Publications [#377731] of Cynthia D. Rudin

Papers Published

1. Sun, Y; Chen, Z; Orlandi, V; Wang, T; Rudin, C, Sparse and Faithful Explanations Without Sparse Models, Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, vol. 238 (January, 2024), pp. 2071-2079
   (last updated on 2024/11/20)

   Abstract:
   Even if a model is not globally sparse, it is possible for decisions made from that model to be accurately and faithfully described by a small number of features. For instance, an application for a large loan might be denied to someone because they have no credit history, which overwhelms any evidence towards their creditworthiness. In this work, we introduce the Sparse Explanation Value (SEV), a new way of measuring sparsity in machine learning models. In the loan denial example above, the SEV is 1 because only one factor is needed to explain why the loan was denied. SEV is a measure of decision sparsity rather than overall model sparsity, and we are able to show that many machine learning models – even if they are not sparse – actually have low decision sparsity, as measured by SEV. SEV is defined using movements over a hypercube, allowing SEV to be defined consistently over various model classes, with movement restrictions reflecting real-world constraints. We propose algorithms that reduce SEV without sacrificing accuracy, providing sparse and completely faithful explanations, even without globally sparse models.