arXiv Machine Learning

Capability and Robustness Cannot Both Be Free: An Information-Theoretic Bound for Vision-Language-Action Models

arXiv:2605. 25889v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models reach high success rates on clean inputs but collapse under small adversarial perturbations: a $16/255$ PGD attack drops OpenVLA-7B's LIBERO success from $95\%$ to under $5\%$.

arXiv AI
6d ago

Can Pixels Alone Reveal Image Origin? Minimax Limits and Learnable Interfaces for Passive Provenance

The paper investigates whether pixels alone can determine an image’s origin—human, AI class, or specific generator—under adversarial edits. It establishes a minimax limit: the best possible robust acceptance gap equals the minimum total‑variation distance between the target distribution and attacked source distributions, independent of verifier design. The study also shows that practical public verifiers can fail before reaching this theoretical ceiling, highlighting the need to evaluate both statistical limits and deployed verifier behavior separately.

By Kai Yao
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 18

The Limits of Binding in Dual Encoders

arXiv:2608. 15971v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Dual-encoder models such as CLIP score an image-caption pair by a single inner product of two independently computed unit vectors, and fail at binding, often scoring near chance when asked to distinguish "a red car and a blue dog" from "a blue car and a red dog".

By Kin Ian Lo
arXiv AI
Jul 7

Hidden-State Privacy Has an Empty Middle

arXiv:2605. 24042v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Of $1{,}536$ Gaussian release covariances we tested for single-layer hidden-state privacy, zero achieve both moderate utility and moderate privacy against an adaptive retrieval attacker.

By Alexander Okezue Bell
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 12

Optimistic Rates for Multiclass PAC Learning

arXiv:2608. 10869v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Worst-case multiclass bounds do not become smaller when the best classifier is already nearly correct: what is missing is an optimistic rate, a guarantee whose fluctuation scales with the oracle risk itself.

By Xiaoyu Li, Andi Han, Jiaojiao Jiang, Junbin Gao
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 25

Decoupled Early Exits for Task-Dependent Compute Allocation in Flow-Matching VLAs

The paper introduces a framework for Flow‑Matching Vision‑Language‑Action (VLA) models that allows independent adjustment of backbone depth, action expert depth, and denoising steps. Lightweight Exit Transformers are added at intermediate layers to enable early exits, and a KV Cache synthesis mechanism manages skipped layers so the action expert can exit deeper than the backbone. Experiments on SmolVLA and π0.5 across LIBERO and Meta‑World show that joint tuning of these compute axes reduces latency by 79.2 % and FLOPs by 31.8 %, while improving mean success rate by 5.6 %.

By Riccardo Andrea Izzo, Rimvydas Rubavicius, Gianluca Bardaro, Subramanian Ramamoorthy, Matteo Matteucci, Alessandro Suglia
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 24

When Clean Data Hurts: Learning with Monotone Corruptions Beyond Binary Classification

The paper investigates learning with monotone adversarial corruptions, extending previous binary classification results to multiclass and partial binary settings. It shows that even a small number of strategically inserted corrupted examples can render a learnable multiclass problem with DS dimension 2 completely unlearnable, and provides matching upper bounds when the adversary’s budget is sublinear. The work also demonstrates that classic error rates remain attainable under bounded or limited‑view adversaries.

By Julian Asilis, Shaddin Dughmi, Chirag Pabbaraju
arXiv AI
Sep 15

Certifiably Interpretable Training of ReLU-MLPs for Boolean Tasks with Guaranteed Truth-Table Generalization

The paper introduces MACCHIATO, a training algorithm that builds a ReLU‑MLP from partial truth‑table data while simultaneously constructing an explicit Boolean circuit over AND, OR, and XOR gates that certifies the network’s computation. The method iteratively projects residuals onto low‑dimensional Boolean classes, compiles the resulting circuit into a ReLU‑MLP, and uses logic minimization and influence‑based variable selection to achieve a six‑layer network with provable truth‑table error bounds. Experiments on synthetic random‑junta tasks show that these certified networks outperform Adam‑trained MLPs in data‑sparse or projection‑aligned regimes and complete faster than flat ESPRESSO in certain settings.

By Hrad Ghoukasian, Anastasis Kratsios