IP Library Granted Patent US 12,367,419
Granted Patent B2
US 12,367,419 · App. 17/095,688 · Granted Jul 22, 2025

Game-theoretic invariant rationalization of machine-learning results

Inventors: Shiyu Chang (Elmsford, NY); Yang Zhang (Cambridge, MA); Mo Yu (White Plains, NY); Tommi S. Jaakkola (Cambridge, MA)
Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation; MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
G06N20/00G06F40/00G06N5/045G06Q30/0201G06F40/284
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,367,419
App. No.
17/095,688
Granted
Jul 22, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

To improve actual labels that are produced by a black box computer classifier system from inputs, identify, using an environment-aware predictor and an environment-agnostic predictor, a subset of the inputs. The subset of the inputs has a stable correlation with the actual labels across a plurality of environments. Identify the subset of the inputs as an explanatory rationale for the actual labels. Display the explanatory rationale with the actual labels to a consumer of the actual labels. Optionally, in response to the explanatory rationale failing a rubric established by the consumer, generate revised inputs by removing the explanatory rationale from the inputs; and produce revised labels by processing the revised inputs with the environment-agnostic predictor.

Claims (84)

1. A method for improving actual labels that are produced by a black box computer classifier system from inputs, the method comprising:

identifying, using an environment-aware predictor and an environment-agnostic predictor, a subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system, wherein the subset of the inputs has a stable correlation with the actual labels across a plurality of environments;

identifying the subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system as an explanatory rationale for the actual labels;

displaying the subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system with the actual labels to a consumer of the actual labels; and

in response to the explanatory rationale failing a rubric established by the consumer:

generating revised inputs by removing the subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system from the inputs; and

producing revised labels by processing the revised inputs with the environment- agnostic predictor.

2. A method for improving actual labels that are produced by a black box computer classifier system from inputs, the method comprising:

identifying, using an environment-aware predictor and an environment-agnostic predictor, a subset of the inputs, wherein the subset of the inputs has a stable correlation with the actual labels across a plurality of environments;

identifying the subset of the inputs as an explanatory rationale for the actual labels;

displaying the explanatory rationale with the actual labels to a consumer of the actual labels; and

in response to the explanatory rationale failing a rubric established by the consumer:

generating revised inputs by removing the explanatory rationale from the inputs; and

producing revised labels by processing the revised inputs with the environment-agnostic predictor, wherein identifying the subset of the inputs comprises applying game-theoretic invariant rationalization to maximize a performance of the environment-agnostic predictor while minimizing a difference in performance between the environment-agnostic predictor and the environment-aware predictor.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

dividing the inputs into first and second groups of data; and

training the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor by repeatedly:

generating environment-aware labels by the environment-aware predictor processing the first and second groups of data and identifiers of the first and second groups of data;

generating environment-agnostic labels by the environment-agnostic predictor processing the first and second groups of data without the identifiers of the first and second groups of data;

calculating information losses for the environment-aware predictor and for the environment-agnostic predictor by comparing the environment-aware labels and the environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels; and

adjusting weights of the environment-aware predictor and of the environment-agnostic predictor to achieve local minima of information losses.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating from the inputs a first putative rationale and a second putative rationale, wherein at least one putative rationale includes a portion of the inputs different from any portion included by the other putative rationale;

generating first environment-aware labels and first environment-agnostic labels by the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor respectively processing the first putative rationale;

generating second environment-aware labels and second environment-agnostic labels by the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor respectively processing the second putative rationale;

calculating a difference in first information losses between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor for the first putative rationale, wherein the first information losses are obtained by comparison of the first environment-aware labels and environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels;

calculating a difference in second information losses between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor for the second putative rationale, wherein the second information losses are obtained by comparison of the second environment-aware labels and environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels; and

selecting, as the explanatory rationale, the one of the first and second putative rationales that generates the smaller difference in information losses between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment-agnostic predictor performs natural language processing (NLP) on a corpus of text that constitutes the inputs.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the rubric includes a list of verbs.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the rubric includes a list of nouns.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the rubric includes a list of adjectives.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the rubric includes a list of geographic coordinates.

10. A method for correcting implicit bias in human decision making, the method comprising:

obtaining actual labels that were applied by a human decisionmaker to inputs that include confounding data and an explanatory rationale, wherein the confounding data and the explanatory rationale are not initially distinguished from each other;

distinguishing the explanatory rationale from the confounding data, by identifying a stable correlation of the explanatory rationale with the actual labels across a plurality of environments using an environment-aware predictor and an environment-agnostic predictor;

informing a responsible party that the explanatory rationale matches a pertinent rubric; and

generating revised inputs by removing the explanatory rationale.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

training the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor by repeatedly:

generating environment-aware labels by the environment-aware predictor processing the first and second groups of data and identifiers of the first and second groups of data;

generating environment-agnostic labels by the environment-agnostic predictor processing the first and second groups of data without the identifiers of the first and second groups of data;

calculating information losses for the environment-aware predictor and for the environment-agnostic predictor by comparing the environment-aware labels and the environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels; and

adjusting weights of the environment-aware predictor and of the environment-agnostic predictor to achieve local minima of information losses.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein identifying the stable correlation of the explanatory rationale with the actual labels comprises:

dividing the inputs into first and second groups of data;

producing a first putative rationale by selecting first matching sections of the first and second groups of data;

producing a second putative rationale by selecting second matching sections of the first and second groups of data, wherein the second matching sections differ from the first matching sections;

calculating a difference in information loss between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor for the first putative rationale and for the second putative rationale; and

selecting as the explanatory rationale the one of the first and second putative rationales that generates the smaller difference in information loss between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the machine learning algorithm performs natural language processing (NLP) on a corpus of text that constitutes the inputs.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

generating revised inputs by removing the explanatory rationale from the inputs; and

producing revised labels by processing the revised inputs with the environment-agnostic predictor.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to facilitate a method for improving actual labels produced by a black box computer classifier system from inputs, the method comprising:

identifying, using an environment-aware predictor and an environment-agnostic predictor, a subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system, wherein the subset of the inputs has a stable correlation with the actual labels across a plurality of environments;

identifying the subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system as an explanatory rationale for the actual labels;

displaying the subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system with the actual labels to a consumer of the actual labels; and

in response to the explanatory rationale failing a rubric established by the consumer:

generating revised inputs by removing the subset of the inputs that suffice to yield the actual labels produced by the black box computer classifier system from the inputs; and

producing revised labels by processing the revised inputs with the environment-agnostic predictor.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to facilitate a method for improving actual labels produced by a black box computer classifier system from inputs, the method comprising:

identifying, using an environment-aware predictor and an environment-agnostic predictor, a subset of the inputs, wherein the subset of the inputs has a stable correlation with the actual labels across a plurality of environments;

identifying the subset of the inputs as an explanatory rationale for the actual labels;

displaying the explanatory rationale with the actual labels to a consumer of the actual labels; and

in response to the explanatory rationale failing a rubric established by the consumer:

generating revised inputs by removing the explanatory rationale from the inputs; and

producing revised labels by processing the revised inputs with the environment-agnostic predictor, wherein identifying the subset of the inputs comprises applying game-theoretic invariant rationalization to maximize a performance of the environment-agnostic predictor while minimizing a difference in performance between the environment-agnostic predictor and the environment-aware predictor.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 , the method further comprising:

dividing the inputs into first and second groups of data; and

training the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor by repeatedly:

generating environment-aware labels by the environment-aware predictor processing the first and second groups of data and identifiers of the first and second groups of data;

generating environment-agnostic labels by the environment-agnostic predictor processing the first and second groups of data without the identifiers of the first and second groups of data;

calculating information losses for the environment-aware predictor and for the environment-agnostic predictor by comparing the environment-aware labels and the environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels; and

adjusting weights of the environment-aware predictor and of the environment-agnostic predictor to achieve local minima of information losses.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15 , the method further comprising:

generating from the inputs a first putative rationale and a second putative rationale, wherein at least one putative rationale includes a portion of the inputs different from any portion included by the other putative rationale;

generating first environment-aware labels and first environment-agnostic labels by the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor respectively processing the first putative rationale;

generating second environment-aware labels and second environment-agnostic labels by the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor respectively processing the second putative rationale;

calculating a difference in first information losses between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor for the first putative rationale, wherein the first information losses are obtained by comparison of the first environment-aware labels and environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels;

calculating a difference in second information losses between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor for the second putative rationale, wherein the second information losses are obtained by comparison of the second environment-aware labels and environment-agnostic labels to the actual labels; and

selecting, as the explanatory rationale, the one of the first and second putative rationales that generates the smaller difference in information losses between the environment-aware predictor and the environment-agnostic predictor.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the environment-agnostic predictor performs natural language processing (NLP) on a corpus of text that constitutes the inputs.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the rubric includes at least one of a list of verbs, a list of nouns, a list of adjectives, and a list of geographic coordinates.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 27, 2023
From: JAAKKOLA, TOMMI S.
To: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Reel/Frame 063110/0485 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 11, 2020
From: CHANG, SHIYU; ZHANG, YANG; YU, MO
To: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 054342/0028 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20220147864A1 · May 12, 2022
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