Towards Counterfactual Fairness-aware Domain Generalization in Changing Environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Lin, Yujie, Zhao, Chen, Shao, Minglai, Meng, Baoluo, Zhao, Xujiang, Chen, Haifeng
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2023
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author Lin, Yujie
Zhao, Chen
Shao, Minglai
Meng, Baoluo
Zhao, Xujiang
Chen, Haifeng
author_facet Lin, Yujie
Zhao, Chen
Shao, Minglai
Meng, Baoluo
Zhao, Xujiang
Chen, Haifeng
contents Recognizing the prevalence of domain shift as a common challenge in machine learning, various domain generalization (DG) techniques have been developed to enhance the performance of machine learning systems when dealing with out-of-distribution (OOD) data. Furthermore, in real-world scenarios, data distributions can gradually change across a sequence of sequential domains. While current methodologies primarily focus on improving model effectiveness within these new domains, they often overlook fairness issues throughout the learning process. In response, we introduce an innovative framework called Counterfactual Fairness-Aware Domain Generalization with Sequential Autoencoder (CDSAE). This approach effectively separates environmental information and sensitive attributes from the embedded representation of classification features. This concurrent separation not only greatly improves model generalization across diverse and unfamiliar domains but also effectively addresses challenges related to unfair classification. Our strategy is rooted in the principles of causal inference to tackle these dual issues. To examine the intricate relationship between semantic information, sensitive attributes, and environmental cues, we systematically categorize exogenous uncertainty factors into four latent variables: 1) semantic information influenced by sensitive attributes, 2) semantic information unaffected by sensitive attributes, 3) environmental cues influenced by sensitive attributes, and 4) environmental cues unaffected by sensitive attributes. By incorporating fairness regularization, we exclusively employ semantic information for classification purposes. Empirical validation on synthetic and real-world datasets substantiates the effectiveness of our approach, demonstrating improved accuracy levels while ensuring the preservation of fairness in the evolving landscape of continuous domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_13005
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Counterfactual Fairness-aware Domain Generalization in Changing Environments
Lin, Yujie
Zhao, Chen
Shao, Minglai
Meng, Baoluo
Zhao, Xujiang
Chen, Haifeng
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Recognizing the prevalence of domain shift as a common challenge in machine learning, various domain generalization (DG) techniques have been developed to enhance the performance of machine learning systems when dealing with out-of-distribution (OOD) data. Furthermore, in real-world scenarios, data distributions can gradually change across a sequence of sequential domains. While current methodologies primarily focus on improving model effectiveness within these new domains, they often overlook fairness issues throughout the learning process. In response, we introduce an innovative framework called Counterfactual Fairness-Aware Domain Generalization with Sequential Autoencoder (CDSAE). This approach effectively separates environmental information and sensitive attributes from the embedded representation of classification features. This concurrent separation not only greatly improves model generalization across diverse and unfamiliar domains but also effectively addresses challenges related to unfair classification. Our strategy is rooted in the principles of causal inference to tackle these dual issues. To examine the intricate relationship between semantic information, sensitive attributes, and environmental cues, we systematically categorize exogenous uncertainty factors into four latent variables: 1) semantic information influenced by sensitive attributes, 2) semantic information unaffected by sensitive attributes, 3) environmental cues influenced by sensitive attributes, and 4) environmental cues unaffected by sensitive attributes. By incorporating fairness regularization, we exclusively employ semantic information for classification purposes. Empirical validation on synthetic and real-world datasets substantiates the effectiveness of our approach, demonstrating improved accuracy levels while ensuring the preservation of fairness in the evolving landscape of continuous domains.
title Towards Counterfactual Fairness-aware Domain Generalization in Changing Environments
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.13005