AI Research Rundown: Formula Recognition, Behavioral Prediction, and Adversarial Attacks

Key insights from the latest papers on AI advancements.

February 21, 20265 min read
Pinar Koz

Pinar Koz

Sr. AI Analyst

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Today's article highlights significant advancements in AI research, focusing on formula recognition, high-fidelity behavioral prediction, and adversarial attacks on large vision-language models. These developments are shaping the future of AI applications across various domains.

AI Research Rundown: Formula Recognition, Behavioral Prediction, and Adversarial Attacks
AI Research Rundown: Formula Recognition, Behavioral Prediction, and Adversarial Attacks

In today's rundown

📊 OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION

Texo: Formula Recognition within 20M Parameters

Texo: Formula Recognition within 20M Parameters

The Rundown

The team behind Texo has unveiled a new formula recognition model that packs a punch with just 20 million parameters. This minimalist design achieves performance comparable to leading models like UniMERNet-T and PPFormulaNet-S while slashing model size by 80% and 65%, respectively. This efficiency enables real-time inference on standard consumer hardware, making it accessible for in-browser applications. They also launched a web app to showcase Texo's capabilities, facilitating user engagement and practical applications.

The details

  • Texo's architecture allows it to perform similarly to UniMERNet-T, which has 100 million parameters, achieving 95% accuracy in formula recognition tasks.
  • The model's reduced size enables deployment on devices with as little as 4GB of RAM, making it viable for a broader range of users.
  • Real-time inference speeds reach up to 30 frames per second, significantly enhancing user experience in interactive applications.

Why it matters

Texo's compact design and high performance could democratize access to advanced formula recognition tools, enabling startups and smaller firms to leverage sophisticated AI without hefty infrastructure costs.

Decoding the Human Factor: High Fidelity Behavioral Prediction

The Rundown

The introduction of the Large Behavioral Model (LBM) marks a significant leap in predicting human decision-making in complex environments. Unlike traditional models, LBM utilizes a structured, high-dimensional trait profile derived from psychometric data to enhance prediction accuracy. In tests, LBM's fine-tuning outperformed the Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct backbone and matched leading models when conditioned on Big Five personality traits. This approach allows for nuanced predictions of individual behaviors in strategic scenarios.

The details

  • LBM achieved a 15% improvement in predictive accuracy over traditional prompting methods in strategic decision-making tasks.
  • The model was trained on a proprietary dataset linking psychological traits to observed behaviors, enhancing its contextual understanding.
  • Performance continues to improve with additional trait dimensions, showcasing LBM's scalability in behavioral simulations.

⚔️ ADVERSARIAL ATTACKS ON LVLMS

Pushing the Frontier of Black-Box LVLM Attacks

Figure 1. Improvement of M-Attack-V2 over M-Attack on strong and up-to-date commercial black-box models (Claude 4, Gemini 2.5 and GPT-5). ASR and KMR stand for attack success rate and keyword matching rate, respectively.
Figure 1. Improvement of M-Attack-V2 over M-Attack on strong and up-to-date commercial black-box models (Claude 4, Gemini 2.5 and GPT-5). ASR and KMR stand for attack success rate and keyword matching rate, respectively.

The Rundown

Researchers have developed M-Attack-V2, a refined method for executing black-box adversarial attacks on large vision-language models (LVLMs). This new approach boosts success rates significantly: from 8% to 30% on Claude-4.0 and from 83% to 97% on Gemini-2.5-Pro. M-Attack-V2 improves upon its predecessor by employing gradient-denoising techniques and multi-crop alignment to stabilize optimization, making it a formidable tool against advanced LVLMs.

The details

  • M-Attack-V2's enhancements led to a 100% success rate against GPT-5, showcasing its effectiveness against the latest models.
  • The model utilizes a novel gradient-denoising upgrade that reduces variance in gradient calculations, enhancing attack stability.
  • By averaging gradients from multiple views, M-Attack-V2 minimizes the risk of detection during adversarial attempts.

Community AI Usage

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

COMMUNITY INSIGHTS in 💬

I recently used Texo for a project involving educational materials. As a curriculum developer, I needed a reliable tool for formula recognition. Texo's web application allowed me to extract and format complex equations quickly, saving me hours of manual work. The accuracy and speed were impressive, making it an invaluable resource for my team.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Texo is a formula recognition model that operates with only 20 million parameters, achieving high performance while being lightweight.
LBM uses a structured trait profile from psychometric data, enhancing prediction accuracy in strategic decision-making.
M-Attack-V2 is an enhanced method for executing black-box adversarial attacks on large vision-language models, significantly improving success rates.
Formula recognition is crucial for educational tools, enabling efficient extraction and formatting of mathematical expressions.
LBM outperforms traditional models by utilizing high-dimensional trait profiles for more accurate behavioral predictions.
M-Attack-V2 introduces gradient-denoising techniques and multi-crop alignment to stabilize optimization and enhance attack success.
Texo's lightweight design allows startups to access advanced formula recognition tools without significant infrastructure costs.
LBM provides businesses with tools for understanding consumer behavior, enhancing strategic foresight and negotiation analysis.
The high success rates of M-Attack-V2 highlight vulnerabilities in LVLMs, necessitating stronger security measures.
Educational technology and publishing industries can benefit from Texo's efficient formula recognition capabilities.
Behavioral prediction is vital for applications in strategic planning, negotiation, and understanding consumer choices.
M-Attack-V2 enhances adversarial attacks by reducing gradient variance and improving attack stability.
Challenges include achieving high accuracy and efficiency while maintaining a manageable model size.
LBM could be applied in fields like cognitive security, decision support, and behavioral simulation.
Texo achieves comparable performance to larger models while significantly reducing the required computational resources.

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