Tao Lin

Brian Hu Zhang, Tao Lin, Yiling Chen et al.

We study the problem of learning the utility functions of no-regret learning agents in a repeated normal-form game. Differing from most prior literature, we introduce a principal with the power to observe the agents playing the game, send agents signals, and give agents payments as a function of their actions. We show that the principal can, using a number of rounds polynomial in the size of the game, learn the utility functions of all agents to any desired precision $ε> 0$, for any no-regret learning algorithms of the agents. Our main technique is to formulate a zero-sum game between the principal and the agents, where the principal chooses strategies among the set of all payment functions to minimize the agent's payoff. Finally, we discuss implications for the problem of steering agents. We introduce, using our utility-learning algorithm as a subroutine, the first algorithm for steering arbitrary no-regret learning agents to a desired equilibrium without prior knowledge of their utility functions.

Tao Lin, Lijia Yu, Gaojie Jin et al.

In recent years, the study of adversarial robustness in object detection systems, particularly those based on deep neural networks (DNNs), has become a pivotal area of research. Traditional physical attacks targeting object detectors, such as adversarial patches and texture manipulations, directly manipulate the surface of the object. While these methods are effective, their overt manipulation of objects may draw attention in real-world applications. To address this, this paper introduces a more subtle approach: an inconspicuous adversarial trigger that operates outside the bounding boxes, rendering the object undetectable to the model. We further enhance this approach by proposing the Feature Guidance (FG) technique and the Universal Auto-PGD (UAPGD) optimization strategy for crafting high-quality triggers. The effectiveness of our method is validated through extensive empirical testing, demonstrating its high performance in both digital and physical environments. The code and video will be available at: https://github.com/linToTao/Out-of-bbox-attack.