Weisfeiler and Leman Go Measurement Modeling: Probing the Validity of the WL Test

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Subramonian, Arjun, Williams, Adina, Nickel, Maximilian, Sun, Yizhou, Sagun, Levent
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Subramonian, Arjun
Williams, Adina
Nickel, Maximilian
Sun, Yizhou
Sagun, Levent
author_facet Subramonian, Arjun
Williams, Adina
Nickel, Maximilian
Sun, Yizhou
Sagun, Levent
contents The expressive power of graph neural networks is usually measured by comparing how many pairs of graphs or nodes an architecture can possibly distinguish as non-isomorphic to those distinguishable by the $k$-dimensional Weisfeiler-Leman ($k$-WL) test. In this paper, we uncover misalignments between graph machine learning practitioners' conceptualizations of expressive power and $k$-WL through a systematic analysis of the reliability and validity of $k$-WL. We conduct a survey ($n = 18$) of practitioners to surface their conceptualizations of expressive power and their assumptions about $k$-WL. In contrast to practitioners' beliefs, our analysis (which draws from graph theory and benchmark auditing) reveals that $k$-WL does not guarantee isometry, can be irrelevant to real-world graph tasks, and may not promote generalization or trustworthiness. We argue for extensional definitions and measurement of expressive power based on benchmarks. We further contribute guiding questions for constructing such benchmarks, which is critical for graph machine learning practitioners to develop and transparently communicate our understandings of expressive power.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2307_05775
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Weisfeiler and Leman Go Measurement Modeling: Probing the Validity of the WL Test
Subramonian, Arjun
Williams, Adina
Nickel, Maximilian
Sun, Yizhou
Sagun, Levent
Machine Learning
Social and Information Networks
The expressive power of graph neural networks is usually measured by comparing how many pairs of graphs or nodes an architecture can possibly distinguish as non-isomorphic to those distinguishable by the $k$-dimensional Weisfeiler-Leman ($k$-WL) test. In this paper, we uncover misalignments between graph machine learning practitioners' conceptualizations of expressive power and $k$-WL through a systematic analysis of the reliability and validity of $k$-WL. We conduct a survey ($n = 18$) of practitioners to surface their conceptualizations of expressive power and their assumptions about $k$-WL. In contrast to practitioners' beliefs, our analysis (which draws from graph theory and benchmark auditing) reveals that $k$-WL does not guarantee isometry, can be irrelevant to real-world graph tasks, and may not promote generalization or trustworthiness. We argue for extensional definitions and measurement of expressive power based on benchmarks. We further contribute guiding questions for constructing such benchmarks, which is critical for graph machine learning practitioners to develop and transparently communicate our understandings of expressive power.
title Weisfeiler and Leman Go Measurement Modeling: Probing the Validity of the WL Test
topic Machine Learning
Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.05775