Monitoring Risks in Test-Time Adaptation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Schirmer, Mona, Jazbec, Metod, Naesseth, Christian A., Nalisnick, Eric
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Schirmer, Mona
Jazbec, Metod
Naesseth, Christian A.
Nalisnick, Eric
author_facet Schirmer, Mona
Jazbec, Metod
Naesseth, Christian A.
Nalisnick, Eric
contents Encountering shifted data at test time is a ubiquitous challenge when deploying predictive models. Test-time adaptation (TTA) methods address this issue by continuously adapting a deployed model using only unlabeled test data. While TTA can extend the model's lifespan, it is only a temporary solution. Eventually the model might degrade to the point that it must be taken offline and retrained. To detect such points of ultimate failure, we propose pairing TTA with risk monitoring frameworks that track predictive performance and raise alerts when predefined performance criteria are violated. Specifically, we extend existing monitoring tools based on sequential testing with confidence sequences to accommodate scenarios in which the model is updated at test time and no test labels are available to estimate the performance metrics of interest. Our extensions unlock the application of rigorous statistical risk monitoring to TTA, and we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed TTA monitoring framework across a representative set of datasets, distribution shift types, and TTA methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_08721
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Monitoring Risks in Test-Time Adaptation
Schirmer, Mona
Jazbec, Metod
Naesseth, Christian A.
Nalisnick, Eric
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Encountering shifted data at test time is a ubiquitous challenge when deploying predictive models. Test-time adaptation (TTA) methods address this issue by continuously adapting a deployed model using only unlabeled test data. While TTA can extend the model's lifespan, it is only a temporary solution. Eventually the model might degrade to the point that it must be taken offline and retrained. To detect such points of ultimate failure, we propose pairing TTA with risk monitoring frameworks that track predictive performance and raise alerts when predefined performance criteria are violated. Specifically, we extend existing monitoring tools based on sequential testing with confidence sequences to accommodate scenarios in which the model is updated at test time and no test labels are available to estimate the performance metrics of interest. Our extensions unlock the application of rigorous statistical risk monitoring to TTA, and we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed TTA monitoring framework across a representative set of datasets, distribution shift types, and TTA methods.
title Monitoring Risks in Test-Time Adaptation
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08721