Study characterizes harmful low-fidelity data sources for surrogate models.
problem Identifying which low-fidelity data sources to use in constructing surrogate models.
method Employed benchmark filtering techniques to assess harmful sources using limited data.
result Provided guidelines for using low-fidelity sources in an industrial setting.
As machine learning (ML) increasingly affects people and society, awareness of its potential unwanted consequences has also grown. To anticipate, prevent, and mitigate undesirable downstream consequences, it is critical that we understand when and how harm might be introduced throughout the ML life cycle. In this paper…
Improves understanding of PWS by calculating influence of sources and data.
problem Understanding the influence of each component in PWS.
method Proposes source-aware Influence Function (IF) to decompose and calculate influence.
result Improves end model's generalization performance and identifies mislabeling.
Proposes a new method to measure and avoid harm in machine learning decisions.
problem Measuring and avoiding harm in machine learning algorithms.
method Formal definition of harm and benefit using causal models, counterfactual objective functions.
result Demonstrates that standard machine learning methods can lead to harmful policies under distributional shifts.
Today, artificial intelligence systems driven by machine learning algorithms can be in a position to take important, and sometimes legally binding, decisions about our everyday lives. In many cases, however, these systems and their actions are neither regulated nor certified. To help counter the potential harm that suc…
Detects harmful distribution shifts in deployed models without false alarms.
problem Detecting harmful distribution shifts in deployed models without false alarms.
method Sequential tools for testing if the difference between source and target distributions leads to a significant increase in a risk function.
result Demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed framework through extensive empirical studies.
New method stops experiments early for harm in diverse groups.
problem Early stopping of experiments for harmful treatment effects in diverse populations.
method Causal machine learning approach (CLASH) for early stopping.
result CLASH effectively stops experiments early for harmful treatment effects in diverse groups.
Prediction models can harm patients even when accurate, leading to self-fulfilling prophecies.
problem Prediction models can lead to harmful decisions that worsen patient outcomes.
method Formal characterization of harmful prediction models and analysis of their impact.
result Well-calibrated models are ineffective for decision-making as they do not change the data distribution.
Selective planning with imperfect models reduces harmful effects of model inadequacy.
problem Harmful effects of using an imperfect model in reinforcement learning.
method Selective planning with heteroscedastic regression to estimate predictive uncertainty from model inadequacy.
result Effective selective planning requires considering both parameter uncertainty and model inadequacy.
Study shows harmful overfitting in Sobolev spaces even as training data grows.
problem Harmful overfitting in Sobolev spaces under noisy conditions.
method Geometric argument using Sobolev inequalities.
result Approximately norm-minimizing interpolators exhibit harmful overfitting.
Contrastive learning harms minority group representations, affecting downstream tasks.
problem Representation harm in contrastive learning, especially affecting minority groups.
method Causal mediation analysis and stochastic block model explanation.
result Representation harm in contrastive learning is partly responsible for allocation harm in downstream tasks.
While harms of allocation have been increasingly studied as part of the subfield of algorithmic fairness, harms of representation have received considerably less attention. In this paper, we formalize two notions of stereotyping and show how they manifest in later allocative harms within the machine learning pipeline. …
Aims to create safe reinforcement learning policies by considering individual harm.
problem Optimal policies for a population may harm certain individuals.
method Formalizes individual harm, proposes a two-stage procedure, and establishes finite-sample properties.
result Learned policies maximize expected return while minimizing harm.
Researchers classify harmful structures on unimodular Lie groups.
problem Characterizing harmful structures on Lie groups.
method Analyzing left-invariant structures and using Clifford multiplication.
result Classification of harmful structures on unimodular Lie groups of dimension ≤ 4.
New framework shows algorithmic recourse can be harmful.
problem Risks of providing algorithmic recourse in binary classification.
method Abstract learning-theoretic framework comparing risks with and without recourse.
result Providing recourse can be harmful, increasing class uncertainty and mistakes.
Paper tackles noise-robust domain adaptation in noisy environments.
problem Learning machines struggle with domain adaptation in noisy environments.
method The paper proposes offline curriculum learning and proxy distribution based margin discrepancy to mitigate label and feature noise.
result The proposed algorithm significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in noisy environments.
Improves GAN performance by identifying and removing harmful training instances.
problem Challenges in applying previous instance removal methods to GANs.
method Proposes influence estimation methods using Jacobian of generator's gradient and instance evaluation scheme based on GAN evaluation metrics.
result Removing harmful instances significantly improves GAN performance.
Combining ensembles and data augmentation harms model calibration.
problem Improving model calibration and robustness with ensembles and data augmentation leads to a trade-off.
method Combining ensemble averaging and data augmentation techniques.
result Combining ensembles and data augmentation can harm model calibration.
A simple strategy prevents negative transfer in transfer learning.
problem Negative transfer in transfer learning where source representations harm target performance.
method Residual feature integration with a trainable target-side encoder.
result The method provably prevents negative transfer with theoretical guarantees.
Theorem. Let M be a compact, connected, oriented smooth Riemannian n-manifold with non-empty boundary. Then the cohomology of the complex (Harm*(M),d) of harmonic forms on M is given by the direct sum H^p(Harm*(M),d) = H^p(M;R) + H^(p-1)(M;R) for p=0,1,...,n. When M is a closed manifold, a form is harmonic if and only …
Existing few-shot learning (FSL) methods assume that there exist sufficient training samples from source classes for knowledge transfer to target classes with few training samples. However, this assumption is often invalid, especially when it comes to fine-grained recognition. In this work, we define a new FSL setting …
New method estimates harmful instances in GANs for better model performance.
problem Estimating harmful instances in GANs for improved model performance.
method Uses Jacobian of generator's loss to trace harmfulness of instances.
result Correctly inferred changes in GAN evaluation metrics and improved model performance.
Explainable machine learning (ML) enables human learning from ML, human appeal of automated model decisions, regulatory compliance, and security audits of ML models. Explainable ML (i.e. explainable artificial intelligence or XAI) has been implemented in numerous open source and commercial packages and explainable ML i…
Data whitening and second order optimization harm generalization by reducing access to dataset information.
problem Harmful effects of data whitening and second order optimization on generalization in machine learning.
method Analysis of fully connected models and experimental verification.
result Data whitening and second order optimization reduce or prevent generalization by limiting access to dataset information.
Common fairness definitions in machine learning focus on balancing notions of disparity and utility. In this work, we study fairness in the context of risk disparity among sub-populations. We are interested in learning models that minimize performance discrepancies across sensitive groups without causing unnecessary ha…
Bayesian approach quantifies uncertainty in LLM evaluations.
problem Statistical uncertainty in evaluating LLM behavior.
method Bayesian evaluation of LLM behavior using probabilistic text generation strategies.
result Bayesian approach provides useful uncertainty quantification about LLM behavior.
This paper presents an engine able to predict jointly the real-time concentration of the main pollutants harming people's health: nitrogen dioxyde (NO2), ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10, which are respectively the particles whose size are below 2.5 um and 10 um). The engine covers a large part of the …
Linear models can overfit without harming OOD generalization under certain conditions.
problem Understanding how overparameterized linear models generalize to out-of-distribution data.
method Analyzing overparameterized linear models under covariate shift, providing guarantees for OOD generalization.
result Benign overfitting occurs in standard ridge regression under OOD conditions, with specific structural conditions on target covariance.
The study finds that memorization is necessary or harmful depending on the prior distribution and noise level.
problem The impact of memorization on generalization in overparameterized models.
method An overparameterized linear model with general priors in a Bayesian setup.
result Explicit conditions for optimal generalization based on the prior distribution and noise level.
Evaluating prediction models under covariate shift and selective labels
problem Model performance evaluation under distribution shift and selection bias
method Double machine learning
result Accurate estimation of target risk
COCA refactors training data to identify and erase unsafe concepts in LLMs.
problem Identifying and erasing unsafe concepts in Large Language Models (LLMs) for safety alignment.
method Concept Concentration (COCA) refactors training data with an explicit reasoning process to identify and erase unsafe concepts.
result COCA significantly reduces both in-distribution and out-of-distribution jailbreak success rates while maintaining strong performance on regular tasks.
New framework assesses LLM security risks in BFSI.
problem Lack of domain-specific security evaluation for LLMs in BFSI.
method Risk-aware evaluation framework combining taxonomy, automated red-teaming, and ensemble judging.
result Higher decoding stochasticity and adaptive interaction lead to more severe disclosures.
Detects harmful shifts without labels for model performance.
problem Detecting distribution shifts without access to labels.
method Uses a proxy derived from predictions of an error estimator.
result High power and false alarm control under various shifts.
Algorithm removes spurious concepts from neural network representations without harming task performance.
problem Spurious correlations hinder neural network out-of-distribution generalization.
method Iterative algorithm that identifies two orthogonal subspaces in neural network representation.
result Algorithm outperforms existing methods on computer vision and natural language processing benchmarks.
Neural Networks are being integrated into safety critical systems, e.g., perception systems for autonomous vehicles, which require trained networks to perform safely in novel scenarios. It is challenging to verify neural networks because their decisions are not explainable, they cannot be exhaustively tested, and finit…
Ensembling DNNs improves minority group performance, leading to fairness.
problem Improving subgroup performances in DNN classifiers.
method Simple homogeneous ensembling of DNNs.
result Fairness naturally emerges from ensembling, improving minority group performance.
Two-layer CNNs can overfit without harm under certain conditions.
problem Understanding when and how overfitting occurs in neural networks.
method Theoretical analysis of a two-layer CNN trained by gradient descent.
result A sharp phase transition between benign and harmful overfitting based on signal-to-noise ratio.
A mechanism to share risks and costs with guarantees against extreme outcomes.
problem Softening extreme individual burdens in risk sharing schemes.
method Formalizes Certified Allocation Problem; uses Conformal Risk Sharing with interpretable sharing policy and split conformal calibration.
result Reduces extreme obligations for high-risk agents while controlling harm to others.
Introduces MPR to measure and optimize representation across intersectional groups in retrieval.
problem Harmful stereotypes, cultural erasure, and social disparities in image search and retrieval.
method Develops MPR metric, practical estimation methods, theoretical guarantees, and optimization algorithms.
result Optimizing MPR yields more proportional representation across multiple intersectional groups, often with minimal retrieval accuracy compromise.
Study highlights how lazy data practices in fair ML research can unfairly impact minority groups.
problem Lazy data practices in fair ML research can unfairly impact minority groups.
method Systematic study of 280 experiments across 142 publications on 142 datasets.
result Unreflective data practices lead to biased findings and unfair treatment of minorities.
Framework for discovering treatment benefits in user segments.
problem Discovering differential impacts of treatments across user subgroups.
method Combines causal inference and machine learning for user segment discovery.
result Unified approach for treatment benefit discovery and assignment.
In this paper we characterise the propensity of big capital investments to systematically deliver poor outcomes as "fragility," a notion suggested by Nassim Taleb. A thing or system that is easily harmed by randomness is fragile. We argue that, contrary to their appearance, big capital investments break easily - i.e. d…
Q-learning is one of the most popular methods in Reinforcement Learning (RL). Transfer Learning aims to utilize the learned knowledge from source tasks to help new tasks to improve the sample complexity of the new tasks. Considering that data collection in RL is both more time and cost consuming and Q-learning converge…
Two-layer ReLU networks can overfit without harm, study finds.
problem Understanding when and how two-layer ReLU networks can overfit without harming generalization.
method Established algorithm-dependent risk bounds for two-layer ReLU convolutional neural networks with label-flipping noise.
result Gradient descent-trained ReLU networks can achieve near-zero training loss and Bayes optimal test risk.
New model shows neural networks can use noise to improve long-tailed data classification.
problem Understanding overfitting in neural networks with long-tailed data.
method Refined feature-noise data model incorporating class-dependent heterogeneous noise.
result Neural networks can leverage data noise to learn implicit features improving long-tailed data classification.
Diffusion LLMs can efficiently generate harmful prompts for adversarial testing.
problem Generating harmful prompts for adversarial testing is resource-intensive and costly.
method Transformed adversarial prompt optimization into an efficient inference task using pretrained Diffusion LLMs.
result Only a few conditional samples are required to generate harmful prompts with high reward.
New algorithm ensures fairness without sacrificing accuracy.
problem Ensuring fairness in machine learning without harming accuracy.
method Demographic-Agnostic Fairness without Harm (DAFH) algorithm.
result DAFH algorithm achieves higher accuracy than existing methods.
We aim to better understand attention over nodes in graph neural networks (GNNs) and identify factors influencing its effectiveness. We particularly focus on the ability of attention GNNs to generalize to larger, more complex or noisy graphs. Motivated by insights from the work on Graph Isomorphism Networks, we design …