Data vs. Model Machine Learning Fairness Testing: An Empirical Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Shome, Arumoy, Cruz, Luis, van Deursen, Arie
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Shome, Arumoy
Cruz, Luis
van Deursen, Arie
author_facet Shome, Arumoy
Cruz, Luis
van Deursen, Arie
contents Although several fairness definitions and bias mitigation techniques exist in the literature, all existing solutions evaluate fairness of Machine Learning (ML) systems after the training stage. In this paper, we take the first steps towards evaluating a more holistic approach by testing for fairness both before and after model training. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and position it within the ML development lifecycle, using an empirical analysis of the relationship between model dependent and independent fairness metrics. The study uses 2 fairness metrics, 4 ML algorithms, 5 real-world datasets and 1600 fairness evaluation cycles. We find a linear relationship between data and model fairness metrics when the distribution and the size of the training data changes. Our results indicate that testing for fairness prior to training can be a ``cheap'' and effective means of catching a biased data collection process early; detecting data drifts in production systems and minimising execution of full training cycles thus reducing development time and costs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_07697
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Data vs. Model Machine Learning Fairness Testing: An Empirical Study
Shome, Arumoy
Cruz, Luis
van Deursen, Arie
Machine Learning
Computers and Society
Software Engineering
Although several fairness definitions and bias mitigation techniques exist in the literature, all existing solutions evaluate fairness of Machine Learning (ML) systems after the training stage. In this paper, we take the first steps towards evaluating a more holistic approach by testing for fairness both before and after model training. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and position it within the ML development lifecycle, using an empirical analysis of the relationship between model dependent and independent fairness metrics. The study uses 2 fairness metrics, 4 ML algorithms, 5 real-world datasets and 1600 fairness evaluation cycles. We find a linear relationship between data and model fairness metrics when the distribution and the size of the training data changes. Our results indicate that testing for fairness prior to training can be a ``cheap'' and effective means of catching a biased data collection process early; detecting data drifts in production systems and minimising execution of full training cycles thus reducing development time and costs.
title Data vs. Model Machine Learning Fairness Testing: An Empirical Study
topic Machine Learning
Computers and Society
Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.07697