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Main Authors: Kofnov, Andrey, Kapla, Daniel, Bartocci, Ezio, Bura, Efstathia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.11672
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author Kofnov, Andrey
Kapla, Daniel
Bartocci, Ezio
Bura, Efstathia
author_facet Kofnov, Andrey
Kapla, Daniel
Bartocci, Ezio
Bura, Efstathia
contents We derive exact upper and lower bounds for the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the output of a neural network (NN) over its entire support subject to noisy (stochastic) inputs. The upper and lower bounds converge to the true cdf over its domain as the resolution increases. Our method applies to any feedforward NN using continuous monotonic piecewise twice continuously differentiable activation functions (e.g., ReLU, tanh and softmax) and convolutional NNs, which were beyond the scope of competing approaches. The novelty and instrumental tool of our approach is to bound general NNs with ReLU NNs. The ReLU NN-based bounds are then used to derive the upper and lower bounds of the cdf of the NN output. Experiments demonstrate that our method delivers guaranteed bounds of the predictive output distribution over its support, thus providing exact error guarantees, in contrast to competing approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_11672
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exact Upper and Lower Bounds for the Output Distribution of Neural Networks with Random Inputs
Kofnov, Andrey
Kapla, Daniel
Bartocci, Ezio
Bura, Efstathia
Machine Learning
Methodology
62E15 (Primary) 46N30, 62H10 (Secondary)
G.3; I.5.1
We derive exact upper and lower bounds for the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the output of a neural network (NN) over its entire support subject to noisy (stochastic) inputs. The upper and lower bounds converge to the true cdf over its domain as the resolution increases. Our method applies to any feedforward NN using continuous monotonic piecewise twice continuously differentiable activation functions (e.g., ReLU, tanh and softmax) and convolutional NNs, which were beyond the scope of competing approaches. The novelty and instrumental tool of our approach is to bound general NNs with ReLU NNs. The ReLU NN-based bounds are then used to derive the upper and lower bounds of the cdf of the NN output. Experiments demonstrate that our method delivers guaranteed bounds of the predictive output distribution over its support, thus providing exact error guarantees, in contrast to competing approaches.
title Exact Upper and Lower Bounds for the Output Distribution of Neural Networks with Random Inputs
topic Machine Learning
Methodology
62E15 (Primary) 46N30, 62H10 (Secondary)
G.3; I.5.1
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.11672