Which Neurons Matter in IR? Applying Integrated Gradients-based Methods to Understand Cross-Encoders

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Vast, Mathias, Van Cooten, Basile, Soulier, Laure, Piwowarski, Benjamin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Vast, Mathias
Van Cooten, Basile
Soulier, Laure
Piwowarski, Benjamin
author_facet Vast, Mathias
Van Cooten, Basile
Soulier, Laure
Piwowarski, Benjamin
contents With the recent addition of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), the scope and importance of Information Retrieval (IR) has expanded. As a result, the importance of a deeper understanding of IR models also increases. However, interpretability in IR remains under-explored, especially when it comes to the models' inner mechanisms. In this paper, we explore the possibility of adapting Integrated Gradient-based methods in an IR context to identify the role of individual neurons within the model. In particular, we provide new insights into the role of what we call "relevance" neurons, as well as how they deal with unseen data. Finally, we carry out an in-depth pruning study to validate our findings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_19309
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Which Neurons Matter in IR? Applying Integrated Gradients-based Methods to Understand Cross-Encoders
Vast, Mathias
Van Cooten, Basile
Soulier, Laure
Piwowarski, Benjamin
Information Retrieval
With the recent addition of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), the scope and importance of Information Retrieval (IR) has expanded. As a result, the importance of a deeper understanding of IR models also increases. However, interpretability in IR remains under-explored, especially when it comes to the models' inner mechanisms. In this paper, we explore the possibility of adapting Integrated Gradient-based methods in an IR context to identify the role of individual neurons within the model. In particular, we provide new insights into the role of what we call "relevance" neurons, as well as how they deal with unseen data. Finally, we carry out an in-depth pruning study to validate our findings.
title Which Neurons Matter in IR? Applying Integrated Gradients-based Methods to Understand Cross-Encoders
topic Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.19309