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Hauptverfasser: Rass, Stefan, König, Sandra, Ahmad, Shahzad, Goman, Maksim
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2022
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03674
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author Rass, Stefan
König, Sandra
Ahmad, Shahzad
Goman, Maksim
author_facet Rass, Stefan
König, Sandra
Ahmad, Shahzad
Goman, Maksim
contents Given a set of points in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^\ell$ with $\ell>1$, the pairwise distances between the points are determined by their spatial location and the metric $d$ that we endow $\mathbb{R}^\ell$ with. Hence, the distance $d(\mathbf x,\mathbf y)=δ$ between two points is fixed by the choice of $\mathbf x$ and $\mathbf y$ and $d$. We study the related problem of fixing the value $δ$, and the points $\mathbf x,\mathbf y$, and ask if there is a topological metric $d$ that computes the desired distance $δ$. We demonstrate this problem to be solvable by constructing a metric to simultaneously give desired pairwise distances between up to $O(\sqrt\ell)$ many points in $\mathbb{R}^\ell$. We then introduce the notion of an $\varepsilon$-semimetric $\tilde{d}$ to formulate our main result: for all $\varepsilon>0$, for all $m\geq 1$, for any choice of $m$ points $\mathbf y_1,\ldots,\mathbf y_m\in\mathbb{R}^\ell$, and all chosen sets of values $\{δ_{ij}\geq 0: 1\leq i<j\leq m\}$, there exists an $\varepsilon$-semimetric $\tildeδ:\mathbb{R}^\ell\times \mathbb{R}^\ell\to\mathbb{R}$ such that $\tilde{d}(\mathbf y_i,\mathbf y_j)=δ_{ij}$, i.e., the desired distances are accomplished, irrespectively of the topology that the Euclidean or other norms would induce. We showcase our results by using them to attack unsupervised learning algorithms, specifically $k$-Means and density-based (DBSCAN) clustering algorithms. These have manifold applications in artificial intelligence, and letting them run with externally provided distance measures constructed in the way as shown here, can make clustering algorithms produce results that are pre-determined and hence malleable. This demonstrates that the results of clustering algorithms may not generally be trustworthy, unless there is a standardized and fixed prescription to use a specific distance function.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2211_03674
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Metricizing the Euclidean Space towards Desired Distance Relations in Point Clouds
Rass, Stefan
König, Sandra
Ahmad, Shahzad
Goman, Maksim
Computational Geometry
Machine Learning
Given a set of points in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^\ell$ with $\ell>1$, the pairwise distances between the points are determined by their spatial location and the metric $d$ that we endow $\mathbb{R}^\ell$ with. Hence, the distance $d(\mathbf x,\mathbf y)=δ$ between two points is fixed by the choice of $\mathbf x$ and $\mathbf y$ and $d$. We study the related problem of fixing the value $δ$, and the points $\mathbf x,\mathbf y$, and ask if there is a topological metric $d$ that computes the desired distance $δ$. We demonstrate this problem to be solvable by constructing a metric to simultaneously give desired pairwise distances between up to $O(\sqrt\ell)$ many points in $\mathbb{R}^\ell$. We then introduce the notion of an $\varepsilon$-semimetric $\tilde{d}$ to formulate our main result: for all $\varepsilon>0$, for all $m\geq 1$, for any choice of $m$ points $\mathbf y_1,\ldots,\mathbf y_m\in\mathbb{R}^\ell$, and all chosen sets of values $\{δ_{ij}\geq 0: 1\leq i<j\leq m\}$, there exists an $\varepsilon$-semimetric $\tildeδ:\mathbb{R}^\ell\times \mathbb{R}^\ell\to\mathbb{R}$ such that $\tilde{d}(\mathbf y_i,\mathbf y_j)=δ_{ij}$, i.e., the desired distances are accomplished, irrespectively of the topology that the Euclidean or other norms would induce. We showcase our results by using them to attack unsupervised learning algorithms, specifically $k$-Means and density-based (DBSCAN) clustering algorithms. These have manifold applications in artificial intelligence, and letting them run with externally provided distance measures constructed in the way as shown here, can make clustering algorithms produce results that are pre-determined and hence malleable. This demonstrates that the results of clustering algorithms may not generally be trustworthy, unless there is a standardized and fixed prescription to use a specific distance function.
title Metricizing the Euclidean Space towards Desired Distance Relations in Point Clouds
topic Computational Geometry
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03674