Generating In-Distribution Proxy Graphs for Explaining Graph Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, Zhuomin, Zhang, Jiaxing, Ni, Jingchao, Li, Xiaoting, Bian, Yuchen, Islam, Md Mezbahul, Mondal, Ananda Mohan, Wei, Hua, Luo, Dongsheng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917678259634176
author Chen, Zhuomin
Zhang, Jiaxing
Ni, Jingchao
Li, Xiaoting
Bian, Yuchen
Islam, Md Mezbahul
Mondal, Ananda Mohan
Wei, Hua
Luo, Dongsheng
author_facet Chen, Zhuomin
Zhang, Jiaxing
Ni, Jingchao
Li, Xiaoting
Bian, Yuchen
Islam, Md Mezbahul
Mondal, Ananda Mohan
Wei, Hua
Luo, Dongsheng
contents Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have become a building block in graph data processing, with wide applications in critical domains. The growing needs to deploy GNNs in high-stakes applications necessitate explainability for users in the decision-making processes. A popular paradigm for the explainability of GNNs is to identify explainable subgraphs by comparing their labels with the ones of original graphs. This task is challenging due to the substantial distributional shift from the original graphs in the training set to the set of explainable subgraphs, which prevents accurate prediction of labels with the subgraphs. To address it, in this paper, we propose a novel method that generates proxy graphs for explainable subgraphs that are in the distribution of training data. We introduce a parametric method that employs graph generators to produce proxy graphs. A new training objective based on information theory is designed to ensure that proxy graphs not only adhere to the distribution of training data but also preserve explanatory factors. Such generated proxy graphs can be reliably used to approximate the predictions of the labels of explainable subgraphs. Empirical evaluations across various datasets demonstrate our method achieves more accurate explanations for GNNs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_02036
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Generating In-Distribution Proxy Graphs for Explaining Graph Neural Networks
Chen, Zhuomin
Zhang, Jiaxing
Ni, Jingchao
Li, Xiaoting
Bian, Yuchen
Islam, Md Mezbahul
Mondal, Ananda Mohan
Wei, Hua
Luo, Dongsheng
Machine Learning
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have become a building block in graph data processing, with wide applications in critical domains. The growing needs to deploy GNNs in high-stakes applications necessitate explainability for users in the decision-making processes. A popular paradigm for the explainability of GNNs is to identify explainable subgraphs by comparing their labels with the ones of original graphs. This task is challenging due to the substantial distributional shift from the original graphs in the training set to the set of explainable subgraphs, which prevents accurate prediction of labels with the subgraphs. To address it, in this paper, we propose a novel method that generates proxy graphs for explainable subgraphs that are in the distribution of training data. We introduce a parametric method that employs graph generators to produce proxy graphs. A new training objective based on information theory is designed to ensure that proxy graphs not only adhere to the distribution of training data but also preserve explanatory factors. Such generated proxy graphs can be reliably used to approximate the predictions of the labels of explainable subgraphs. Empirical evaluations across various datasets demonstrate our method achieves more accurate explanations for GNNs.
title Generating In-Distribution Proxy Graphs for Explaining Graph Neural Networks
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.02036