No Arabic abstract
The use of sophisticated machine learning models for critical decision making is faced with a challenge that these models are often applied as a black-box. This has led to an increased interest in interpretable machine learning, where post hoc interpretation presents a useful mechanism for generating interpretations of complex learning models. In this paper, we propose a novel approach underpinned by an extended framework of Bayesian networks for generating post hoc interpretations of a black-box predictive model. The framework supports extracting a Bayesian network as an approximation of the black-box model for a specific prediction. Compared to the existing post hoc interpretation methods, the contribution of our approach is three-fold. Firstly, the extracted Bayesian network, as a probabilistic graphical model, can provide interpretations about not only what input features but also why these features contributed to a prediction. Secondly, for complex decision problems with many features, a Markov blanket can be generated from the extracted Bayesian network to provide interpretations with a focused view on those input features that directly contributed to a prediction. Thirdly, the extracted Bayesian network enables the identification of four different rules which can inform the decision-maker about the confidence level in a prediction, thus helping the decision-maker assess the reliability of predictions learned by a black-box model. We implemented the proposed approach, applied it in the context of two well-known public datasets and analysed the results, which are made available in an open-source repository.
Interpretable machine learning has become a strong competitor for traditional black-box models. However, the possible loss of the predictive performance for gaining interpretability is often inevitable, putting practitioners in a dilemma of choosing between high accuracy (black-box models) and interpretability (interpretable models). In this work, we propose a novel framework for building a Hybrid Predictive Model (HPM) that integrates an interpretable model with any black-box model to combine their strengths. The interpretable model substitutes the black-box model on a subset of data where the black-box is overkill or nearly overkill, gaining transparency at no or low cost of the predictive accuracy. We design a principled objective function that considers predictive accuracy, model interpretability, and model transparency (defined as the percentage of data processed by the interpretable substitute.) Under this framework, we propose two hybrid models, one substituting with association rules and the other with linear models, and we design customized training algorithms for both models. We test the hybrid models on structured data and text data where interpretable models collaborate with various state-of-the-art black-box models. Results show that hybrid models obtain an efficient trade-off between transparency and predictive performance, characterized by our proposed efficient frontiers.
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) that aims to reduce the opaqueness of AI-based decision-making systems, allowing humans to scrutinize and trust them. Prior work in this context has focused on the attribution of responsibility for an algorithms decisions to its inputs wherein responsibility is typically approached as a purely associational concept. In this paper, we propose a principled causality-based approach for explaining black-box decision-making systems that addresses limitations of existing methods in XAI. At the core of our framework lies probabilistic contrastive counterfactuals, a concept that can be traced back to philosophical, cognitive, and social foundations of theories on how humans generate and select explanations. We show how such counterfactuals can quantify the direct and indirect influences of a variable on decisions made by an algorithm, and provide actionable recourse for individuals negatively affected by the algorithms decision. Unlike prior work, our system, LEWIS: (1)can compute provably effective explanations and recourse at local, global and contextual levels (2)is designed to work with users with varying levels of background knowledge of the underlying causal model and (3)makes no assumptions about the internals of an algorithmic system except for the availability of its input-output data. We empirically evaluate LEWIS on three real-world datasets and show that it generates human-understandable explanations that improve upon state-of-the-art approaches in XAI, including the popular LIME and SHAP. Experiments on synthetic data further demonstrate the correctness of LEWISs explanations and the scalability of its recourse algorithm.
Several approaches have been developed to answer specific questions that a user may have about an AI system that can plan and act. However, the problems of identifying which questions to ask and that of computing a user-interpretable symbolic description of the overall capabilities of the system have remained largely unaddressed. This paper presents an approach for addressing these problems by learning user-interpretable symbolic descriptions of the limits and capabilities of a black-box AI system using low-level simulators. It uses a hierarchical active querying paradigm to generate questions and to learn a user-interpretable model of the AI system based on its responses. In contrast to prior work, we consider settings where imprecision of the users conceptual vocabulary precludes a direct expression of the agents capabilities. Furthermore, our approach does not require assumptions about the internal design of the target AI system or about the methods that it may use to compute or learn task solutions. Empirical evaluation on several game-based simulator domains shows that this approach can efficiently learn symbolic models of AI systems that use a deterministic black-box policy in fully observable scenarios.
Neural embedding-based machine learning models have shown promise for predicting novel links in knowledge graphs. Unfortunately, their practical utility is diminished by their lack of interpretability. Recently, the fully interpretable, rule-based algorithm AnyBURL yielded highly competitive results on many general-purpose link prediction benchmarks. However, current approaches for aggregating predictions made by multiple rules are affected by redundancies. We improve upon AnyBURL by introducing the SAFRAN rule application framework, which uses a novel aggregation approach called Non-redundant Noisy-OR that detects and clusters redundant rules prior to aggregation. SAFRAN yields new state-of-the-art results for fully interpretable link prediction on the established general-purpose benchmarks FB15K-237, WN18RR and YAGO3-10. Furthermore, it exceeds the results of multiple established embedding-based algorithms on FB15K-237 and WN18RR and narrows the gap between rule-based and embedding-based algorithms on YAGO3-10.
The widespread adoption of black-box models in Artificial Intelligence has enhanced the need for explanation methods to reveal how these obscure models reach specific decisions. Retrieving explanations is fundamental to unveil possible biases and to resolve practical or ethical issues. Nowadays, the literature is full of methods with different explanations. We provide a categorization of explanation methods based on the type of explanation returned. We present the most recent and widely used explainers, and we show a visual comparison among explanations and a quantitative benchmarking.