Statistical Test for Auto Feature Engineering by Selective Inference

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Matsukawa, Tatsuya, Shiraishi, Tomohiro, Nishino, Shuichi, Katsuoka, Teruyuki, Takeuchi, Ichiro
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Matsukawa, Tatsuya
Shiraishi, Tomohiro
Nishino, Shuichi
Katsuoka, Teruyuki
Takeuchi, Ichiro
author_facet Matsukawa, Tatsuya
Shiraishi, Tomohiro
Nishino, Shuichi
Katsuoka, Teruyuki
Takeuchi, Ichiro
contents Auto Feature Engineering (AFE) plays a crucial role in developing practical machine learning pipelines by automating the transformation of raw data into meaningful features that enhance model performance. By generating features in a data-driven manner, AFE enables the discovery of important features that may not be apparent through human experience or intuition. On the other hand, since AFE generates features based on data, there is a risk that these features may be overly adapted to the data, making it essential to assess their reliability appropriately. Unfortunately, because most AFE problems are formulated as combinatorial search problems and solved by heuristic algorithms, it has been challenging to theoretically quantify the reliability of generated features. To address this issue, we propose a new statistical test for generated features by AFE algorithms based on a framework called selective inference. As a proof of concept, we consider a simple class of tree search-based heuristic AFE algorithms, and consider the problem of testing the generated features when they are used in a linear model. The proposed test can quantify the statistical significance of the generated features in the form of $p$-values, enabling theoretically guaranteed control of the risk of false findings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_19768
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Statistical Test for Auto Feature Engineering by Selective Inference
Matsukawa, Tatsuya
Shiraishi, Tomohiro
Nishino, Shuichi
Katsuoka, Teruyuki
Takeuchi, Ichiro
Machine Learning
Auto Feature Engineering (AFE) plays a crucial role in developing practical machine learning pipelines by automating the transformation of raw data into meaningful features that enhance model performance. By generating features in a data-driven manner, AFE enables the discovery of important features that may not be apparent through human experience or intuition. On the other hand, since AFE generates features based on data, there is a risk that these features may be overly adapted to the data, making it essential to assess their reliability appropriately. Unfortunately, because most AFE problems are formulated as combinatorial search problems and solved by heuristic algorithms, it has been challenging to theoretically quantify the reliability of generated features. To address this issue, we propose a new statistical test for generated features by AFE algorithms based on a framework called selective inference. As a proof of concept, we consider a simple class of tree search-based heuristic AFE algorithms, and consider the problem of testing the generated features when they are used in a linear model. The proposed test can quantify the statistical significance of the generated features in the form of $p$-values, enabling theoretically guaranteed control of the risk of false findings.
title Statistical Test for Auto Feature Engineering by Selective Inference
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.19768