#01Nov 6, 2026
cs.AI
Flow-Guided Target-Space Alignment via Path Consistency
Ruizhi Yuan, Zeqiu Yu, Wei Gao and 3 more
Many multimodal alignment problems require mapping a source modality into a fixed space defined by a target modality, where the target space is not merely an intermediate embedding but is used directly for downstream analysis. In this setting, successful alignment should preserve both the global structure of the target distribution and the instance-level correspondence observed in paired source--target training data. Existing objectives typically address only part of this goal: contrastive losses encourage relative similarity, distribution-matching losses improve marginal agreement, and pointwise regression fits each source sample to its paired target without explicitly modeling target-space path geometry. We propose FlowAlign, a flow-guided target-space alignment method that repurposes conditional flow matching as a training-time alignment signal rather than an inference-time transport model. FlowAlign uses the learned flow field to guide the alignment of source-side representations with the fixed target space, encouraging them to preserve paired correspondence while remaining compatible with the global target-space structure. We further provide theoretical analysis showing how FlowAlign helps improve paired correspondence by controlling endpoint accuracy and capturing local target-space geometry. Experiments on synthetic data, paired single-cell multiome benchmarks, and image--text alignment demonstrate that FlowAlign improves instance level correspondence while preserving target-space structure across different modality settings.
#02Nov 6, 2026
cs.AI
Generative Latent Priors for Interpreting and Steering Protein Language Models
Daniel Hinjos, Lucía Urcelay
Dominant methods for interpreting large models impose strong structural assumptions. Generative Latent Priors (GLP) are a complementary approach: a diffusion model that learns the distribution of a frozen model's activations directly, imposing no assumptions. We port GLP to ESM-2 activations (UniRef50) and evaluate it at two host scales (ESM-2-8M and -650M), both as a lens for protein representations and as a prior for editing them. Generation quality scales smoothly with depth and compute. As a lens, single GLP "meta-neurons" are the strongest probes of discrete Swiss-Prot concepts at both hosts, beating InterPLM's released SAE features, and lead on continuous properties at 8M though not at 650M; falsification tests show this is mostly concentration, not new information. As an editing prior, the on-manifold correction makes DiffMean steering of three biochemical properties effective and restores on-manifoldness, but only in isolation: re-embedding the sequences actually produced after several rounds of decoding, the structural plausibility is compromised. This is mainly reproduced in additional SAE-based clamping structural steering experiments, where only Helix motif succeeds. The naturalness failure is traced to the rewriting coverage and the decoder rather than the prior, highlighting what the method must clear before it can serve for both discovery-by-editing and discovery-by-exploration. Trained GLPs are released on huggingface.co/collections/HPAI-BSC/glprot.
#03Nov 6, 2026
cs.LG
Quasipolynomial-Time Planning for Decodable POMDPs
Oliver Dobson, Varun Jog, Chun Hei Michael Shiu
We study planning for finite-horizon partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) with finite state, action, and observation spaces. Both exact and approximate planning are known to be computationally hard in this setting, so prior work has explored natural assumptions that make planning easier. Recent work [Golowich et al., 2022] gave quasipolynomial-time approximate planning algorithms for observable POMDPs. These are POMDPs whose observation channels satisfy an $\ell_1$-observability condition, but notably, no assumptions are required on the transition dynamics. In a similar vein, for every fixed $ρ>0$, we give quasipolynomial-time approximate planning algorithms for $ρ$-decodable POMDPs. We show that decodability is implied by both $\ell_1$- and $\ell_2$-observability and is strictly weaker than observability. Moreover, we show that the optimal decodability constant can be computed in polynomial time, whereas computing the optimal $\ell_1$-observability constant is NP-hard in the worst case. We also show that the fast filter-forgetting guarantee underlying the approach of [Golowich et al., 2022] does not extend directly from $\ell_1$-observability to constant $\ell_2$-observability. Thus, decodability is an easy-to-check, unifying assumption under which quasipolynomial-time approximate planning for POMDPs is possible.
#04Nov 6, 2026
cs.CL
Language as Trait, Politeness as Strategy: Controlled Tests of Linguistic Effects in LLM Social-Deduction Agents
Yuchen Li, Lisa Liu, Runqi Zou and 3 more
Large language model (LLM) agents coordinate through conversation, and the same message can be phrased in simpler or more complex language, bluntly or politely. We test whether such differences change how other agents judge and act, using the LURK Werewolf framework, which separates each utterance's speech-act predicate from its natural-language realization. We rewrite only the realization, check that the game content is preserved, and replay each game day from saved checkpoints against a re-sampled control. We vary linguistic range consistently across a speaker's messages and politeness strategy per utterance. Across 30 games and 4,335 replays, neither manipulation changes the trust other agents place in the speaker, and no effect on votes or night actions survives correction for multiple comparisons; the largest uncorrected effect is that shifting range away from a neutral paraphrase changes about 4 percentage points more of the other players' votes. In natural play, 88% of face-threatening speech is bald on-record regardless of role.
#05Nov 6, 2026
cs.LG
The Cost of Coverage: Conformalising Native Forecast Uncertainty for GB Wind Power
Carl Somers
Uncertainty bands on wind forecasts help inform reserve sizing and commitments, but often fail to deliver their stated coverage. We apply conformal prediction to native bands to see what it adds and what it costs, comparing six forecasters, from ARIMA to a tabular foundation model, at two wind farms in Great Britain (GB) under operational conditions. We show that calibration repairs empirical marginal coverage with little or no Winkler Score penalty, but this apparent success conceals under-coverage in high winds. Calibrating by forecast wind regime turns marginal coverage into regime-level coverage, cutting day-ahead out-of-band volume in high winds by over 40% relative to pooled calibration while narrowing bands overall.