Towards robust interpretability with self-explaining neural networks

© 2018 Curran Associates Inc.All rights reserved. Most recent work on interpretability of complex machine learning models has focused on estimating a posteriori explanations for previously trained models around specific predictions. Self-explaining models where interpretability plays a key role alre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jaakkola, Tommi, Alvarez Melis, David
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137669.3
Description
Summary:© 2018 Curran Associates Inc.All rights reserved. Most recent work on interpretability of complex machine learning models has focused on estimating a posteriori explanations for previously trained models around specific predictions. Self-explaining models where interpretability plays a key role already during learning have received much less attention. We propose three desiderata for explanations in general - explicitness, faithfulness, and stability - and show that existing methods do not satisfy them. In response, we design self-explaining models in stages, progressively generalizing linear classifiers to complex yet architecturally explicit models. Faithfulness and stability are enforced via regularization specifically tailored to such models. Experimental results across various benchmark datasets show that our framework offers a promising direction for reconciling model complexity and interpretability.