Cong Tian

AI
h-index24
7papers
51citations
Novelty57%
AI Score42

7 Papers

2.0LGOct 18, 2023
Using Experience Classification for Training Non-Markovian Tasks

Ruixuan Miao, Xu Lu, Cong Tian et al.

Unlike the standard Reinforcement Learning (RL) model, many real-world tasks are non-Markovian, whose rewards are predicated on state history rather than solely on the current state. Solving a non-Markovian task, frequently applied in practical applications such as autonomous driving, financial trading, and medical diagnosis, can be quite challenging. We propose a novel RL approach to achieve non-Markovian rewards expressed in temporal logic LTL$_f$ (Linear Temporal Logic over Finite Traces). To this end, an encoding of linear complexity from LTL$_f$ into MDPs (Markov Decision Processes) is introduced to take advantage of advanced RL algorithms. Then, a prioritized experience replay technique based on the automata structure (semantics equivalent to LTL$_f$ specification) is utilized to improve the training process. We empirically evaluate several benchmark problems augmented with non-Markovian tasks to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach.

18.8AIJan 27, 2025Code
From Informal to Formal -- Incorporating and Evaluating LLMs on Natural Language Requirements to Verifiable Formal Proofs

Jialun Cao, Yaojie Lu, Meiziniu Li et al.

The research in AI-based formal mathematical reasoning has shown an unstoppable growth trend. These studies have excelled in mathematical competitions like IMO and have made significant progress. This paper focuses on formal verification, an immediate application scenario of formal reasoning, and breaks it down into sub-tasks. We constructed 18k high-quality instruction-response pairs across five formal specification languages (Coq, Lean4, Dafny, ACSL, and TLA+) by distilling gpt-4o and evaluated against ten open-sourced LLMs, including recent popular DeepSeek-R1. We also fine-tuned several 7~8B small models to achieve comparable performance with Deepseek-R1-671B. Interestingly, we observed that fine-tuning with formal data also enhances mathematics, reasoning, and coding capabilities. Fine-tuned models are released at https: //huggingface.co/fm-universe.

15.5CVApr 15, 2025Code
Token-Level Constraint Boundary Search for Jailbreaking Text-to-Image Models

Jiangtao Liu, Zhaoxin Wang, Handing Wang et al.

Recent advancements in Text-to-Image (T2I) generation have significantly enhanced the realism and creativity of generated images. However, such powerful generative capabilities pose risks related to the production of inappropriate or harmful content. Existing defense mechanisms, including prompt checkers and post-hoc image checkers, are vulnerable to sophisticated adversarial attacks. In this work, we propose TCBS-Attack, a novel query-based black-box jailbreak attack that searches for tokens located near the decision boundaries defined by text and image checkers. By iteratively optimizing tokens near these boundaries, TCBS-Attack generates semantically coherent adversarial prompts capable of bypassing multiple defensive layers in T2I models. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art jailbreak attacks across various T2I models, including securely trained open-source models and commercial online services like DALL-E 3. TCBS-Attack achieves an ASR-4 of 45\% and an ASR-1 of 21\% on jailbreaking full-chain T2I models, significantly surpassing baseline methods.

5.8AISep 14, 2025
VideoAgent: Personalized Synthesis of Scientific Videos

Xiao Liang, Bangxin Li, Zixuan Chen et al.

Automating the generation of scientific videos is a crucial yet challenging task for effective knowledge dissemination. However, existing works on document automation primarily focus on static media such as posters and slides, lacking mechanisms for personalized dynamic orchestration and multimodal content synchronization. To address these challenges, we introduce VideoAgent, a novel multi-agent framework that synthesizes personalized scientific videos through a conversational interface. VideoAgent parses a source paper into a fine-grained asset library and, guided by user requirements, orchestrates a narrative flow that synthesizes both static slides and dynamic animations to explain complex concepts. To enable rigorous evaluation, we also propose SciVidEval, the first comprehensive suite for this task, which combines automated metrics for multimodal content quality and synchronization with a Video-Quiz-based human evaluation to measure knowledge transfer. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms existing commercial scientific video generation services and approaches human-level quality in scientific communication.

3.4SEMar 28, 2025
MFH: A Multi-faceted Heuristic Algorithm Selection Approach for Software Verification

Jie Su, Liansai Deng, Cheng Wen et al.

Currently, many verification algorithms are available to improve the reliability of software systems. Selecting the appropriate verification algorithm typically demands domain expertise and non-trivial manpower. An automated algorithm selector is thus desired. However, existing selectors, either depend on machine-learned strategies or manually designed heuristics, encounter issues such as reliance on high-quality samples with algorithm labels and limited scalability. In this paper, an automated algorithm selection approach, namely MFH, is proposed for software verification. Our approach leverages the heuristics that verifiers producing correct results typically implement certain appropriate algorithms, and the supported algorithms by these verifiers indirectly reflect which ones are potentially applicable. Specifically, MFH embeds the code property graph (CPG) of a semantic-preserving transformed program to enhance the robustness of the prediction model. Furthermore, our approach decomposes the selection task into the sub-tasks of predicting potentially applicable algorithms and matching the most appropriate verifiers. Additionally, MFH also introduces a feedback loop on incorrect predictions to improve model prediction accuracy. We evaluate MFH on 20 verifiers and over 15,000 verification tasks. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of MFH, achieving a prediction accuracy of 91.47% even without ground truth algorithm labels provided during the training phase. Moreover, the prediction accuracy decreases only by 0.84% when introducing 10 new verifiers, indicating the strong scalability of the proposed approach.

4.2CLJun 13, 2024
StructuralSleight: Automated Jailbreak Attacks on Large Language Models Utilizing Uncommon Text-Organization Structures

Bangxin Li, Hengrui Xing, Cong Tian et al.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are widely used in natural language processing but face the risk of jailbreak attacks that maliciously induce them to generate harmful content. Existing jailbreak attacks, including character-level and context-level attacks, mainly focus on the prompt of plain text without specifically exploring the significant influence of its structure. In this paper, we focus on studying how the prompt structure contributes to the jailbreak attack. We introduce a novel structure-level attack method based on long-tailed structures, which we refer to as Uncommon Text-Organization Structures (UTOS). We extensively study 12 UTOS templates and 6 obfuscation methods to build an effective automated jailbreak tool named StructuralSleight that contains three escalating attack strategies: Structural Attack, Structural and Character/Context Obfuscation Attack, and Fully Obfuscated Structural Attack. Extensive experiments on existing LLMs show that StructuralSleight significantly outperforms the baseline methods. In particular, the attack success rate reaches 94.62\% on GPT-4o, which has not been addressed by state-of-the-art techniques.

7.2CRJul 2, 2020
Generating Adversarial Examples with Controllable Non-transferability

Renzhi Wang, Tianwei Zhang, Xiaofei Xie et al.

Adversarial attacks against Deep Neural Networks have been widely studied. One significant feature that makes such attacks particularly powerful is transferability, where the adversarial examples generated from one model can be effective against other similar models as well. A large number of works have been done to increase the transferability. However, how to decrease the transferability and craft malicious samples only for specific target models are not explored yet. In this paper, we design novel attack methodologies to generate adversarial examples with controllable non-transferability. With these methods, an adversary can efficiently produce precise adversarial examples to attack a set of target models he desires, while keeping benign to other models. The first method is Reversed Loss Function Ensemble, where the adversary can craft qualified examples from the gradients of a reversed loss function. This approach is effective for the white-box and gray-box settings. The second method is Transferability Classification: the adversary trains a transferability-aware classifier from the perturbations of adversarial examples. This classifier further provides the guidance for the generation of non-transferable adversarial examples. This approach can be applied to the black-box scenario. Evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed methods. This work opens up a new route for generating adversarial examples with new features and applications.