What-If XAI Framework (WiXAI): From Counterfactuals towards Causal Understanding  

作　　者：Neelabh Kshetry Mehmed Kantardzic Neelabh Kshetry;Mehmed Kantardzic(Department of Computer Science, Data Mining Laboratory, University of Louisville, Louisville, USA)

机构地区：[1]Department of Computer Science, Data Mining Laboratory, University of Louisville, Louisville, USA

出　　处：《Journal of Computer and Communications》2024年第6期169-198,共30页电脑和通信（英文）

摘　　要：People learn causal relations since childhood using counterfactual reasoning. Counterfactual reasoning uses counterfactual examples which take the form of “what if this has happened differently”. Counterfactual examples are also the basis of counterfactual explanation in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). However, a framework that relies solely on optimization algorithms to find and present counterfactual samples cannot help users gain a deeper understanding of the system. Without a way to verify their understanding, the users can even be misled by such explanations. Such limitations can be overcome through an interactive and iterative framework that allows the users to explore their desired “what-if” scenarios. The purpose of our research is to develop such a framework. In this paper, we present our “what-if” XAI framework (WiXAI), which visualizes the artificial intelligence (AI) classification model from the perspective of the user’s sample and guides their “what-if” exploration. We also formulated how to use the WiXAI framework to generate counterfactuals and understand the feature-feature and feature-output relations in-depth for a local sample. These relations help move the users toward causal understanding.People learn causal relations since childhood using counterfactual reasoning. Counterfactual reasoning uses counterfactual examples which take the form of “what if this has happened differently”. Counterfactual examples are also the basis of counterfactual explanation in explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). However, a framework that relies solely on optimization algorithms to find and present counterfactual samples cannot help users gain a deeper understanding of the system. Without a way to verify their understanding, the users can even be misled by such explanations. Such limitations can be overcome through an interactive and iterative framework that allows the users to explore their desired “what-if” scenarios. The purpose of our research is to develop such a framework. In this paper, we present our “what-if” XAI framework (WiXAI), which visualizes the artificial intelligence (AI) classification model from the perspective of the user’s sample and guides their “what-if” exploration. We also formulated how to use the WiXAI framework to generate counterfactuals and understand the feature-feature and feature-output relations in-depth for a local sample. These relations help move the users toward causal understanding.

关 键 词：XAI AI WiXAI Causal Understanding COUNTERFACTUALS Counterfactual Explanation 

分 类 号：TP1[自动化与计算机技术—控制理论与控制工程]