arXiv subjects

Kejiang Qian

Publications and source records attributed to Kejiang Qian.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

In LLM Reasoning, there is Irrationality on top of Value Misalignment

Significant progress has been made in aligning LLMs with target value functions. We argue that, even when an LLM has been well aligned in (post-)training, it may still fail to maximise the aligned value in reasoning. We mathematically formalise this gap as rational value risk: the utility discrepancy between a model's deployed reasoning strategy and its rational counterpart whose responses maximise utility in the steepest direction. The estimation error of rational value risk is further decomposed into three components from bounded prompts, bounded responses, and imperfect verifiers. Extensive experiments are conducted, covering models Llama-3.1, Qwen-2.5, T\"ulu-3 families (7B-72B), GPT-5.2, GPT-5.5, and DeepSeek-V4, and benchmarks UltraFeedback, AlpacaEval, GSM8K, MATH, HumanEval, and MathArena. The results validate that (1) rational value risk is widespread; (2) value alignment can reduce, but cannot avoid, it; (3) self-consistency can improve rationality; and (4) a longer chain of thought improves rationality but with diminishing returns. The code is at https://github.com/EVIEHub/LLM-Rationality

cs.AI↗

arXiv2026

PRISM: Parallel Reward Integration with Symmetry for MORL

This work studies heterogeneous Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning (MORL), where objectives can differ sharply in temporal frequency. Such heterogeneity allows dense objectives to dominate learning, while sparse long-horizon rewards receive weak credit assignment, leading to poor sample efficiency. We propose a Parallel Reward Integration with Symmetry (PRISM) algorithm that enforces reflectional symmetry as an inductive bias in aligning reward channels. PRISM introduces ReSymNet, a theory-motivated model that reconciles temporal-frequency mismatches across objectives, using residual blocks to learn a scaled opportunity value that accelerates exploration while preserving the optimal policy. We also propose SymReg, a reflectional equivariance regulariser that enforces agent mirroring and constrains policy search to a reflection-equivariant subspace. This restriction provably reduces hypothesis complexity and improves generalisation. Across MuJoCo benchmarks, PRISM consistently outperforms both a sparse-reward baseline and an oracle trained with full dense rewards, improving Pareto coverage and distributional balance: it achieves hypervolume gains exceeding 100\% over the baseline and up to 32\% over the oracle. The code is at \href{https://github.com/EVIEHub/PRISM}{https://github.com/EVIEHub/PRISM}.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2026

Rationality Measurement and Theory for Reinforcement Learning Agents

This paper proposes a suite of rationality measures and associated theory for reinforcement learning agents, a property increasingly critical yet rarely explored. We define an action in deployment to be perfectly rational if it maximises the hidden true value function in the steepest direction. The expected value discrepancy of a policy's actions against their rational counterparts, culminating over the trajectory in deployment, is defined to be expected rational risk; an empirical average version in training is also defined. Their difference, termed as rational risk gap, is decomposed into (1) an extrinsic component caused by environment shifts between training and deployment, and (2) an intrinsic one due to the algorithm's generalisability in a dynamic environment. They are upper bounded by, respectively, (1) the $1$-Wasserstein distance between transition kernels and initial state distributions in training and deployment, and (2) the empirical Rademacher complexity of the value function class. Our theory suggests hypotheses on the benefits from regularisers (including layer normalisation, $\ell_2$ regularisation, and weight normalisation) and domain randomisation, as well as the harm from environment shifts. Experiments are in full agreement with these hypotheses. The code is available at https://github.com/EVIEHub/Rationality.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

DeXposure: A Dataset and Benchmarks for Inter-protocol Credit Exposure in Decentralized Financial Networks

We curate the DeXposure dataset, the first large-scale dataset for inter-protocol credit exposure in decentralized financial networks, covering global markets of 43.7 million entries across 4.3 thousand protocols, 602 blockchains, and 24.3 thousand tokens, from 2020 to 2025. A new measure, value-linked credit exposure between protocols, is defined as the inferred financial dependency relationships derived from changes in Total Value Locked (TVL). We develop a token-to-protocol model using DefiLlama metadata to infer inter-protocol credit exposure from the token's stock dynamics, as reported by the protocols. Based on the curated dataset, we develop three benchmarks for machine learning research with financial applications: (1) graph clustering for global network measurement, tracking the structural evolution of credit exposure networks, (2) vector autoregression for sector-level credit exposure dynamics during major shocks (Terra and FTX), and (3) temporal graph neural networks for dynamic link prediction on temporal graphs. From the analysis, we observe (1) a rapid growth of network volume, (2) a trend of concentration to key protocols, (3) a decline of network density (the ratio of actual connections to possible connections), and (4) distinct shock propagation across sectors, such as lending platforms, trading exchanges, and asset management protocols. The DeXposure dataset and code have been released publicly. We envision they will help with research and practice in machine learning as well as financial risk monitoring, policy analysis, DeFi market modeling, amongst others. The dataset also contributes to machine learning research by offering benchmarks for graph clustering, vector autoregression, and temporal graph analysis.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2023

AI Agent as Urban Planner: Steering Stakeholder Dynamics in Urban Planning via Consensus-based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

In urban planning, land use readjustment plays a pivotal role in aligning land use configurations with the current demands for sustainable urban development. However, present-day urban planning practices face two main issues. Firstly, land use decisions are predominantly dependent on human experts. Besides, while resident engagement in urban planning can promote urban sustainability and livability, it is challenging to reconcile the diverse interests of stakeholders. To address these challenges, we introduce a Consensus-based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning framework for real-world land use readjustment. This framework serves participatory urban planning, allowing diverse intelligent agents as stakeholder representatives to vote for preferred land use types. Within this framework, we propose a novel consensus mechanism in reward design to optimize land utilization through collective decision making. To abstract the structure of the complex urban system, the geographic information of cities is transformed into a spatial graph structure and then processed by graph neural networks. Comprehensive experiments on both traditional top-down planning and participatory planning methods from real-world communities indicate that our computational framework enhances global benefits and accommodates diverse interests, leading to improved satisfaction across different demographic groups. By integrating Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, our framework ensures that participatory urban planning decisions are more dynamic and adaptive to evolving community needs and provides a robust platform for automating complex real-world urban planning processes.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2023

AI Nushu: An Exploration of Language Emergence in Sisterhood -Through the Lens of Computational Linguistics

This paper presents "AI Nushu," an emerging language system inspired by Nushu (women's scripts), the unique language created and used exclusively by ancient Chinese women who were thought to be illiterate under a patriarchal society. In this interactive installation, two artificial intelligence (AI) agents are trained in the Chinese dictionary and the Nushu corpus. By continually observing their environment and communicating, these agents collaborate towards creating a standard writing system to encode Chinese. It offers an artistic interpretation of the creation of a non-western script from a computational linguistics perspective, integrating AI technology with Chinese cultural heritage and a feminist viewpoint.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2023

Decentralized Governance for Virtual Community(DeGov4VC): Optimal Policy Design of Human-plant Symbiosis Co-creation

Does the decentralized nature of user behavior in interactive virtual communities help create rules promoting user engagement? Through scenarios like planting, this framework suggests a new paradigm for mutual influence that allows users to impact communities' political decisions. Sixteen participants in the first round of interviews were involved in the framework's creation. Then we developed and implemented our framework in the community with the help of other stakeholders. This proof-of-concept creates user groups using information from users' daily activities as input and grows the green plants in a virtual environment. Finally, we involved AI agents and stakeholders in the framework test and iterations. Our study's user evaluation of a few key stakeholders demonstrates how our strategy enhances user viscosity and experience. Via human-planting ecosystems in a virtual community, this research gives a fresh viewpoint on decentralized governance and an engaging method for co-creating interactive ecological communities.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2022

Safer Traffic Recovery from the Pandemic in London -- Spatiotemporal Data Mining of Car Crashes

In the aim to support London's safer recovery from the pandemic by improving road safety intelligently, this study investigated the spatiotemporal patterns of age-involved car crashes and affecting factors, upon answering two main research questions: (1)"What are the spatial and temporal patterns of car crashes as well as their changes in two typical years, 2019 and 2020, in London, and how the influential factors work?"; (2)"What are the spatiotemporal patterns of casualty by age groups, and how people's daily activities affect the patterns pre- and para- the pandemic"? Three approaches, i.e., spatial analysis (network Kernel Density Estimation, NetKDE), factor analysis, and spatiotemporal data mining (tensor decomposition), had been implemented to identify the temporal patterns of car crashes on weekly and daily basis respectively, detect the crashes' hot spots, and to gain better understanding the effect from citizens' daily activity on crashes' patterns pre- and para- the pandemic. It had been found from the study that car crashes mainly clustered in the central part of London, especially busier areas around denser hubs of point-of-interest (POIs); the POIs, as a reflector for citizens' daily activities and travel behaviours, can be of help to gain a better understanding of the crashes' patterns, upon further assessment on interactions through the geographical detector; the crashes' casualty patterns varied by age group, with distinctive relationships between POIs and crashes' pattern for corresponding age group categorised. In all, the paper provided an in-depth exploratory analysis of car crashes and their casualty patterns in London to facilitate deployment policies towards post-pandemic safer recovery upon COVID-19.

cs.SI↗