Yadong Zhang

Yadong Zhang, Shaoguang Mao, Wenshan Wu et al.

This paper introduces BI-Directional DEliberation Reasoning (BIDDER), a novel reasoning approach to enhance the decision rationality of language models. Traditional reasoning methods typically rely on historical information and employ uni-directional (left-to-right) reasoning strategy. This lack of bi-directional deliberation reasoning results in limited awareness of potential future outcomes and insufficient integration of historical context, leading to suboptimal decisions. BIDDER addresses this gap by incorporating principles of rational decision-making, specifically managing uncertainty and predicting expected utility. Our approach involves three key processes: Inferring hidden states to represent uncertain information in the decision-making process from historical data; Using these hidden states to predict future potential states and potential outcomes; Integrating historical information (past contexts) and long-term outcomes (future contexts) to inform reasoning. By leveraging bi-directional reasoning, BIDDER ensures thorough exploration of both past and future contexts, leading to more informed and rational decisions. We tested BIDDER's effectiveness in two well-defined scenarios: Poker (Limit Texas Hold'em) and Negotiation. Our experiments demonstrate that BIDDER significantly improves the decision-making capabilities of LLMs and LLM agents.

Yadong Zhang, Pranav M Karve, Sankaran Mahadevan

A DC OPF surrogate modeling framework is developed for Monte Carlo (MC) sampling-based risk quantification in power grid operation. MC simulation necessitates solving a large number of DC OPF problems corresponding to the samples of stochastic grid variables (power demand and renewable generation), which is computationally prohibitive. Computationally inexpensive surrogates of OPF provide an attractive alternative for expedited MC simulation. Graph neural network (GNN) surrogates of DC OPF, which are especially suitable to graph-structured data, are employed in this work. Previously developed DC OPF surrogate models have focused on accurate operational decision-making and not on risk quantification. Here, risk quantification-specific aspects of DC OPF surrogate evaluation is the main focus. To this end, the proposed GNN surrogates are evaluated using realistic joint probability distributions, quantification of their risk estimation accuracy, and investigation of their generalizability. Four synthetic grids (Case118, Case300, Case1354pegase, and Case2848rte) are used for surrogate model performance evaluation. It is shown that the GNN surrogates are sufficiently accurate for predicting the (bus-level, branch-level and system-level) grid state and enable fast as well as accurate operational risk quantification for power grids. The article thus develops tools for fast reliability and risk quantification in real-world power grids using GNN-based surrogates.

Guoxiao Zhang, Yi Wei, Yadong Zhang et al.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) prediction is essential in online advertising, where semantic information plays a pivotal role in shaping user decisions and enhancing CTR effectiveness. Capturing and modeling deep semantic information, such as a user's preference for "Häagen-Dazs' HEAVEN strawberry light ice cream" due to its health-conscious and premium attributes, is challenging. Traditional semantic modeling often overlooks these intricate details at the user and item levels. To bridge this gap, we introduce a novel approach that models deep semantic information end-to-end, leveraging the comprehensive world knowledge capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). Our proposed LLM-infused CTR prediction framework(Multi-level Deep Semantic Information Infused CTR model via Distillation, MSD) is designed to uncover deep semantic insights by utilizing LLMs to extract and distill critical information into a smaller, more efficient model, enabling seamless end-to-end training and inference. Importantly, our framework is carefully designed to balance efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring that the model not only achieves high performance but also operates with optimal resource utilization. Online A/B tests conducted on the Meituan sponsored-search system demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms baseline models in terms of Cost Per Mile (CPM) and CTR, validating its effectiveness, scalability, and balanced approach in real-world applications.