Optimal Conformal Prediction under Epistemic Uncertainty

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Javanmardi, Alireza, Zargarbashi, Soroush H., Thies, Santo M. A. R., Waegeman, Willem, Bojchevski, Aleksandar, Hüllermeier, Eyke
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Javanmardi, Alireza
Zargarbashi, Soroush H.
Thies, Santo M. A. R.
Waegeman, Willem
Bojchevski, Aleksandar
Hüllermeier, Eyke
author_facet Javanmardi, Alireza
Zargarbashi, Soroush H.
Thies, Santo M. A. R.
Waegeman, Willem
Bojchevski, Aleksandar
Hüllermeier, Eyke
contents Conformal prediction (CP) is a popular frequentist framework for representing uncertainty by providing prediction sets that guarantee coverage of the true label with a user-adjustable probability. In most applications, CP operates on confidence scores coming from a standard (first-order) probabilistic predictor (e.g., softmax outputs). Second-order predictors, such as credal set predictors or Bayesian models, are also widely used for uncertainty quantification and are known for their ability to represent both aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty. Despite their popularity, there is still an open question on ``how they can be incorporated into CP''. In this paper, we discuss the desiderata for CP when valid second-order predictions are available. We then introduce Bernoulli prediction sets (BPS), which produce the smallest prediction sets that ensure conditional coverage in this setting. When given first-order predictions, BPS reduces to the well-known adaptive prediction sets (APS). Furthermore, when the validity assumption on the second-order predictions is compromised, we apply conformal risk control to obtain a marginal coverage guarantee while still accounting for epistemic uncertainty.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_19033
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Conformal Prediction under Epistemic Uncertainty
Javanmardi, Alireza
Zargarbashi, Soroush H.
Thies, Santo M. A. R.
Waegeman, Willem
Bojchevski, Aleksandar
Hüllermeier, Eyke
Machine Learning
Conformal prediction (CP) is a popular frequentist framework for representing uncertainty by providing prediction sets that guarantee coverage of the true label with a user-adjustable probability. In most applications, CP operates on confidence scores coming from a standard (first-order) probabilistic predictor (e.g., softmax outputs). Second-order predictors, such as credal set predictors or Bayesian models, are also widely used for uncertainty quantification and are known for their ability to represent both aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty. Despite their popularity, there is still an open question on ``how they can be incorporated into CP''. In this paper, we discuss the desiderata for CP when valid second-order predictions are available. We then introduce Bernoulli prediction sets (BPS), which produce the smallest prediction sets that ensure conditional coverage in this setting. When given first-order predictions, BPS reduces to the well-known adaptive prediction sets (APS). Furthermore, when the validity assumption on the second-order predictions is compromised, we apply conformal risk control to obtain a marginal coverage guarantee while still accounting for epistemic uncertainty.
title Optimal Conformal Prediction under Epistemic Uncertainty
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.19033