Publications

Our teams aspire to make discoveries that impact everyone, and core to our approach is sharing our research and tools to fuel progress in the field.

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Our teams aspire to make discoveries that impact everyone, and core to our approach is sharing our research and tools to fuel progress in the field.

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1 - 15 of 11317 publications
    LiveSVG: Zero-Shot SVG Animation via Video Generation
    Matan Levy
    Ran Margolin
    Bar Cavia
    Dvir Samuel
    Shmuel Peleg
    Alex Rav Acha
    Arik Shamir
    Dani Lischinski
    Google (2026)
    Preview abstract We introduce LiveSVG, a zero-shot approach for generating Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) animations using video diffusion models. Current SVG animation methods struggle with complex motions: LLM-based code synthesis fails to express fine, non-rigid Bézier deformations, while Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) provides noisy gradients and often requires category-specific priors like skeletons. In contrast, LiveSVG fits vector geometry directly to an explicitly generated target video. Given an input SVG image and a motion prompt, we generate a previewable target video using a frozen image-to-video model, then fit the original SVG to this video via differentiable rendering. Our fitting stage is skeleton-free, utilizing a dual-level motion representation that combines per-group homographies for coarse articulation with per-path Bézier control-point offsets for local deformations. To resolve color-induced correspondence ambiguities during pixel-wise fitting, we introduce a novel sphere-packing recolorization strategy. We also present ChallengeSVG, a benchmark of complex, multi-object scenes that exposes the limitations of prior work. Evaluations demonstrate that LiveSVG significantly outperforms existing methods on both AniClipart and ChallengeSVG, establishing direct reference-video fitting as a practical, robust route to prompt-aligned and fully editable vector animation. View details
    Preview abstract The rapid adoption of agentic systems powered by large language models (LLMs) introduces significant security challenges distinct from plain conversational models, particularly concerning prompt injection and tool misuse due to their dynamic personas and real- world tool interactions. This paper investigates the effectiveness of hardened security prompting in a task-oriented multi-agent framework, using a coding assistant as a representative case study. We com- pare a baseline ”unhardened” agent against a ”hard- ened” version equipped with explicit security guide- lines applied across all sub-agents. Our evaluation across 150+ single-turn and 32 multi-turn attack sce- narios demonstrates that prompt hardening dramat- ically improves resilience. With a simple, approxi- mately 500-token security hardener, single-turn fail- ure rates dropped from 19.48% to 2.60%, while multi- turn failure rates decreased from 75.00% to 46.88%. Furthermore, we show that successfully bypassing the hardened agent requires significantly more adversar- ial effort and a greater number of chat turns. How- ever, the analysis also reveals a critical shift in vul- nerability taxonomy: as direct attacks fail, adver- saries exploit the agent’s core functionality via ”Func- tional Wrappers” (Intent Obfuscation), highlighting a residual risk that necessitates a shift in the defen- sive paradigm from static filters to dynamic runtime state and intent analysis. View details
    Exponential quantum advantage in processing massive classical data
    Haimeng Zhao
    Alexander Zlokapa
    John Preskill
    Hsin-Yuan (Robert) Huang
    arXiv:2604.07639 (2026)
    Preview abstract Broadly applicable quantum advantage, particularly in classical data processing and machine learning, has been a fundamental open problem. In this work, we prove that a small quantum computer of polylogarithmic size can perform large-scale classification and dimension reduction on massive classical data by processing samples on the fly, whereas any classical machine achieving the same prediction performance requires exponentially larger size. Furthermore, classical machines that are exponentially larger yet below the required size need superpolynomially more samples and time. We validate these quantum advantages in real-world applications, including single-cell RNA sequencing and movie review sentiment analysis, demonstrating four to six orders of magnitude reduction in size with fewer than 60 logical qubits. These quantum advantages are enabled by quantum oracle sketching, an algorithm for accessing the classical world in quantum superposition using only random classical data samples. Combined with classical shadows, our algorithm circumvents the data loading and readout bottleneck to construct succinct classical models from massive classical data, a task provably impossible for any classical machine that is not exponentially larger than the quantum machine. These quantum advantages persist even when classical machines are granted unlimited time or if BPP=BQP, and rely only on the correctness of quantum mechanics. Together, our results establish machine learning on classical data as a broad and natural domain of quantum advantage and a fundamental test of quantum mechanics at the complexity frontier. View details
    Preview abstract The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home ecosystems has led to a fragmented landscape of user data management across consumer electronics (CE) such as Smart TVs, gaming consoles, and set-top boxes. Current onboarding processes on these devices are characterized by high friction due to manual data entry and opaque data-sharing practices. This paper introduces the User Data Sharing System (UDSS), a platform-agnostic framework designed to facilitate secure, privacy-first PII (Personally Identifiable Information) exchange between device platforms and third-party applications. Our system implements a Contextual Scope Enforcement (CSE) mechanism that programmatically restricts data exposure based on user intent—specifically distinguishing between Sign-In and Sign-Up workflows. Unlike cloud-anchored identity standards such as FIDO2/WebAuthn, UDSS is designed for shared, device-centric CE environments where persistent user-to-device bind-ing cannot be assumed. We further propose a tiered access model that balances developer needs with regulatory compliance (GDPR/CCPA). A proof-of-concept implementation on a reference ARMv8 Linux-based middleware demonstrates that UDSS reduces user onboarding latency by 65% and measurably reduces PII over-exposure risk through protocol-enforced data minimization. This framework provides a standardized approach to identity management in the heterogeneous CE market. View details
    Preview abstract As AI redefines identity verification in high stakes systems, it introduces novel risks like deepfake fraud and algorithmic bias, creating a critical trust deficit. This session will provide a practical framework for ethical governance, equipping leaders to build and manage secure, fair, and fundamentally trustworthy AI systems by design. View details
    Preview abstract Contrail microphysical simulations and climate simulations have indicated that contrail cirrus cause a substantial fraction of aviation’s climate impact. While the approximations and parameter selections in these simulations have been well-validated over the past two decades, the heat trapping of contrails has not been observed using satellite data beyond a few hours. This is because contrails lose their linear shape after a few hours, making them difficult to distinguish from natural cirrus clouds. Here we provide satellite-driven analysis of long-lived heat trapping by contrails over North and South America. We aggregate a dataset of GOES-16 estimated outgoing longwave radiation and advected trace density of flight paths, and apply causal inference to discern the effect of contrails while controlling for radiative and cloud confounders. As a means of validation, we also generate synthetic datasets with known ground truth, and confirm that applying the causal inference method is able to recover the synthetic ground truth. Since this method yields an estimate which has some differences from both “instantaneous radiative forcing” (iRF) and “effective radiative forcing” (ERF) estimates which have been reported in the literature so far, we introduce the new term “observational radiative forcing, 12 hours” (oRF12). Our analysis estimates the longwave oRF12 from contrails over the Americas averaged 47.9 gigajoules per flight kilometer (95% CI: 31 to 52 GJ/km) during April 2019 to April 2020. View details
    Preview abstract High-volume enterprise service organizations face a persistent challenge in transitioning from reactive support models to proactive, preventative ones. This paper introduces the Agentic Trend-to-Knowledge (ATK) methodology, a novel, autonomous framework designed to address this gap. The ATK methodology employs an AI agent that operates in a recurring, closed loop. It first uses a two-stage process for the autonomous thematic analysis of recent support cases to identify the most significant recurring issue. It then leverages Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to source relevant institutional knowledge. A key innovation is the agent's adaptive, bimodal response: if relevant knowledge is found, it drafts a proactive communication for human review; if a knowledge gap is detected, it autonomously creates a content creation task for the appropriate team. This transforms the agent from an automation tool into a proactive process owner that creates a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement for both case deflection and knowledge base quality. By automating the entire workflow from insight to action, the ATK framework provides a concrete methodology for shifting from a "human-in-the-loop" to a more strategic "human-on-the-loop" operational paradigm. View details
    Preview abstract As artificial intelligence (AI) transitions from experimental pilot programs to mission-critical enterprise operations, traditional software-based security frameworks are proving insufficient against sophisticated infrastructure-level threats. This article introduces the concept of Silicon-Level Sovereignty, a first-principles approach to digital trust that anchors security in the physical hardware rather than the software stack. We examine the technical architecture of Hardware Root of Trust (RoT), specifically focusing on the roles of Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) and Secure Enclaves in modern AI accelerators such as GPUs and TPUs. By leveraging cryptographic remote attestation, organizations can move from a model of assumed software integrity to one of verifiable hardware-level proof. The discussion provides a comparative analysis of industry-leading implementations, including NVIDIA’s Hopper architecture [1, 2], Google’s Titan-backed TPU v5p [3, 4], and Microsoft’s Azure Boost Cerberus system [5, 6], alongside the cluster-scale trust challenges presented by ultra-large systems like xAI’s Colossus [7]. The article concludes that Silicon-Level Sovereignty is no longer an optional security feature but a foundational requirement for establishing the integrity, privacy, and multi-tenant isolation necessary for high-stakes AI workloads. View details
    Preview abstract Optical health sensing algorithms, such as SpO2, sleep monitoring, and metabolic health sensing, critically depend on the accurate measurement of optical emission from Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) transmitted through user tissue and detected by a photodiode (PD). A significant challenge to the reliability of these measurements is the inherent degradation of LED optical emission intensity over time due to device aging. This degradation can confound the physiological changes being monitored. Our work quantifies the impact of LED aging on sensor signal integrity, specifically examining the Current Transfer Ratio (CTR), which is a key metric defining the ratio of received photocurrent to the LED drive current used for transmission in various health sensing algorithms. We investigate the degradation characteristics across LEDs of different wavelengths. Our findings indicate a relative CTR change due to degradation ranging from 1% to 8% within 100 hours of continuous operation which translates to approximately 3.5 to 7 years of device lifetime. Furthermore, we explore the non-linearity of this degradation and the observed initial ”overshoot” phenomenon in the CTR during aging. We discuss how understanding these dynamics could inform the development of robust specifications for different physiological sensing algorithms. Finally, we present several potential solutions to mitigate the effects of LED aging. During the product design phase, integrating a calibrating photodiode or compensating circuitry around the LED can help preemptively address degradation. In the application space, run-time calibration strategies employing two differently degraded optical paths offer a promising approach to maintain measurement accuracy. View details
    Preview abstract In a prior column, we wrote about how measuring productivity can be viewed as a form of modeling and that all models are wrong, but some are useful. That discussion centered on the idea of ensuring that a productivity model was inclusive of multiple metrics and that those metrics covered the various facets of productivity and covered each facet reasonably well. In that article, we set aside the question of what makes a good individual productivity metric that can be combined with others into a (hopefully) useful model of productivity. In this article, we’ll share some things we consider when building an individual metric, including an example of a novel metric we built in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. View details
    Preview abstract When managing complex, unpredictable (non-deterministic) AI agents using simple, fixed control systems (like finite state machines), operational failures and accountability issues often arise. This document introduces a probabilistic governance and telemetry framework to resolve these problems. Instead of following a rigid sequence of steps, this framework defines a multi-dimensional operational boundary, a 'behavioral volume', and assigns the agent a goal. This allows the agent to use its own reasoning to achieve the goal while remaining within the defined boundaries. A separate telemetry layer monitors the agent's actions by calculating metrics, such as alignment scores and drift velocity, to measure how much the agent deviates from its intended behavior. This system provides a method for guiding, monitoring, and securing autonomous agents, effectively managing the performance and security of an unpredictable AI workforce in complex environments. View details
    Preview abstract We introduce AMS (Activation-based Model Scanner), a tool for verifying whether a language model is safe to deploy by analyzing its internal activation patterns. While "uncensored" and maliciously fine-tuned models pose increasing risks, current detection methods rely on behavioral testing that is slow, incomplete, and easily evaded. AMS takes a fundamentally different approach: measuring the geometric structure of safety-relevant concepts in the model's activation space. Safe models exhibit strong class separation (4-8σ) between harmful and benign content; models with removed or degraded safety training show collapsed separation (<2σ). Using contrastive prompt pairs and direction vector analysis, AMS performs model-level verification rather than prompt-level classification. We validate AMS across 14 model configurations spanning 3 architecture families (Llama, Gemma, Qwen), 3 quantization levels (FP16, INT8, INT4), and multiple model categories (instruction-tuned, base, abliterated, uncensored). In our validation set: (1) all four instruction-tuned models pass with 3.8-8.4σ separation; (2) three tested uncensored models (Dolphin, Lexi, LLama-3-8b-Uncensored) flagged as CRITICAL with 1.1-1.3σ on harmful content; (3) an abliterated Llama variant flagged as WARNING (3.33σ); (4) Llama base model shows 0.69σ, confirming absence of safety training; (5) quantization has minimal impact (<5% drift). One model labeled "uncensored" (DarkIdol) unexpectedly passed, suggesting either mislabeling or a technique that preserves activation geometry. AMS also provides identity verification via direction vector comparison. Scanning completes in 10-40 seconds per model on GPU hardware. We discuss threshold calibration, limitations of our validation scope, and directions for broader evaluation. View details
    Agentic Coding Needs Proactivity, Not Just Autonomy
    Georgios Evangelopoulos
    (2026) (to appear)
    Preview abstract Coding agents are rapidly changing the landscape of software development, moving from inline com- pletion to autonomous systems that edit repositories, open pull requests, respond to issues, and run scheduled or webhook triggered routines across the development life cycle. The next generation is increasingly described as proactive and long-horizon: agents should notice relevant changes before the developer asks, connect signals across tools, decide when to interrupt, and carry preferences across sessions. Yet the field lacks a precise account of what proactivity means for software development, how it differs from autonomy, what acceptance criteria proactive long-horizon tasks should satisfy, and which metrics determine whether unsolicited agent behavior is useful rather than merely active. We argue that proactive coding agents should be evaluated by the quality and improvement of their insight policy: the policy that decides what matters next, what evidence supports it, whether to surface it, and how to adapt after feedback. We re-anchor this view in mixed initiative interaction, introduce a three level taxonomy (Reactive, Scheduled, and Situation Aware), compare contemporary coding agents against five operational criteria, and sketch an active user simulation protocol with three evaluation targets: Insight Decision Quality (IDQ), Context Grounding Score (CGS), and Learning Lift (LL). View details
    ALF: Advertiser Large Foundation Model for Multi-Modal Advertiser Understanding
    Sunny Rajagopalan
    Alireza Golestaneh
    Shubhra Chandra
    Min Zhou
    Jonathan Vronsky
    Songbai Yan
    2026
    Preview abstract We present ALF (Advertiser Large Foundation model), a multi-modal transformer architecture for understanding advertiser behavior and intent across text, image, video and structured data modalities. Through contrastive learning and multi-task optimization, ALF creates unified advertiser representations that capture both content and behavioral patterns. Our model achieves state-of-the-art performance on critical tasks including fraud detection, policy violation identification, and advertiser similarity matching. In production deployment, ALF reduces false positives by 90\% while maintaining 99.8\% precision on abuse detection tasks. The architecture's effectiveness stems from its novel combination of multi-modal transformations, intersample attention mechanism, spectrally normalized projections, and calibrated probabilistic outputs. View details
    Unveiling the Global Landscape of Android Security Updates
    Haiyun Deng
    Abbas Acar
    Esteban Luques
    Harun Oz
    Ahmet Aris
    Selcuk Uluagac
    IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (2026)
    Preview abstract Android is the world’s leading mobile operating system, with over three billion active devices. Detecting vulnerabilities and ensuring timely patch deployment are critical to maintaining security. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) has enhanced the transparency of security updates through Security Patch Levels. However, challenges related to update speed and availability persist. In 2022, Google reported that half of the zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in the wild were variations of vulnerabilities that had already been patched. Recent research mainly highlights delays in update distribution, often attributing them to fragmentation and focusing primarily on flagship devices or limited time-frames. Our approach takes a device-centric perspective to investigate Android update patterns, analyzing 567K security update records from 2014 to 2024, covering 904 distinct devices from six key Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) across 98 countries. Our extensive analysis revealed notable differences in update release timing across OEMs, device types, and regions. Our study also examines documented vulnerabilities and weaknesses, while assessing OEM compliance with Android security guidelines. Our study shows that ∼89.7% of vulnerabilities on unpatched Android devices are exploitable without user interaction and with low attack complexity. We also identified delays linked to fragmentation and OEM-specific challenges, and provide actionable insights for improvement. View details
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