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.
Optimizes hard-to-optimize metrics using adaptive surrogates.
problem Training models with black-box and hard-to-optimize metrics.
method Expresses metric as a function of surrogates, solves optimization problem over relaxed surrogate space.
result Approach performs on par with known methods and adds value when metric form is unknown.
New attacks reduce bad queries in black-box classifiers, improving effectiveness.
problem Evasion attacks often issue many bad queries, which are costly.
method Design new attacks that minimize bad queries while increasing non-bad queries.
result Reduces the number of bad queries by 1.5-7.3 times, improving attack effectiveness.
Defines a new metric to measure importance of predictors in complex machine learning models.
problem Measuring importance of predictors in black box machine learning models.
method Introduces a new metric, GVIM, based on true conditional expectation functions and causal interpretation.
result The GVIM can be represented as a function of Conditional Average Treatment Effect (CATE), providing a causal interpretation.
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…
We consider scattering by an abstract compactly supported perturbation in R^n. To include the traditional cases of potential, obstacle and metric scattering without going into their particular nature we adopt the "black box" formalism developed jointly with Sjostrand [23]. It is quite likely that one could extend the r…
Most of the work on interpretable machine learning has focused on designing either inherently interpretable models, which typically trade-off accuracy for interpretability, or post-hoc explanation systems, which lack guarantees about their explanation quality. We propose an alternative to these approaches by directly r…
New method wraps black-box classifiers to reduce bias.
problem Reduction of bias in black-box predictions.
method Post-processing with α-trees and boosting algorithms.
result Demonstrated effectiveness in reducing bias across multiple fairness metrics.
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 …
Matched Machine Learning combines machine learning and matching for causal inference.
problem Non-interpretable methods for causal inference.
method Combines machine learning and matching for interpretable causal inference.
result Performs as well as black-box machine learning methods and better than existing matching methods.
Develops transparent global models consistent with local explanations.
problem Creating globally interpretable models that align with local explanations from black-box models.
method Custom boolean features from sparse local contrastive explanations are used to train a globally transparent model.
result Custom transparent models have higher local consistency compared to other strategies.
Efficiently explains model outputs using HSIC, a dependence measure.
problem Efficiently explain model outputs for various architectures.
method HSIC, RKHS, Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces, black-box attribution.
result Up to 8 times faster than previous methods while maintaining fidelity.
This paper introduces a new metric for deep learning networks based on their classification performance.
problem The mystery and black-box nature of deep learning networks.
method Proposes a new distance measure based on the probabilistic performance of deep learning networks.
result The proposed metric space is compact and coincides with the quotient topological space.
Proposes ICE-based metric for better understanding interactions in black-box models.
problem Misleading global sensitivity metrics in black-box models due to interaction effects.
method Individual Conditional Expectation (ICE) curves to compute feature importance and interactions.
result ICE-based metric provides richer insights into feature importance and interactions.
Transfer learning improves model robustness against adversarial attacks.
problem Understanding how transfer learning affects model robustness against adversarial attacks.
method Extensive empirical evaluations of white-box and black-box attacks on fine-tuned transfer learning models.
result Adversarial examples are more transferable when fine-tuning is used than when networks are trained independently.
Paper introduces new importance metrics for machine learning models, linking them to CATE.
problem Interpreting black-box models' importance metrics due to data dependence and non-parametric nature.
method Introduces MVIM and CVIM, proposing permutation-based estimation and bias-variance decomposition.
result MVIM and CVIM have a quadratic relationship with CATE, addressing bias in correlated predictors.
Interpretable machine learning has gained much attention recently. Briefness and comprehensiveness are necessary in order to provide a large amount of information concisely when explaining a black-box decision system. However, existing interpretable machine learning methods fail to consider briefness and comprehensiven…
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.
This paper introduces a new scalarization method for multi-objective optimization.
problem Efficiently optimizing multiple conflicting objectives in black box settings.
method Introduces a novel hypervolume scalarization function and uses it to approximate the hypervolume indicator metric.
result Provable convergence to the entire Pareto frontier using random scalarizations and Bayesian optimization.
Real-world machine learning applications often have complex test metrics, and may have training and test data that are not identically distributed. Motivated by known connections between complex test metrics and cost-weighted learning, we propose addressing these issues by using a weighted loss function with a standard…
Our work investigates disagreement in neural network feature attribution methods.
problem Disagreement among feature attribution methods for neural networks.
method Investigates the fundamental and distributional behavior of feature attribution methods.
result Illustrates the impact of scaling and encoding techniques on explanation quality.
As machine learning becomes more pervasive, there is an urgent need for interpretable explanations of predictive models. Prior work has developed effective methods for visualizing global model behavior, as well as generating local (instance-specific) explanations. However, relatively little work has addressed regional …
We are focusing on bound constrained global optimization problems, whose objective functions are computationally expensive black-box functions and have multiple local minima. The recently popular Metric Stochastic Response Surface (MSRS) algorithm proposed by \cite{Regis2007SRBF} based on adaptive or sequential learnin…
Bayesian optimization (BO) is an effective method of finding the global optima of black-box functions. Recently BO has been applied to neural architecture search and shows better performance than pure evolutionary strategies. All these methods adopt Gaussian processes (GPs) as surrogate function, with the handcraft sim…
We present a scalable, black box, perception-in-the-loop technique to find adversarial examples for deep neural network classifiers. Black box means that our procedure only has input-output access to the classifier, and not to the internal structure, parameters, or intermediate confidence values. Perception-in-the-loop…
The paper analyzes how a known density function can be deviated by a mixture distribution as more data is collected.
problem Modeling the deviation of a known density function when more data is collected.
method A novel distinguishability notion is used to establish rates of convergence for maximum likelihood estimates of the deviated proportion and latent mixing measure.
result Rates of convergence for the maximum likelihood estimates of the deviated proportion and latent mixing measure are established under the Wasserstein metric.
New method uses model's generalization gap to predict membership inference attacks.
problem Predicting membership inference attacks on machine learning models.
method Uses the model's generalization gap as a metric to estimate the vulnerability to membership inference attacks.
result Demonstrates that the model's generalization gap provides an upper bound on MIA security.
Spanning attack improves black-box attacks with unlabeled data.
problem Query inefficiency in black-box attacks due to high input space dimensionality.
method Proposes spanning attack by constraining adversarial perturbations in a low-dimensional subspace via an auxiliary unlabeled dataset.
result Significantly improves query efficiency of black-box attacks.
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.
Black box machine learning models are currently being used for high stakes decision-making throughout society, causing problems throughout healthcare, criminal justice, and in other domains. People have hoped that creating methods for explaining these black box models will alleviate some of these problems, but trying t…
Interpretable companion model for black-box classifiers.
problem Dilemma between interpretable and black-box models.
method Trains a companion model from data and black-box model predictions, optimizing a combination of accuracy and complexity.
result Companion model provides interpretable predictions with a slight accuracy loss for user choice.
Understanding how a learned black box works is of crucial interest for the future of Machine Learning. In this paper, we pioneer the question of the global interpretability of learned black box models that assign numerical values to symbolic sequential data. To tackle that task, we propose a spectral algorithm for the …
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…
New research shows many recent defenses against adversarial examples are ineffective against black-box attacks.
problem The robustness of recent defenses against adversarial examples is insufficient, especially against black-box attacks.
method Evaluation of nine defenses on two black-box adversarial models and six attacks on CIFAR-10 and Fashion-MNIST datasets.
result Most recent defenses provide only marginal improvements in security (<25%) compared to undefended networks. 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.
Study cost-effective fairness audits with partial feedback, improving over random exploration.
problem Auditing fairness of classifiers with limited true labels.
method Introduces cost model, proposes near-optimal algorithms for black-box and mixture models.
result Significantly lower audit costs compared to natural baselines.
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.
REST improves robustness of black-box models to geometric transformations.
problem Overconfident incorrect predictions on out-of-distribution samples.
method REinforcement Spatial Transform learner (REST) that transforms input data into in-distribution samples.
result Improves robustness to geometric transformations and sample efficiency.
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. Deep neural networks work well at approximating complicated functions when provided with data and trained by gradient descent methods. At the same time, there is a vast amount of existing functions that programmatically solve different tasks in a precise manner eliminating the need for training. In many cases, it is po…
For many evaluation metrics commonly used as benchmarks for unconditional image generation, trivially memorizing the training set attains a better score than models which are considered state-of-the-art; we consider this problematic. We clarify a necessary condition for an evaluation metric not to behave this way: esti…
NP-Attack reduces query counts for black-box adversarial attacks.
problem Efficiency of black-box adversarial attacks is low.
method Uses Neural Process to characterize image structure and find adversarial examples.
result NP-Attack significantly decreases query counts.
We propose a fast, model agnostic method for finding interpretable counterfactual explanations of classifier predictions by using class prototypes. We show that class prototypes, obtained using either an encoder or through class specific k-d trees, significantly speed up the the search for counterfactual instances and …
Most of the work on interpretable machine learning has focused on designing either inherently interpretable models, which typically trade-off accuracy for interpretability, or post-hoc explanation systems, whose explanation quality can be unpredictable. Our method, ExpO, is a hybridization of these approaches that regu…
Bayesian optimisation generates saliency maps for black-box models.
problem Generating saliency maps for models without access to parameters.
method Bayesian optimisation sampling method to find global salient regions.
result Approach outperforms grid-based methods and performs similarly to gradient-based methods.
Many objective Bayesian optimization tackles redundant objectives in expensive black-box functions.
problem Efficiently optimizing multiple expensive and noisy black-box functions with redundant objectives.
method Proposes a metric to identify redundant objectives and a Bayesian optimization algorithm to stop evaluating them.
result Reduces computational cost by stopping evaluation of redundant objectives, improving efficiency.
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.
New method uses Fisher-Rao metric for non-Gaussian decoders.
problem Existing latent space geometry theory only works for Gaussian decoders.
method Pull back Fisher-Rao metric to latent space for non-Gaussian decoders.
result Achieves meaningful latent geometries for various non-Gaussian decoders.