Black-box risk scoring models permeate our lives, yet are typically proprietary or opaque. We propose Distill-and-Compare, a model distillation and comparison approach to audit such models. To gain insight into black-box models, we treat them as teachers, training transparent student models to mimic the risk scores ass…
Unified approach for sequence design combining likelihood-free inference and black-box optimization.
problem Designing biological sequences efficiently and accurately.
method Unified probabilistic framework integrating likelihood-free inference and black-box optimization.
result Previous optimization methods can be adapted and new algorithms proposed within this framework.
Saliency maps are often used in computer vision to provide intuitive interpretations of what input regions a model has used to produce a specific prediction. A number of approaches to saliency map generation are available, but most require access to model parameters. This work proposes an approach for saliency map gene…
New method optimizes black-box functions using generative models and Wasserstein distance.
problem Optimizing black-box functions with stochastic responses in high dimensions.
method Deep generative surrogate models and Wasserstein distance for uncertainty estimation.
result Method outperforms state-of-the-art methods in robustness to function shape and stochasticity.
Paper proposes a new black-box attack approach to minimize visual distortion.
problem Constructing adversarial examples that minimize visual distortion in a black-box threat model.
method Learning the noise distribution of adversarial examples to approximate the gradient of a non-differentiable loss function.
result The proposed attack results in much lower visual distortion compared to state-of-the-art black-box attacks.
IReEn reveals functionality of black-box agents via iterative neural synthesis.
problem Revealing the functionality of a black-box agent without privileged information.
method Iterative refinement of candidate programs using neural program synthesis.
result The approach finds a functional equivalent program in 78% of cases, outperforming state-of-the-art.
New approach improves black-box planning efficiency by discovering focused macros.
problem Difficulty of deterministic planning increases exponentially with depth.
method Discovering macro-actions with focused effects to improve goal-count heuristics.
result Focused macros dramatically improve black-box planning efficiency.
A new method for optimizing black-box problems with constraints.
problem Optimizing black-box systems with multiple performance criteria and constraints.
method Developed a novel constrained Bayesian optimization approach based on the knowledge gradient method.
result A new acquisition function that balances optimality and feasibility.
Efficient method for generating adversarial examples with limited query budget.
problem Developing black-box adversarial attacks with limited information.
method Bayesian Optimization in a structured low-dimensional subspace.
result Significantly higher attack success rate with fewer queries.
New symmetries improve meta-reinforcement learning's generalization.
problem Black-box meta reinforcement learning struggles with generalization.
method Introduce symmetries to a black-box meta RL system.
result Incorporating symmetries improves generalization to new environments.
Novel approach simplifies VI problems with faster performance.
problem Black-box VI optimization problems.
method Sample Average Approximation (SAA) combined with quasi-Newton methods and line search.
result Achieves faster performance than existing methods.
Extends batch active learning to non-differentiable models.
problem Efficiently training machine learning models on large, initially unlabelled datasets.
method Black-box batch active learning for regression tasks that relies solely on model predictions.
result Achieves strong performance on regression datasets compared to white-box approaches for deep learning models.
Proposes a Bayesian approach to explain, justify, and quantify uncertainty in DNNs.
problem Lack of transparency and confidence in DNNs for critical applications.
method Bayesian approach to extract explanations, justifications, and uncertainty estimates from black box DNNs.
result Improves interpretability and reliability of DNNs, validated on CIFAR-10.
Black-box explanation is the problem of explaining how a machine learning model -- whose internal logic is hidden to the auditor and generally complex -- produces its outcomes. Current approaches for solving this problem include model explanation, outcome explanation as well as model inspection. While these techniques …
Paper proposes a new black-box adversarial attack using normalizing flows.
problem Adversarial vulnerability of deep neural networks.
method Proposes a novel black-box adversarial attack using normalizing flows.
result Demonstrates competitive performance against well-known black-box adversarial attack methods.
Adapts model-based advice to stabilize black-box policies for nonlinear control.
problem Stabilizing machine-learned policies for nonlinear control with limited model information.
method Proposes an adaptive λ-confident policy to combine black-box and model-based advice. result Proves the stability of the adaptive λ-confident policy and its competitive ratio. Bayesian optimization (BO) is a successful methodology to optimize black-box functions that are expensive to evaluate. While traditional methods optimize each black-box function in isolation, there has been recent interest in speeding up BO by transferring knowledge across multiple related black-box functions. In this …
FastSHAP speeds up Shapley value estimation for black-box models.
problem Efficiently calculating Shapley values for complex models.
method Uses a learned explainer model in a single forward pass.
result Generates high-quality explanations with significant speedup.
Develops black-box methods to estimate parameters of complex models.
problem Lack of efficient methods to produce simulations for complex statistical models.
method Pre-training deep neural networks on extensive simulated databases for well-structured likelihoods. Iterative algorithm for other complex dependencies.
result Successfully estimates and quantifies uncertainty of parameters from non-Gaussian models.
Optimizing expensive black-box systems with limited data is an extremely challenging problem. As a resolution, we present a new surrogate optimization approach by addressing two gaps in prior research -- unimportant input variables and inefficient treatment of uncertainty associated with the black-box output. We first …
We introduce overdispersed black-box variational inference, a method to reduce the variance of the Monte Carlo estimator of the gradient in black-box variational inference. Instead of taking samples from the variational distribution, we use importance sampling to take samples from an overdispersed distribution in the s…
BAR reprograms black-box ML models for transfer learning with scarce data.
problem Transfer learning with limited data and resources.
method Zeroth-order optimization and multi-label mapping techniques to reprogram black-box models.
result BAR outperforms state-of-the-art methods and baseline transfer learning approaches.
ALFI improves likelihood-free inference for black-box generators.
problem Limitations of likelihood-free inference on black-box generators.
method Adversarial Likelihood-Free Inference (ALFI) to estimate posterior distributions.
result ALFI achieves best parameter estimation accuracy with limited simulation.
Adapts Bayesian optimization for mixed constraints in aircraft design.
problem Optimizing expensive black box functions with mixed constraints.
method Super efficient global optimization with upper trust bound for constraints, Gaussian process uncertainty, refinement procedure.
result Superior performance on aircraft design problem compared to state-of-the-art solvers.
New approach turns optimal stationary RL into non-stationary RL without prior knowledge.
problem Optimal RL in non-stationary environments without prior knowledge of non-stationarity.
method Black-box reduction of optimal stationary RL algorithms to non-stationary RL.
result Achieves optimal dynamic regret bounds in various RL settings.
New approach tackles non-stationary multi-agent games with black-box methods.
problem Challenges in learning equilibria in non-stationary multi-agent systems.
method Versatile black-box approach applicable to various games, including general-sum, potential, and Markov games.
result Achieves optimal regret bounds for non-stationary games, with or without knowledge of total variation.
We propose a new randomized ensemble technique with a provable security guarantee against black-box transfer attacks. Our proof constructs a new security problem for random binary classifiers which is easier to empirically verify and a reduction from the security of this new model to the security of the ensemble classi…
Improves relevancy of black-box anomaly detectors with user feedback.
problem Users often ignore many detected anomalies, requiring a method to identify and prioritize relevant ones.
method Uses user feedback to adjust anomaly selection process based on identified anomaly types.
result Significant improvements in precision and recall over various anomaly detectors.
New method optimizes sensor placement for stochastic systems efficiently.
problem Optimizing sensor placements for black-box stochastic systems with computational constraints.
method Trains a joint energy-based model on simulation data to learn parameter and solution distributions, allowing efficient sensor placement.
result Demonstrates lower computational cost and more informative sensor locations compared to conventional approaches.
Paper explores how black box models can deviate from average performance.
problem Understanding and interpreting predictions from sophisticated black box models.
method Two general approaches to provide interpretable descriptions of black box classification model performance.
result Identifies regions where black box models deviate significantly from their average performance.
This work defines observation-specific explanations for black-box models.
problem Assigning importance to data points in black-box model predictions.
method Surrogate model construction using scattered data approximation and orthogonal matching pursuit.
result Validated approach on simulated and real-world datasets.
We interpret black box predictive models using causal attribution.
problem Interpreting models trained using machine learning in high-stakes applications.
method Estimate causal effects of model inputs on output using observational data.
result Effective interpretation of black box predictive models via causal attribution.
Adapts example weights to optimize black-box metrics.
problem Optimizing metrics defined by black-box functions.
method Adaptive example weighting and iterative post-shifting.
result Improves classification performance compared to baselines.
Modern control theories such as systems engineering approaches try to solve nonlinear system problems by revelation of causal relationship or co-relationship among the components; most of those approaches focus on control of sophisticatedly modeled white-boxed systems. We suggest an application of actor-critic reinforc…
Bayesian model explains and improves black-box estimators for class distribution.
problem Calibrating probabilistic classifiers and uncertainty quantification for unlabeled data.
method Introduced a Bayesian model approximating the ground-truth generative process, using efficient MCMC sampling.
result The Bayesian model is competitive and sometimes superior to established point estimators.
Bringing transparency to black-box decision making systems (DMS) has been a topic of increasing research interest in recent years. Traditional active and passive approaches to make these systems transparent are often limited by scalability and/or feasibility issues. In this paper, we propose a new notion of black-box D…
Neural networks play an increasingly important role in the field of machine learning and are included in many applications in society. Unfortunately, neural networks suffer from adversarial samples generated to attack them. However, most of the generation approaches either assume that the attacker has full knowledge of…
Improved method for efficient black-box optimization in latent space.
problem Efficiently optimize expensive black-box functions over complex input spaces.
method Optimize in latent space of deep generative models, retrain model periodically and weight data points.
result Significantly improved efficiency and performance on synthetic and real-world problems.
This paper proposes a novel PGO framework to optimize systemic risk bailouts using neural networks.
problem Optimal bailout strategies for mitigating systemic risk in financial systems.
method Prediction-Gradient-Optimization (PGO) framework, using neural networks to approximate and forecast the objective function.
result The PGO framework effectively manages systemic risk through online optimization.
Proposes a method to explain black-box models using causal learning.
problem Existing explainability methods focus on micro-level inputs, not interpretable features.
method Learns causal graphical representations to differentiate between causal and confounding influences.
result Graphs can differentiate between interpretable and confounding features.
This paper uses NLDT to find interpretable control rules from complex DRL policies.
problem Complex, non-interpretable policies from black-box AI methods.
method Evolutionary optimization of NLDT for hierarchical control rules.
result Interpretable control rules with similar performance to black-box DRL.
Paper introduces active Bayesian method for assessing black-box classifiers efficiently.
problem Need to assess performance of black-box classifiers reliably with limited labels.
method Develops inference strategies and proposes active Bayesian framework for efficient instance selection.
result Significant gains in performance assessment with fewer labels compared to traditional methods.
We study the problem of attacking a machine learning model in the hard-label black-box setting, where no model information is revealed except that the attacker can make queries to probe the corresponding hard-label decisions. This is a very challenging problem since the direct extension of state-of-the-art white-box at…
Recently, neural networks trained as optimizers under the "learning to learn" or meta-learning framework have been shown to be effective for a broad range of optimization tasks including derivative-free black-box function optimization. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) trained to optimize a diverse set of synthetic non-…
LA-MCTS learns search space partition for black-box optimization using Monte Carlo Tree Search.
problem High-dimensional black-box optimization challenges.
method LA-MCTS recursively splits search space into regions with high/low function values, learns nonlinear partition and local models online.
result LA-MCTS achieves strong performance in black-box optimization and reinforcement learning benchmarks, especially for high-dimensional problems.
Bayesian optimization tackles non-smooth tuning problems.
problem Optimizing black-box functions with non-smoothness and limited samples.
method Proposed a clustered Gaussian process (cGP) model for non-smooth optimization.
result Improvement of up to 90% in performance for repetitive experiments.
We present a new method for black-box adversarial attack. Unlike previous methods that combined transfer-based and scored-based methods by using the gradient or initialization of a surrogate white-box model, this new method tries to learn a low-dimensional embedding using a pretrained model, and then performs efficient…
We present a black-box adversarial attack algorithm which sets new state-of-the-art model evasion rates for query efficiency in the ℓ∞ and ℓ2 metrics, where only loss-oracle access to the model is available. On two public black-box attack challenges, the algorithm achieves the highest evasion rate, sur…