Lookahead Counterfactual Fairness

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zuo, Zhiqun, Xie, Tian, Tan, Xuwei, Zhang, Xueru, Khalili, Mohammad Mahdi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Zuo, Zhiqun
Xie, Tian
Tan, Xuwei
Zhang, Xueru
Khalili, Mohammad Mahdi
author_facet Zuo, Zhiqun
Xie, Tian
Tan, Xuwei
Zhang, Xueru
Khalili, Mohammad Mahdi
contents As machine learning (ML) algorithms are used in applications that involve humans, concerns have arisen that these algorithms may be biased against certain social groups. \textit{Counterfactual fairness} (CF) is a fairness notion proposed in Kusner et al. (2017) that measures the unfairness of ML predictions; it requires that the prediction perceived by an individual in the real world has the same marginal distribution as it would be in a counterfactual world, in which the individual belongs to a different group. Although CF ensures fair ML predictions, it fails to consider the downstream effects of ML predictions on individuals. Since humans are strategic and often adapt their behaviors in response to the ML system, predictions that satisfy CF may not lead to a fair future outcome for the individuals. In this paper, we introduce \textit{lookahead counterfactual fairness} (LCF), a fairness notion accounting for the downstream effects of ML models which requires the individual \textit{future status} to be counterfactually fair. We theoretically identify conditions under which LCF can be satisfied and propose an algorithm based on the theorems. We also extend the concept to path-dependent fairness. Experiments on both synthetic and real data validate the proposed method.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_01065
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Lookahead Counterfactual Fairness
Zuo, Zhiqun
Xie, Tian
Tan, Xuwei
Zhang, Xueru
Khalili, Mohammad Mahdi
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
As machine learning (ML) algorithms are used in applications that involve humans, concerns have arisen that these algorithms may be biased against certain social groups. \textit{Counterfactual fairness} (CF) is a fairness notion proposed in Kusner et al. (2017) that measures the unfairness of ML predictions; it requires that the prediction perceived by an individual in the real world has the same marginal distribution as it would be in a counterfactual world, in which the individual belongs to a different group. Although CF ensures fair ML predictions, it fails to consider the downstream effects of ML predictions on individuals. Since humans are strategic and often adapt their behaviors in response to the ML system, predictions that satisfy CF may not lead to a fair future outcome for the individuals. In this paper, we introduce \textit{lookahead counterfactual fairness} (LCF), a fairness notion accounting for the downstream effects of ML models which requires the individual \textit{future status} to be counterfactually fair. We theoretically identify conditions under which LCF can be satisfied and propose an algorithm based on the theorems. We also extend the concept to path-dependent fairness. Experiments on both synthetic and real data validate the proposed method.
title Lookahead Counterfactual Fairness
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.01065