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The mechanisms of comprehension during language processing remains an open question. Classically, building the meaning of a linguistic utterance is said to be incremental, step-by-step, based on a compositional process. However, many…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-11-05 Philippe Blache , Emmanuele Chersoni , Giulia Rambelli , Alessandro Lenci

The advent of transformers has in recent years led to powerful and revolutionary Large Language Models (LLMs). Despite this, our understanding on the capability of transformers is still meager. In this invited contribution, we recount the…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2025-09-30 Anthony W. Lin , Pablo Barcelo

Model-based testing (MBT) promises a scalable solution to testing large systems, if a model is available. Creating these models for large systems, however, has proven to be difficult. Composing larger models from smaller ones could solve…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2023-11-16 Gijs van Cuyck , Lars van Arragon , Jan Tretmans

Many NLP applications require models to be interpretable. However, many successful neural architectures, including transformers, still lack effective interpretation methods. A possible solution could rely on building explanations from…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2024-04-04 Federico Ruggeri , Marco Lippi , Paolo Torroni

Transformers play a central role in the inner workings of large language models. We develop a mathematical framework for analyzing Transformers based on their interpretation as interacting particle systems, which reveals that clusters…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-08-22 Borjan Geshkovski , Cyril Letrouit , Yury Polyanskiy , Philippe Rigollet

Improving the interpretability of deep neural networks has recently gained increased attention, especially when the power of deep learning is leveraged to solve problems in physics. Interpretability helps us understand a model's ability to…

Sound · Computer Science 2023-10-12 Karim Helwani , Erfan Soltanmohammadi , Michael M. Goodwin

Different fields in applied machine learning such as computer vision, speech or natural language processing have been building domain-specialised solutions. Currently, we are witnessing an opposing trend towards developing more generalist…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-04-04 Sahil J. Sindhi , Ignas Budvytis

Transformers have revolutionized machine learning, yet their inner workings remain opaque to many. We present Transformer Explainer, an interactive visualization tool designed for non-experts to learn about Transformers through the GPT-2…

Compositional generalization is a critical ability in learning and decision-making. We focus on the setting of reinforcement learning in object-oriented environments to study compositional generalization in world modeling. We (1) formalize…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-20 Linfeng Zhao , Lingzhi Kong , Robin Walters , Lawson L. S. Wong

Translating continuous control system models into finite automata allows us to use powerful discrete tools to synthesize controllers for complex specifications. The abstraction construction step is unfortunately hamstrung by high runtime…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2018-07-27 Eric S. Kim , Murat Arcak

A great number of deep learning based models have been recently proposed for automatic music composition. Among these models, the Transformer stands out as a prominent approach for generating expressive classical piano performance with a…

Sound · Computer Science 2020-08-11 Yu-Siang Huang , Yi-Hsuan Yang

The remarkable capabilities of modern large language models are rooted in their vast repositories of knowledge encoded within their parameters, enabling them to perceive the world and engage in reasoning. The inner workings of how these…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-01-06 Yunzhi Yao , Ningyu Zhang , Zekun Xi , Mengru Wang , Ziwen Xu , Shumin Deng , Huajun Chen

Compositional generalization-a key open challenge in modern machine learning-requires models to predict unknown combinations of known concepts. However, assessing compositional generalization remains a fundamental challenge due to the lack…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-06 Giacomo Camposampiero , Pietro Barbiero , Michael Hersche , Roger Wattenhofer , Abbas Rahimi

Mechanistic interpretability aims to understand how neural networks generalize beyond their training data by reverse-engineering their internal structures. We introduce patterning as the dual problem: given a desired form of generalization,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-21 George Wang , Daniel Murfet

Understanding the internal mechanisms of GPT-style transformers, particularly their capacity to perform in-context learning (ICL), is critical for advancing AI alignment and interpretability. In-context learning allows transformers to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-24 Samarth Bhargav , Alexander Gu

Chain-of-thought (CoT) is a method that enables language models to handle complex reasoning tasks by decomposing them into simpler steps. Despite its success, the underlying mechanics of CoT are not yet fully understood. In an attempt to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-11-09 Yingcong Li , Kartik Sreenivasan , Angeliki Giannou , Dimitris Papailiopoulos , Samet Oymak

Humans are highly efficient learners, with the ability to grasp the meaning of a new concept from just a few examples. Unlike popular computer vision systems, humans can flexibly leverage the compositional structure of the visual world,…

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · Computer Science 2021-05-21 Yanli Zhou , Brenden M. Lake

Many people enjoy classical symphonic music. Its diverse instrumentation makes for a rich listening experience. This diversity adds to the conductor's expressive freedom to shape the sound according to their imagination. As a result, the…

Closed-loop control of nonlinear dynamical systems with partial-state observability demands expert knowledge of a diverse, less standardized set of theoretical tools. Moreover, it requires a delicate integration of controller and estimator…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2024-04-04 Xiangyuan Zhang , Weichao Mao , Haoran Qiu , Tamer Başar

Large language models (LLMs) often exhibit unexpected errors or unintended behavior, even at scale. While recent work reveals the discrepancy between LLMs and humans in skill compositions, the learning dynamics of skill compositions and the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-02 Xingyu Zhao , Darsh Sharma , Rheeya Uppaal , Yiqiao Zhong