) components, called DAVE Apps. They are comparable to executable and configurable application notes that can be downloaded from the web. The environment is based on Eclipse. Ordinary program development using C/C++ is also available. The targets for this development are XMC1xxx and XMC4xxx microcontrollers that use Cortex-M processors. === Previous versions === This version targets 32-bit microcontroller units (MCUs) (Infineon TriCore AUDO family), 16-bit MCUs (C166, XC166, XE166, and XC2000 family), and 8-bit MCUs (XC800 family) from Infineon. After the initial setup, the configuration wizard appears and gives an overview of the hardware peripherals, control units, and modules. The microcontroller application can be created by selecting the desired functions. At this step, module-specific functions must be selected for module initializing and control. Finally, the application source files will be generated by DAVE and embedded in a project in the selected development environment, where the code can still be modified or added to an extant project. == DAVE-related software == Infineon also developed additional software that can be used in conjunction with DAVE for specific microcontroller families or additional hardware: DAVE Bench for XC800 is a platform providing free development tools for Infineon's 8-bit microcontroller family, based on the Open Source Eclipse architecture. DAVE Drive is a GUI-based software tool that allows application developers to create embedded software for the control of brushless synchronous three-phase motors. == Alternative software == The Infineon MCUs are directly supported by several commercial products, depending on the selected MCU target. An embedded programming library for MATLAB exists. As a free alternative to DAVE, the developer can use the Keil Microcontroller Development Kit (MDK) Version 5. Code for the XMX1000 series up to 128 kB can be developed this way without purchasing a license from Keil.

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  • ICAART

    ICAART

    The International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART) is a meeting point for researchers (among others) with interest in the areas of Agents and Artificial Intelligence. There are 2 tracks in ICAART, one related to Agents and Distributed AI in general and the other one focused in topics related to Intelligent Systems and Computational Intelligence. The conference program is composed of several different kind of sessions like technical sessions, poster sessions, keynote lectures, tutorials, special sessions, doctoral consortiums, panels and industrial tracks. The papers presented in the conference are made available at the SCITEPRESS digital library, published in the conference proceedings and some of the best papers are invited to a post-publication with Springer. ICAART's first edition was in 2009 counting with several keynote speakers like Marco Dorigo, Edward H. Shortliffe and Eduard Hovy. Since then, the conference had several other invited speakers like Katia Sycara, Nick Jennings, Robert Kowalski, Boi Faltings and Tim Finin. Bart Selman is one of the names confirmed for the next edition of this conference. Since 2012 the conference is held in conjunction with 2 other conferences: the International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES) and the International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods (ICPRAM). == Areas == === Agents === Agent communication languages Cooperation and Coordination Distributed Problem Solving Economic Agent Models Emotional Intelligence Group Decision Making Intelligent Auctions and Markets Mobile Agents Multi-agent systems Negotiation and Interaction Protocols Nep News Detection Agent Models and Architectures Physical Agents at Work Privacy, Safety and Security Programming Environments and Languages Robot and Multi-Robot Systems Self Organizing Systems Semantic Web Simulation Swarm Intelligence Task Planning and Execution Transparency and Ethical Issues Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Web Intelligence Agent Platforms and Interoperability Autonomous systems Cloud Computing and Its Impact Cognitive robotics Collective Intelligence Conversational Agents === Artificial intelligence === AI and Creativity Deep Learning Evolutionary Computing Fuzzy Systems Hybrid Intelligent Systems Industrial Applications of AI Intelligence and Cybersecurity Intelligent User Interfaces Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Knowledge-Based Systems Ambient Intelligence Machine learning Model-Based Reasoning Natural Language Processing Neural Networks Ontologies Planning and Scheduling Social Network Analysis Soft Computing State Space Search Bayesian Networks Uncertainty in AI Vision and Perception Visualization Big Data Case-Based Reasoning Cognitive Systems Constraint Satisfaction Data Mining Data Science == Editions == === ICAART 2023 – Lisbon, Portugal === === ICAART 2020 – Valletta, Malta === === ICAART 2019 – Prague, Czech Republic === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-758-350-6 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-758-350-6 === ICAART 2018 – Funchal, Madeira, Portugal === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-758-275-2 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-758-275-2 === ICAART 2017 – Porto, Portugal === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-758-219-6 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-758-220-2 === ICAART 2016 – Rome, Italy === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-758-172-4 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-758-172-4 === ICAART 2015 – Lisbon, Portugal === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-758-073-4 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-758-074-1 === ICAART 2014 – ESEO, Angers, Loire Valley, France === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-758-015-4 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-758-016-1 === ICAART 2013 – Barcelona, Spain === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-8565-38-9 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-8565-39-6 === ICAART 2012 – Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-8425-95-9 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-8425-96-6 === ICAART 2011 – Rome, Italy === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-8425-40-9 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-8425-41-6 === ICAART 2010 – Valencia, Spain === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1. ISBN 978-989-674-021-4 Proceedings - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2. ISBN 978-989-674-022-1 === ICAART 2009 – Porto, Portugal === Proceedings - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies. ISBN 978-989-8111-66-1

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  • Thompson sampling

    Thompson sampling

    Thompson sampling, named after William R. Thompson, is a heuristic for choosing actions that address the exploration–exploitation dilemma in the multi-armed bandit problem. It consists of choosing the action that maximizes the expected reward with respect to a randomly drawn belief. == Description == Consider a set of contexts X {\displaystyle {\mathcal {X}}} , a set of actions A {\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}} , and rewards in R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } . The aim of the player is to play actions under the various contexts, such as to maximize the cumulative rewards. Specifically, in each round, the player obtains a context x ∈ X {\displaystyle x\in {\mathcal {X}}} , plays an action a ∈ A {\displaystyle a\in {\mathcal {A}}} and receives a reward r ∈ R {\displaystyle r\in \mathbb {R} } following a distribution that depends on the context and the issued action. The elements of Thompson sampling are as follows: a likelihood function P ( r | θ , a , x ) {\displaystyle P(r|\theta ,a,x)} ; a set Θ {\displaystyle \Theta } of parameters θ {\displaystyle \theta } of the distribution of r {\displaystyle r} ; a prior distribution P ( θ ) {\displaystyle P(\theta )} on these parameters; past observations triplets D = { ( x ; a ; r ) } {\displaystyle {\mathcal {D}}=\{(x;a;r)\}} ; a posterior distribution P ( θ | D ) ∝ P ( D | θ ) P ( θ ) {\displaystyle P(\theta |{\mathcal {D}})\propto P({\mathcal {D}}|\theta )P(\theta )} , where P ( D | θ ) {\displaystyle P({\mathcal {D}}|\theta )} is the likelihood function. Thompson sampling consists of playing the action a ∗ ∈ A {\displaystyle a^{\ast }\in {\mathcal {A}}} according to the probability that it maximizes the expected reward; action a ∗ {\displaystyle a^{\ast }} is chosen with probability ∫ I [ E ( r | a ∗ , x , θ ) = max a ′ E ( r | a ′ , x , θ ) ] P ( θ | D ) d θ , {\displaystyle \int \mathbb {I} \left[\mathbb {E} (r|a^{\ast },x,\theta )=\max _{a'}\mathbb {E} (r|a',x,\theta )\right]P(\theta |{\mathcal {D}})d\theta ,} where I {\displaystyle \mathbb {I} } is the indicator function. In practice, the rule is implemented by sampling. In each round, parameters θ ∗ {\displaystyle \theta ^{\ast }} are sampled from the posterior P ( θ | D ) {\displaystyle P(\theta |{\mathcal {D}})} , and an action a ∗ {\displaystyle a^{\ast }} chosen that maximizes E [ r | θ ∗ , a ∗ , x ] {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} [r|\theta ^{\ast },a^{\ast },x]} , i.e. the expected reward given the sampled parameters, the action, and the current context. Conceptually, this means that the player instantiates their beliefs randomly in each round according to the posterior distribution, and then acts optimally according to them. In most practical applications, it is computationally onerous to maintain and sample from a posterior distribution over models. As such, Thompson sampling is often used in conjunction with approximate sampling techniques. == History == Thompson sampling was originally described by Thompson in 1933. It was subsequently rediscovered numerous times independently in the context of multi-armed bandit problems. A first proof of convergence for the bandit case has been shown in 1997. The first application to Markov decision processes was in 2000. A related approach (see Bayesian control rule) was published in 2010. In 2010 it was also shown that Thompson sampling is instantaneously self-correcting. Asymptotic convergence results for contextual bandits were published in 2011. Thompson Sampling has been widely used in many online learning problems including A/B testing in website design and online advertising, and accelerated learning in decentralized decision making. A Double Thompson Sampling (D-TS) algorithm has been proposed for dueling bandits, a variant of traditional MAB, where feedback comes in the form of pairwise comparison. == Relationship to other approaches == === Probability matching === Probability matching is a decision strategy in which predictions of class membership are proportional to the class base rates. Thus, if in the training set positive examples are observed 60% of the time, and negative examples are observed 40% of the time, the observer using a probability-matching strategy will predict (for unlabeled examples) a class label of "positive" on 60% of instances, and a class label of "negative" on 40% of instances. === Bayesian control rule === A generalization of Thompson sampling to arbitrary dynamical environments and causal structures, known as Bayesian control rule, has been shown to be the optimal solution to the adaptive coding problem with actions and observations. In this formulation, an agent is conceptualized as a mixture over a set of behaviours. As the agent interacts with its environment, it learns the causal properties and adopts the behaviour that minimizes the relative entropy to the behaviour with the best prediction of the environment's behaviour. If these behaviours have been chosen according to the maximum expected utility principle, then the asymptotic behaviour of the Bayesian control rule matches the asymptotic behaviour of the perfectly rational agent. The setup is as follows. Let a 1 , a 2 , … , a T {\displaystyle a_{1},a_{2},\ldots ,a_{T}} be the actions issued by an agent up to time T {\displaystyle T} , and let o 1 , o 2 , … , o T {\displaystyle o_{1},o_{2},\ldots ,o_{T}} be the observations gathered by the agent up to time T {\displaystyle T} . Then, the agent issues the action a T + 1 {\displaystyle a_{T+1}} with probability: P ( a T + 1 | a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) , {\displaystyle P(a_{T+1}|{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T}),} where the "hat"-notation a ^ t {\displaystyle {\hat {a}}_{t}} denotes the fact that a t {\displaystyle a_{t}} is a causal intervention (see Causality), and not an ordinary observation. If the agent holds beliefs θ ∈ Θ {\displaystyle \theta \in \Theta } over its behaviors, then the Bayesian control rule becomes P ( a T + 1 | a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) = ∫ Θ P ( a T + 1 | θ , a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) P ( θ | a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) d θ {\displaystyle P(a_{T+1}|{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T})=\int _{\Theta }P(a_{T+1}|\theta ,{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T})P(\theta |{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T})\,d\theta } , where P ( θ | a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) {\displaystyle P(\theta |{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T})} is the posterior distribution over the parameter θ {\displaystyle \theta } given actions a 1 : T {\displaystyle a_{1:T}} and observations o 1 : T {\displaystyle o_{1:T}} . In practice, the Bayesian control amounts to sampling, at each time step, a parameter θ ∗ {\displaystyle \theta ^{\ast }} from the posterior distribution P ( θ | a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) {\displaystyle P(\theta |{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T})} , where the posterior distribution is computed using Bayes' rule by only considering the (causal) likelihoods of the observations o 1 , o 2 , … , o T {\displaystyle o_{1},o_{2},\ldots ,o_{T}} and ignoring the (causal) likelihoods of the actions a 1 , a 2 , … , a T {\displaystyle a_{1},a_{2},\ldots ,a_{T}} , and then by sampling the action a T + 1 ∗ {\displaystyle a_{T+1}^{\ast }} from the action distribution P ( a T + 1 | θ ∗ , a ^ 1 : T , o 1 : T ) {\displaystyle P(a_{T+1}|\theta ^{\ast },{\hat {a}}_{1:T},o_{1:T})} . === Upper-confidence-bound (UCB) algorithms === Thompson sampling and upper-confidence bound algorithms share a fundamental property that underlies many of their theoretical guarantees. Roughly speaking, both algorithms allocate exploratory effort to actions that might be optimal and are in this sense "optimistic". Leveraging this property, one can translate regret bounds established for UCB algorithms to Bayesian regret bounds for Thompson sampling or unify regret analysis across both these algorithms and many classes of problems.

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