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Marissa Connor

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2 papers

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NeurIPS Conference 2020 Conference Paper

Generative causal explanations of black-box classifiers

Matthew O'Shaughnessy
Gregory Canal
Marissa Connor
Christopher Rozell
Mark Davenport

We develop a method for generating causal post-hoc explanations of black-box classifiers based on a learned low-dimensional representation of the data. The explanation is causal in the sense that changing learned latent factors produces a change in the classifier output statistics. To construct these explanations, we design a learning framework that leverages a generative model and information-theoretic measures of causal influence. Our objective function encourages both the generative model to faithfully represent the data distribution and the latent factors to have a large causal influence on the classifier output. Our method learns both global and local explanations, is compatible with any classifier that admits class probabilities and a gradient, and does not require labeled attributes or knowledge of causal structure. Using carefully controlled test cases, we provide intuition that illuminates the function of our causal objective. We then demonstrate the practical utility of our method on image recognition tasks.

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AAAI Conference 2020 Conference Paper

Representing Closed Transformation Paths in Encoded Network Latent Space

Marissa Connor
Christopher Rozell

Deep generative networks have been widely used for learning mappings from a low-dimensional latent space to a highdimensional data space. In many cases, data transformations are deﬁned by linear paths in this latent space. However, the Euclidean structure of the latent space may be a poor match for the underlying latent structure in the data. In this work, we incorporate a generative manifold model into the latent space of an autoencoder in order to learn the low-dimensional manifold structure from the data and adapt the latent space to accommodate this structure. In particular, we focus on applications in which the data has closed transformation paths which extend from a starting point and return to nearly the same point. Through experiments on data with natural closed transformation paths, we show that this model introduces the ability to learn the latent dynamics of complex systems, generate transformation paths, and classify samples that belong on the same transformation path.

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