Interpretability Beyond Feature Attribution: Quantitative Testing with Concept Activation Vectors (TCAV)

Been Kim, Martin Wattenberg, Justin Gilmer, Carrie Cai, James Wexler, Fernanda Viegas, Rory sayres
Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 80:2668-2677, 2018.

Abstract

The interpretation of deep learning models is a challenge due to their size, complexity, and often opaque internal state. In addition, many systems, such as image classifiers, operate on low-level features rather than high-level concepts. To address these challenges, we introduce Concept Activation Vectors (CAVs), which provide an interpretation of a neural net’s internal state in terms of human-friendly concepts. The key idea is to view the high-dimensional internal state of a neural net as an aid, not an obstacle. We show how to use CAVs as part of a technique, Testing with CAVs (TCAV), that uses directional derivatives to quantify the degree to which a user-defined concept is important to a classification result–for example, how sensitive a prediction of “zebra” is to the presence of stripes. Using the domain of image classification as a testing ground, we describe how CAVs may be used to explore hypotheses and generate insights for a standard image classification network as well as a medical application.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v80-kim18d, title = {Interpretability Beyond Feature Attribution: Quantitative Testing with Concept Activation Vectors ({TCAV})}, author = {Kim, Been and Wattenberg, Martin and Gilmer, Justin and Cai, Carrie and Wexler, James and Viegas, Fernanda and sayres, Rory}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning}, pages = {2668--2677}, year = {2018}, editor = {Dy, Jennifer and Krause, Andreas}, volume = {80}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {10--15 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {http://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/kim18d/kim18d.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/kim18d.html}, abstract = {The interpretation of deep learning models is a challenge due to their size, complexity, and often opaque internal state. In addition, many systems, such as image classifiers, operate on low-level features rather than high-level concepts. To address these challenges, we introduce Concept Activation Vectors (CAVs), which provide an interpretation of a neural net’s internal state in terms of human-friendly concepts. The key idea is to view the high-dimensional internal state of a neural net as an aid, not an obstacle. We show how to use CAVs as part of a technique, Testing with CAVs (TCAV), that uses directional derivatives to quantify the degree to which a user-defined concept is important to a classification result–for example, how sensitive a prediction of “zebra” is to the presence of stripes. Using the domain of image classification as a testing ground, we describe how CAVs may be used to explore hypotheses and generate insights for a standard image classification network as well as a medical application.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Interpretability Beyond Feature Attribution: Quantitative Testing with Concept Activation Vectors (TCAV) %A Been Kim %A Martin Wattenberg %A Justin Gilmer %A Carrie Cai %A James Wexler %A Fernanda Viegas %A Rory sayres %B Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2018 %E Jennifer Dy %E Andreas Krause %F pmlr-v80-kim18d %I PMLR %P 2668--2677 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/kim18d.html %V 80 %X The interpretation of deep learning models is a challenge due to their size, complexity, and often opaque internal state. In addition, many systems, such as image classifiers, operate on low-level features rather than high-level concepts. To address these challenges, we introduce Concept Activation Vectors (CAVs), which provide an interpretation of a neural net’s internal state in terms of human-friendly concepts. The key idea is to view the high-dimensional internal state of a neural net as an aid, not an obstacle. We show how to use CAVs as part of a technique, Testing with CAVs (TCAV), that uses directional derivatives to quantify the degree to which a user-defined concept is important to a classification result–for example, how sensitive a prediction of “zebra” is to the presence of stripes. Using the domain of image classification as a testing ground, we describe how CAVs may be used to explore hypotheses and generate insights for a standard image classification network as well as a medical application.
APA
Kim, B., Wattenberg, M., Gilmer, J., Cai, C., Wexler, J., Viegas, F. & sayres, R.. (2018). Interpretability Beyond Feature Attribution: Quantitative Testing with Concept Activation Vectors (TCAV). Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Machine Learning, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 80:2668-2677 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v80/kim18d.html.

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