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Lei Xiao

Publications and source records attributed to Lei Xiao.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Rethinking Domain Adaptation and Generalization in the Era of CLIP

In recent studies on domain adaptation, significant emphasis has been placed on the advancement of learning shared knowledge from a source domain to a target domain. Recently, the large vision-language pre-trained model, i.e., CLIP has shown strong ability on zero-shot recognition, and parameter efficient tuning can further improve its performance on specific tasks. This work demonstrates that a simple domain prior boosts CLIP's zero-shot recognition in a specific domain. Besides, CLIP's adaptation relies less on source domain data due to its diverse pre-training dataset. Furthermore, we create a benchmark for zero-shot adaptation and pseudo-labeling based self-training with CLIP. Last but not least, we propose to improve the task generalization ability of CLIP from multiple unlabeled domains, which is a more practical and unique scenario. We believe our findings motivate a rethinking of domain adaptation benchmarks and the associated role of related algorithms in the era of CLIP.

cs.CV↗

Understanding the Ranking Loss for Recommendation with Sparse User Feedback

Click-through rate (CTR) prediction is a crucial area of research in online advertising. While binary cross entropy (BCE) has been widely used as the optimization objective for treating CTR prediction as a binary classification problem, recent advancements have shown that combining BCE loss with an auxiliary ranking loss can significantly improve performance. However, the full effectiveness of this combination loss is not yet fully understood. In this paper, we uncover a new challenge associated with the BCE loss in scenarios where positive feedback is sparse: the issue of gradient vanishing for negative samples. We introduce a novel perspective on the effectiveness of the auxiliary ranking loss in CTR prediction: it generates larger gradients on negative samples, thereby mitigating the optimization difficulties when using the BCE loss only and resulting in improved classification ability. To validate our perspective, we conduct theoretical analysis and extensive empirical evaluations on public datasets. Additionally, we successfully integrate the ranking loss into Tencent's online advertising system, achieving notable lifts of 0.70% and 1.26% in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) for two main scenarios. The code is openly accessible at: https://github.com/SkylerLinn/Understanding-the-Ranking-Loss.

cs.IR↗

Ads Recommendation in a Collapsed and Entangled World

We present Tencent's ads recommendation system and examine the challenges and practices of learning appropriate recommendation representations. Our study begins by showcasing our approaches to preserving prior knowledge when encoding features of diverse types into embedding representations. We specifically address sequence features, numeric features, and pre-trained embedding features. Subsequently, we delve into two crucial challenges related to feature representation: the dimensional collapse of embeddings and the interest entanglement across different tasks or scenarios. We propose several practical approaches to address these challenges that result in robust and disentangled recommendation representations. We then explore several training techniques to facilitate model optimization, reduce bias, and enhance exploration. Additionally, we introduce three analysis tools that enable us to study feature correlation, dimensional collapse, and interest entanglement. This work builds upon the continuous efforts of Tencent's ads recommendation team over the past decade. It summarizes general design principles and presents a series of readily applicable solutions and analysis tools. The reported performance is based on our online advertising platform, which handles hundreds of billions of requests daily and serves millions of ads to billions of users.

cs.IR↗

Teleportation with Embezzling Catalysts

Quantum teleportation is the process of transferring quantum information using classical communication and pre-shared entanglement. This process can benefit from the use of catalysts, which are ancillary entangled states that can enhance teleportation without being consumed. While chemical catalysts undergoing deactivation invariably exhibit inferior performance compared to those unaffected by deactivation, quantum catalysts, termed embezzling catalysts, that are subject to deactivation, may surprisingly outperform their non-deactivating counterparts. In this work, we present teleportation protocols with embezzling catalyst that can achieve arbitrarily high fidelity, namely the teleported state can be made arbitrarily close to the original state, with finite-dimensional embezzling catalysts. We show that some embezzling catalysts are universal, meaning that they can improve the teleportation fidelity for any pre-shared entanglement. We also explore methods to reduce the dimension of catalysts without increasing catalyst consumption, an essential step towards realizing quantum catalysis in practice.

quant-ph↗

Communication with Quantum Catalysts

Communication is essential for advancing science and technology. Quantum communication, in particular, benefits from the use of catalysts. During the communication process, these catalysts enhance performance while remaining unchanged. Although chemical catalysts that undergo deactivation typically perform worse than those that remain unaffected, quantum catalysts, referred to as embezzling catalysts, can surprisingly outperform their non-deactivating counterparts despite experiencing slight alterations. In this work, we employ embezzling quantum catalysts to enhance the transmission of both quantum and classical information. Our results reveal that using embezzling catalysts augments the efficiency of information transmission across noisy quantum channels, ensuring a non-zero catalytic channel capacity. Furthermore, we introduce catalytic superdense coding, demonstrating how embezzling catalysts can enhance the transmission of classical information. Finally, we explore methods to reduce the dimensionality of catalysts, a step toward making quantum catalysis a practical reality.

quant-ph↗

Pareto-based Multi-Objective Recommender System with Forgetting Curve

Recommender systems with cascading architecture play an increasingly significant role in online recommendation platforms, where the approach to dealing with negative feedback is a vital issue. For instance, in short video platforms, users tend to quickly slip away from candidates that they feel aversive, and recommender systems are expected to receive these explicit negative feedbacks and make adjustments to avoid these recommendations. Considering recency effect in memories, we propose a forgetting model based on Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve to cope with negative feedback. In addition, we introduce a Pareto optimization solver to guarantee a better trade-off between recency and model performance. In conclusion, we propose Pareto-based Multi-Objective Recommender System with forgetting curve (PMORS), which can be applied to any multi-objective recommendation and show sufficiently superiority when facing explicit negative feedback. We have conducted evaluations of PMORS and achieved favorable outcomes in short-video scenarios on both public dataset and industrial dataset. After being deployed on an online short video platform named WeChat Channels in May, 2023, PMORS has not only demonstrated promising results for both consistency and recency but also achieved an improvement of up to +1.45% GMV.

cs.IR↗

ReplaceAnything3D:Text-Guided 3D Scene Editing with Compositional Neural Radiance Fields

We introduce ReplaceAnything3D model (RAM3D), a novel text-guided 3D scene editing method that enables the replacement of specific objects within a scene. Given multi-view images of a scene, a text prompt describing the object to replace, and a text prompt describing the new object, our Erase-and-Replace approach can effectively swap objects in the scene with newly generated content while maintaining 3D consistency across multiple viewpoints. We demonstrate the versatility of ReplaceAnything3D by applying it to various realistic 3D scenes, showcasing results of modified foreground objects that are well-integrated with the rest of the scene without affecting its overall integrity.

cs.CV↗

TextureDreamer: Image-guided Texture Synthesis through Geometry-aware Diffusion

We present TextureDreamer, a novel image-guided texture synthesis method to transfer relightable textures from a small number of input images (3 to 5) to target 3D shapes across arbitrary categories. Texture creation is a pivotal challenge in vision and graphics. Industrial companies hire experienced artists to manually craft textures for 3D assets. Classical methods require densely sampled views and accurately aligned geometry, while learning-based methods are confined to category-specific shapes within the dataset. In contrast, TextureDreamer can transfer highly detailed, intricate textures from real-world environments to arbitrary objects with only a few casually captured images, potentially significantly democratizing texture creation. Our core idea, personalized geometry-aware score distillation (PGSD), draws inspiration from recent advancements in diffuse models, including personalized modeling for texture information extraction, variational score distillation for detailed appearance synthesis, and explicit geometry guidance with ControlNet. Our integration and several essential modifications substantially improve the texture quality. Experiments on real images spanning different categories show that TextureDreamer can successfully transfer highly realistic, semantic meaningful texture to arbitrary objects, surpassing the visual quality of previous state-of-the-art.

cs.CV↗

ESGReveal: An LLM-based approach for extracting structured data from ESG reports

ESGReveal is an innovative method proposed for efficiently extracting and analyzing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data from corporate reports, catering to the critical need for reliable ESG information retrieval. This approach utilizes Large Language Models (LLM) enhanced with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques. The ESGReveal system includes an ESG metadata module for targeted queries, a preprocessing module for assembling databases, and an LLM agent for data extraction. Its efficacy was appraised using ESG reports from 166 companies across various sectors listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2022, ensuring comprehensive industry and market capitalization representation. Utilizing ESGReveal unearthed significant insights into ESG reporting with GPT-4, demonstrating an accuracy of 76.9% in data extraction and 83.7% in disclosure analysis, which is an improvement over baseline models. This highlights the framework's capacity to refine ESG data analysis precision. Moreover, it revealed a demand for reinforced ESG disclosures, with environmental and social data disclosures standing at 69.5% and 57.2%, respectively, suggesting a pursuit for more corporate transparency. While current iterations of ESGReveal do not process pictorial information, a functionality intended for future enhancement, the study calls for continued research to further develop and compare the analytical capabilities of various LLMs. In summary, ESGReveal is a stride forward in ESG data processing, offering stakeholders a sophisticated tool to better evaluate and advance corporate sustainability efforts. Its evolution is promising in promoting transparency in corporate reporting and aligning with broader sustainable development aims.

cs.CL↗

Experimental observation of the Yang-Lee quantum criticality in open systems

The Yang-Lee edge singularity was originally studied from the standpoint of mathematical foundations of phase transitions, and its physical demonstration has been of active interest both theoretically and experimentally. However, the presence of an imaginary magnetic field in the Yang-Lee edge singularity has made it challenging to develop a direct observation of the anomalous scaling with negative scaling dimension associated with this critical phenomenon. We experimentally implement an imaginary magnetic field and demonstrate the Yang-Lee edge singularity through a nonunitary evolution governed by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in an open quantum system, where a classical system is mapped to a quantum system via the equivalent canonical partition function. In particular, we directly observe the partition function in our experiment using heralded single photons. The nonunitary quantum criticality is identified with the singularity at an exceptional point. We also demonstrate unconventional scaling laws for the finite-temperature dynamics unique to quantum systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Self acceleration from spectral geometry in dissipative quantum-walk dynamics

Dynamic behaviors of a physical system often originate from its spectral properties. In open systems, where the effective non-Hermitian description enables a wealth of spectral structures on the complex plane, the concomitant dynamics is significantly enriched, whereas the identification and comprehension of the underlying connections are challenging. Here we experimentally demonstrate the correspondence between the transient self acceleration of local excitations and the non-Hermitian spectral topology using lossy photonic quantum walks. Focusing first on one-dimensional quantum walks, we show that the measured short-time acceleration of the wave function is proportional to the area enclosed by the eigenspectrum. We then reveal similar correspondence in two-dimension quantum walks, where the self acceleration is proportional to the volume enclosed by the eigenspectrum in the complex parameter space. In both dimensions, the transient self acceleration crosses over to a long-time behavior dominated by a constant flow at the drift velocity. Our results unveil the universal correspondence between spectral topology and transient dynamics, and offer a sensitive probe for phenomena in non-Hermitian systems that originate from spectral geometry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Tiled Multiplane Images for Practical 3D Photography

The task of synthesizing novel views from a single image has useful applications in virtual reality and mobile computing, and a number of approaches to the problem have been proposed in recent years. A Multiplane Image (MPI) estimates the scene as a stack of RGBA layers, and can model complex appearance effects, anti-alias depth errors and synthesize soft edges better than methods that use textured meshes or layered depth images. And unlike neural radiance fields, an MPI can be efficiently rendered on graphics hardware. However, MPIs are highly redundant and require a large number of depth layers to achieve plausible results. Based on the observation that the depth complexity in local image regions is lower than that over the entire image, we split an MPI into many small, tiled regions, each with only a few depth planes. We call this representation a Tiled Multiplane Image (TMPI). We propose a method for generating a TMPI with adaptive depth planes for single-view 3D photography in the wild. Our synthesized results are comparable to state-of-the-art single-view MPI methods while having lower computational overhead.

cs.CV↗

Experimental Simulation of Symmetry-Protected Higher-Order Exceptional Points with Single Photons

Exceptional points (EPs) of non-Hermitian (NH) systems have recently attracted increasing attention due to their rich phenomenology and intriguing applications. Compared to the predominantly studied second-order EPs, higher-order EPs have been assumed to play a much less prominent role because they generically require the tuning of more parameters. Here we experimentally simulate two-dimensional topological NH band structures using single-photon interferometry, and observe topologically stable third-order EPs obtained by tuning only two real parameters in the presence of symmetry. In particular, we explore how different symmetries stabilize qualitatively different third-order EPs: the parity-time symmetry leads to a generic cube-root dispersion, while a generalized chiral symmetry implies a square-root dispersion coexisting with a flat band. Additionally, we simulate fourfold degeneracies, composed of the non-defective twofold degeneracies and second-order EPs. Our work reveals the abundant and conceptually richer higher-order EPs protected by symmetries and offers a versatile platform for further research on topological NH systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

AutoPCF: Efficient Product Carbon Footprint Accounting with Large Language Models

The product carbon footprint (PCF) is crucial for decarbonizing the supply chain, as it measures the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions caused by all activities during the product's life cycle. However, PCF accounting often requires expert knowledge and significant time to construct life cycle models. In this study, we test and compare the emergent ability of five large language models (LLMs) in modeling the 'cradle-to-gate' life cycles of products and generating the inventory data of inputs and outputs, revealing their limitations as a generalized PCF knowledge database. By utilizing LLMs, we propose an automatic AI-driven PCF accounting framework, called AutoPCF, which also applies deep learning algorithms to automatically match calculation parameters, and ultimately calculate the PCF. The results of estimating the carbon footprint for three case products using the AutoPCF framework demonstrate its potential in achieving automatic modeling and estimation of PCF with a large reduction in modeling time from days to minutes.

cs.AI↗

Temporally Consistent Online Depth Estimation Using Point-Based Fusion

Depth estimation is an important step in many computer vision problems such as 3D reconstruction, novel view synthesis, and computational photography. Most existing work focuses on depth estimation from single frames. When applied to videos, the result lacks temporal consistency, showing flickering and swimming artifacts. In this paper we aim to estimate temporally consistent depth maps of video streams in an online setting. This is a difficult problem as future frames are not available and the method must choose between enforcing consistency and correcting errors from previous estimations. The presence of dynamic objects further complicates the problem. We propose to address these challenges by using a global point cloud that is dynamically updated each frame, along with a learned fusion approach in image space. Our approach encourages consistency while simultaneously allowing updates to handle errors and dynamic objects. Qualitative and quantitative results show that our method achieves state-of-the-art quality for consistent video depth estimation.

cs.CV↗

AlteredAvatar: Stylizing Dynamic 3D Avatars with Fast Style Adaptation

This paper presents a method that can quickly adapt dynamic 3D avatars to arbitrary text descriptions of novel styles. Among existing approaches for avatar stylization, direct optimization methods can produce excellent results for arbitrary styles but they are unpleasantly slow. Furthermore, they require redoing the optimization process from scratch for every new input. Fast approximation methods using feed-forward networks trained on a large dataset of style images can generate results for new inputs quickly, but tend not to generalize well to novel styles and fall short in quality. We therefore investigate a new approach, AlteredAvatar, that combines those two approaches using the meta-learning framework. In the inner loop, the model learns to optimize to match a single target style well; while in the outer loop, the model learns to stylize efficiently across many styles. After training, AlteredAvatar learns an initialization that can quickly adapt within a small number of update steps to a novel style, which can be given using texts, a reference image, or a combination of both. We show that AlteredAvatar can achieve a good balance between speed, flexibility and quality, while maintaining consistency across a wide range of novel views and facial expressions.

cs.CV↗

AdaTask: A Task-aware Adaptive Learning Rate Approach to Multi-task Learning

Multi-task learning (MTL) models have demonstrated impressive results in computer vision, natural language processing, and recommender systems. Even though many approaches have been proposed, how well these approaches balance different tasks on each parameter still remains unclear. In this paper, we propose to measure the task dominance degree of a parameter by the total updates of each task on this parameter. Specifically, we compute the total updates by the exponentially decaying Average of the squared Updates (AU) on a parameter from the corresponding task.Based on this novel metric, we observe that many parameters in existing MTL methods, especially those in the higher shared layers, are still dominated by one or several tasks. The dominance of AU is mainly due to the dominance of accumulative gradients from one or several tasks. Motivated by this, we propose a Task-wise Adaptive learning rate approach, AdaTask in short, to separate the \emph{accumulative gradients} and hence the learning rate of each task for each parameter in adaptive learning rate approaches (e.g., AdaGrad, RMSProp, and Adam). Comprehensive experiments on computer vision and recommender system MTL datasets demonstrate that AdaTask significantly improves the performance of dominated tasks, resulting SOTA average task-wise performance. Analysis on both synthetic and real-world datasets shows AdaTask balance parameters in every shared layer well.

cs.LG↗

Observation of non-Hermitian edge burst in quantum dynamics

The non-Hermitian skin effect, by which the eigenstates of Hamiltonian are predominantly localized at the boundary, has revealed a strong sensitivity of non-Hermitian systems to the boundary condition. Here we experimentally observe a striking boundary-induced dynamical phenomenon known as the non-Hermitian edge burst, which is characterized by a sharp boundary accumulation of loss in non-Hermitian time evolutions. In contrast to the eigenstate localization, the edge burst represents a generic non-Hermitian dynamical phenomenon that occurs in real time. Our experiment, based on photonic quantum walks, not only confirms the prediction of the phenomenon, but also unveils its complete space-time dynamics. Our observation of edge burst paves the way for studying the rich real-time dynamics in non-Hermitian topological systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗