Fair Representation Learning for Continuous Sensitive Attributes using Expectation of Integral Probability Metrics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kong, Insung, Kim, Kunwoong, Kim, Yongdai
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kong, Insung
Kim, Kunwoong
Kim, Yongdai
author_facet Kong, Insung
Kim, Kunwoong
Kim, Yongdai
contents AI fairness, also known as algorithmic fairness, aims to ensure that algorithms operate without bias or discrimination towards any individual or group. Among various AI algorithms, the Fair Representation Learning (FRL) approach has gained significant interest in recent years. However, existing FRL algorithms have a limitation: they are primarily designed for categorical sensitive attributes and thus cannot be applied to continuous sensitive attributes, such as age or income. In this paper, we propose an FRL algorithm for continuous sensitive attributes. First, we introduce a measure called the Expectation of Integral Probability Metrics (EIPM) to assess the fairness level of representation space for continuous sensitive attributes. We demonstrate that if the distribution of the representation has a low EIPM value, then any prediction head constructed on the top of the representation become fair, regardless of the selection of the prediction head. Furthermore, EIPM possesses a distinguished advantage in that it can be accurately estimated using our proposed estimator with finite samples. Based on these properties, we propose a new FRL algorithm called Fair Representation using EIPM with MMD (FREM). Experimental evidences show that FREM outperforms other baseline methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_06435
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fair Representation Learning for Continuous Sensitive Attributes using Expectation of Integral Probability Metrics
Kong, Insung
Kim, Kunwoong
Kim, Yongdai
Machine Learning
AI fairness, also known as algorithmic fairness, aims to ensure that algorithms operate without bias or discrimination towards any individual or group. Among various AI algorithms, the Fair Representation Learning (FRL) approach has gained significant interest in recent years. However, existing FRL algorithms have a limitation: they are primarily designed for categorical sensitive attributes and thus cannot be applied to continuous sensitive attributes, such as age or income. In this paper, we propose an FRL algorithm for continuous sensitive attributes. First, we introduce a measure called the Expectation of Integral Probability Metrics (EIPM) to assess the fairness level of representation space for continuous sensitive attributes. We demonstrate that if the distribution of the representation has a low EIPM value, then any prediction head constructed on the top of the representation become fair, regardless of the selection of the prediction head. Furthermore, EIPM possesses a distinguished advantage in that it can be accurately estimated using our proposed estimator with finite samples. Based on these properties, we propose a new FRL algorithm called Fair Representation using EIPM with MMD (FREM). Experimental evidences show that FREM outperforms other baseline methods.
title Fair Representation Learning for Continuous Sensitive Attributes using Expectation of Integral Probability Metrics
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.06435