Learning to double-check model prediction from a causal perspective

• Main Authors: Deng, Xun, Feng, Fuli, Wang, Xiang, He, Xiangnan, Zhang, Hanwang, Chua, Tat-Seng
• Other Authors: School of Computer Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Computer science and engineering; Causality; Classification
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170568
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The present machine learning schema typically uses a one-pass model inference (e.g., forward propagation) to make predictions in the testing phase. It is inherently different from human students who double-check the answer during examinations especially when the confidence is low. To bridge this gap, we propose a learning to double-check (L2D) framework, which formulates double check as a learnable procedure with two core operations: recognizing unreliable predictions and revising predictions. To judge the correctness of a prediction, we resort to counterfactual faithfulness in causal theory and design a contrastive faithfulness measure. In particular, L2D generates counterfactual features by imagining: "what would the sample features be if its label was the predicted class" and judges the prediction by the faithfulness of the counterfactual features. Furthermore, we design a simple and effective revision module to revise the original model prediction according to the faithfulness. We apply the L2D framework to three classification models and conduct experiments on two public datasets for image classification, validating the effectiveness of L2D in prediction correctness judgment and revision.