Explaining Time Series Classification Predictions via Causal Attributions

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez, Strodthoff, Nils
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914163621625856
author Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
Strodthoff, Nils
author_facet Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
Strodthoff, Nils
contents Despite the excelling performance of machine learning models, understanding their decisions remains a long-standing goal. Although commonly used attribution methods from explainable AI attempt to address this issue, they typically rely on associational rather than causal relationships. In this study, within the context of time series classification, we introduce a novel model-agnostic attribution method to assess the causal effect of concepts i.e., predefined segments within a time series, on classification outcomes. Our approach compares these causal attributions with closely related associational attributions, both theoretically and empirically. To estimate counterfactual outcomes, we use state-of-the-art diffusion models backed by state space models. We demonstrate the insights gained by our approach for a diverse set of qualitatively different time series classification tasks. Although causal and associational attributions might often share some similarities, in all cases they differ in important details, underscoring the risks associated with drawing causal conclusions from associational data alone. We believe that the proposed approach is also widely applicable in other domains to shed some light on the limits of associational attributions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_15871
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Explaining Time Series Classification Predictions via Causal Attributions
Alcaraz, Juan Miguel Lopez
Strodthoff, Nils
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Despite the excelling performance of machine learning models, understanding their decisions remains a long-standing goal. Although commonly used attribution methods from explainable AI attempt to address this issue, they typically rely on associational rather than causal relationships. In this study, within the context of time series classification, we introduce a novel model-agnostic attribution method to assess the causal effect of concepts i.e., predefined segments within a time series, on classification outcomes. Our approach compares these causal attributions with closely related associational attributions, both theoretically and empirically. To estimate counterfactual outcomes, we use state-of-the-art diffusion models backed by state space models. We demonstrate the insights gained by our approach for a diverse set of qualitatively different time series classification tasks. Although causal and associational attributions might often share some similarities, in all cases they differ in important details, underscoring the risks associated with drawing causal conclusions from associational data alone. We believe that the proposed approach is also widely applicable in other domains to shed some light on the limits of associational attributions.
title Explaining Time Series Classification Predictions via Causal Attributions
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15871