Network Inversion for Uncertainty-Aware Out-of-Distribution Detection

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Hauptverfasser: Suhail, Pirzada, Afroz, Rehna, Bala, Gouranga, Sethi, Amit
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Suhail, Pirzada
Afroz, Rehna
Bala, Gouranga
Sethi, Amit
author_facet Suhail, Pirzada
Afroz, Rehna
Bala, Gouranga
Sethi, Amit
contents Out-of-distribution (OOD) detection and uncertainty estimation (UE) are critical components for building safe machine learning systems, especially in real-world scenarios where unexpected inputs are inevitable. However the two problems have, until recently, separately been addressed. In this work, we propose a novel framework that combines network inversion with classifier training to simultaneously address both OOD detection and uncertainty estimation. For a standard n-class classification task, we extend the classifier to an (n+1)-class model by introducing a "garbage" class, initially populated with random gaussian noise to represent outlier inputs. After each training epoch, we use network inversion to reconstruct input images corresponding to all output classes that initially appear as noisy and incoherent and are therefore excluded to the garbage class for retraining the classifier. This cycle of training, inversion, and exclusion continues iteratively till the inverted samples begin to resemble the in-distribution data more closely, with a significant drop in the uncertainty, suggesting that the classifier has learned to carve out meaningful decision boundaries while sanitising the class manifolds by pushing OOD content into the garbage class. During inference, this training scheme enables the model to effectively detect and reject OOD samples by classifying them into the garbage class. Furthermore, the confidence scores associated with each prediction can be used to estimate uncertainty for both in-distribution and OOD inputs. Our approach is scalable, interpretable, and does not require access to external OOD datasets or post-hoc calibration techniques while providing a unified solution to the dual challenges of OOD detection and uncertainty estimation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_23448
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Network Inversion for Uncertainty-Aware Out-of-Distribution Detection
Suhail, Pirzada
Afroz, Rehna
Bala, Gouranga
Sethi, Amit
Machine Learning
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Out-of-distribution (OOD) detection and uncertainty estimation (UE) are critical components for building safe machine learning systems, especially in real-world scenarios where unexpected inputs are inevitable. However the two problems have, until recently, separately been addressed. In this work, we propose a novel framework that combines network inversion with classifier training to simultaneously address both OOD detection and uncertainty estimation. For a standard n-class classification task, we extend the classifier to an (n+1)-class model by introducing a "garbage" class, initially populated with random gaussian noise to represent outlier inputs. After each training epoch, we use network inversion to reconstruct input images corresponding to all output classes that initially appear as noisy and incoherent and are therefore excluded to the garbage class for retraining the classifier. This cycle of training, inversion, and exclusion continues iteratively till the inverted samples begin to resemble the in-distribution data more closely, with a significant drop in the uncertainty, suggesting that the classifier has learned to carve out meaningful decision boundaries while sanitising the class manifolds by pushing OOD content into the garbage class. During inference, this training scheme enables the model to effectively detect and reject OOD samples by classifying them into the garbage class. Furthermore, the confidence scores associated with each prediction can be used to estimate uncertainty for both in-distribution and OOD inputs. Our approach is scalable, interpretable, and does not require access to external OOD datasets or post-hoc calibration techniques while providing a unified solution to the dual challenges of OOD detection and uncertainty estimation.
title Network Inversion for Uncertainty-Aware Out-of-Distribution Detection
topic Machine Learning
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23448