Why do explanations fail? A typology and discussion on failures in XAI

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bove, Clara, Laugel, Thibault, Lesot, Marie-Jeanne, Tijus, Charles, Detyniecki, Marcin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bove, Clara
Laugel, Thibault
Lesot, Marie-Jeanne
Tijus, Charles
Detyniecki, Marcin
author_facet Bove, Clara
Laugel, Thibault
Lesot, Marie-Jeanne
Tijus, Charles
Detyniecki, Marcin
contents As Machine Learning models achieve unprecedented levels of performance, the XAI domain aims at making these models understandable by presenting end-users with intelligible explanations. Yet, some existing XAI approaches fail to meet expectations: several issues have been reported in the literature, generally pointing out either technical limitations or misinterpretations by users. In this paper, we argue that the resulting harms arise from a complex overlap of multiple failures in XAI, which existing ad-hoc studies fail to capture. This work therefore advocates for a holistic perspective, presenting a systematic investigation of limitations of current XAI methods and their impact on the interpretation of explanations. % By distinguishing between system-specific and user-specific failures, we propose a typological framework that helps revealing the nuanced complexities of explanation failures. Leveraging this typology, we discuss some research directions to help practitioners better understand the limitations of XAI systems and enhance the quality of ML explanations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_13474
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Why do explanations fail? A typology and discussion on failures in XAI
Bove, Clara
Laugel, Thibault
Lesot, Marie-Jeanne
Tijus, Charles
Detyniecki, Marcin
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
As Machine Learning models achieve unprecedented levels of performance, the XAI domain aims at making these models understandable by presenting end-users with intelligible explanations. Yet, some existing XAI approaches fail to meet expectations: several issues have been reported in the literature, generally pointing out either technical limitations or misinterpretations by users. In this paper, we argue that the resulting harms arise from a complex overlap of multiple failures in XAI, which existing ad-hoc studies fail to capture. This work therefore advocates for a holistic perspective, presenting a systematic investigation of limitations of current XAI methods and their impact on the interpretation of explanations. % By distinguishing between system-specific and user-specific failures, we propose a typological framework that helps revealing the nuanced complexities of explanation failures. Leveraging this typology, we discuss some research directions to help practitioners better understand the limitations of XAI systems and enhance the quality of ML explanations.
title Why do explanations fail? A typology and discussion on failures in XAI
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13474