Abstract
Deployed AI systems are often trained from broad candidate data pools, necessitating data curation towards the deployment test distribution. However, standard data curation methods score training-side criteria rather than directly optimizing deployment match. We introduce TTCov (Test-Time Coverage), a data-level test-conditioned curation method that uses test-side information before training instead of updating model weights at inference.
TTCov decomposes deployment-conditioned curation into coverage and distribution. To represent coverage, it builds a task Atlas, a collection of LLM-based atomic propositions (APs) describing deployment-relevant concepts, seeded from open task knowledge and expanded with unmatched APs extracted from unlabeled deployment samples. To represent distribution, it instantiates the matched deployment APs with their frequencies, yielding a Knowledge Atlas (K-Atlas) that operationalizes the deployment distribution as a curation target.
TTCov then selects a budgeted training set whose deployment APs distribution approximates this target. We apply TTCov towards autonomous driving (AD), keeping adaptation off the inference path while selecting data with greater deployment-relevant coverage, closer K-Atlas matching, and stronger downstream end-to-end driving performance than data-curation baselines, including seamless adaptability to novel domains via city-to-city expansion.
Blogger's Review: The introduction of TTCov offers a fresh perspective on data curation for AI systems, highlighting the significance of test-phase information. By constructing a Knowledge Atlas, TTCov can more accurately align with actual deployment needs while maintaining model performance, showcasing its potential in fields like autonomous driving.