Evaluating the Stability of Semantic Concept Representations in CNNs for Robust Explainability

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Mikriukov, Georgii, Schwalbe, Gesina, Hellert, Christian, Bade, Korinna
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Mikriukov, Georgii
Schwalbe, Gesina
Hellert, Christian
Bade, Korinna
author_facet Mikriukov, Georgii
Schwalbe, Gesina
Hellert, Christian
Bade, Korinna
contents Analysis of how semantic concepts are represented within Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) is a widely used approach in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) for interpreting CNNs. A motivation is the need for transparency in safety-critical AI-based systems, as mandated in various domains like automated driving. However, to use the concept representations for safety-relevant purposes, like inspection or error retrieval, these must be of high quality and, in particular, stable. This paper focuses on two stability goals when working with concept representations in computer vision CNNs: stability of concept retrieval and of concept attribution. The guiding use-case is a post-hoc explainability framework for object detection (OD) CNNs, towards which existing concept analysis (CA) methods are successfully adapted. To address concept retrieval stability, we propose a novel metric that considers both concept separation and consistency, and is agnostic to layer and concept representation dimensionality. We then investigate impacts of concept abstraction level, number of concept training samples, CNN size, and concept representation dimensionality on stability. For concept attribution stability we explore the effect of gradient instability on gradient-based explainability methods. The results on various CNNs for classification and object detection yield the main findings that (1) the stability of concept retrieval can be enhanced through dimensionality reduction via data aggregation, and (2) in shallow layers where gradient instability is more pronounced, gradient smoothing techniques are advised. Finally, our approach provides valuable insights into selecting the appropriate layer and concept representation dimensionality, paving the way towards CA in safety-critical XAI applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_14864
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evaluating the Stability of Semantic Concept Representations in CNNs for Robust Explainability
Mikriukov, Georgii
Schwalbe, Gesina
Hellert, Christian
Bade, Korinna
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Analysis of how semantic concepts are represented within Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) is a widely used approach in Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) for interpreting CNNs. A motivation is the need for transparency in safety-critical AI-based systems, as mandated in various domains like automated driving. However, to use the concept representations for safety-relevant purposes, like inspection or error retrieval, these must be of high quality and, in particular, stable. This paper focuses on two stability goals when working with concept representations in computer vision CNNs: stability of concept retrieval and of concept attribution. The guiding use-case is a post-hoc explainability framework for object detection (OD) CNNs, towards which existing concept analysis (CA) methods are successfully adapted. To address concept retrieval stability, we propose a novel metric that considers both concept separation and consistency, and is agnostic to layer and concept representation dimensionality. We then investigate impacts of concept abstraction level, number of concept training samples, CNN size, and concept representation dimensionality on stability. For concept attribution stability we explore the effect of gradient instability on gradient-based explainability methods. The results on various CNNs for classification and object detection yield the main findings that (1) the stability of concept retrieval can be enhanced through dimensionality reduction via data aggregation, and (2) in shallow layers where gradient instability is more pronounced, gradient smoothing techniques are advised. Finally, our approach provides valuable insights into selecting the appropriate layer and concept representation dimensionality, paving the way towards CA in safety-critical XAI applications.
title Evaluating the Stability of Semantic Concept Representations in CNNs for Robust Explainability
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.14864