Knowledge bases are employed in a variety of applications, from natural language processing to semantic web search; alas, in practice, their usefulness is hurt by their incompleteness. To address this issue, several techniques aim at performing knowledge base completion, of which embedding models are efficient, attain state-of-the-art accuracy, and eliminate the need for feature engineering. However, embedding models predictions are notoriously hard to interpret. In this work, we propose model-agnostic methods that allow one to interpret embedding models by extracting weighted Horn rules from them. More specifically, we show how the so-called \"pedagogical techniques\", from the literature on neural networks, can be adapted to take into account the large-scale relational aspects of knowledge bases, and show experimentally their strengths and weaknesses. / Bases de conhecimento apresentam diversas aplicações, desde processamento de linguagem natural a pesquisa semântica da web; contudo, na prática, sua utilidade é prejudicada por não serem totalmente completas. Para solucionar esse problema, diversas técnicas focam em completar bases de conhecimento, das quais modelos de embedding são eficientes, atingem estado da arte em acurácia, e eliminam a necessidade de fazer-se engenharia de características dos dados de entrada. Entretanto, as predições dos modelos de embedding são notoriamente difíceis de serem interpretadas. Neste trabalho, propomos métodos agnósticos a modelo que permitem interpretar modelos de embedding através da extração de regras Horn ponderadas por pesos dos mesmos. Mais espeficicamente, mostramos como os chamados \"métodos pedagógicos\", da literatura de redes neurais, podem ser adaptados para lidar com os aspectos relacionais e de larga escala de bases de conhecimento, e mostramos experimentalmente seus pontos fortes e fracos.

Knowledge bases are employed in a variety of applications, from natural language processing to semantic web search; alas, in practice, their usefulness is hurt by their incompleteness. To address this issue, several techniques aim at performing knowledge base completion, of which embedding models are efficient, attain state-of-the-art accuracy, and eliminate the need for feature engineering. However, embedding models predictions are notoriously hard to interpret. In this work, we propose model-agnostic methods that allow one to interpret embedding models by extracting weighted Horn rules from them. More specifically, we show how the so-called \"pedagogical techniques\", from the literature on neural networks, can be adapted to take into account the large-scale relational aspects of knowledge bases, and show experimentally their strengths and weaknesses. / Bases de conhecimento apresentam diversas aplicações, desde processamento de linguagem natural a pesquisa semântica da web; contudo, na prática, sua utilidade é prejudicada por não serem totalmente completas. Para solucionar esse problema, diversas técnicas focam em completar bases de conhecimento, das quais modelos de embedding são eficientes, atingem estado da arte em acurácia, e eliminam a necessidade de fazer-se engenharia de características dos dados de entrada. Entretanto, as predições dos modelos de embedding são notoriamente difíceis de serem interpretadas. Neste trabalho, propomos métodos agnósticos a modelo que permitem interpretar modelos de embedding através da extração de regras Horn ponderadas por pesos dos mesmos. Mais espeficicamente, mostramos como os chamados \"métodos pedagógicos\", da literatura de redes neurais, podem ser adaptados para lidar com os aspectos relacionais e de larga escala de bases de conhecimento, e mostramos experimentalmente seus pontos fortes e fracos.

As the complexity of a spatial phenomenon increases, traditional modeling becomes impractical. Alternatively, data-driven modeling, which is based on the analysis of data characterizing the phenomena, can be used. In this thesis, the generation of understandable and reliable spatial models using observational data is addressed. An interpretability oriented data-driven fuzzy modeling approach is proposed. The methodology is based on construction of fuzzy models from data, tuning and fuzzy model simplification. Mamdani type fuzzy models with triangular membership functions are considered. Fuzzy models are constructed using fuzzy clustering algorithms and simulated annealing metaheuristic is adapted for the tuning step. To obtain compact and interpretable fuzzy models a simplification methodology is proposed. Simplification methodology reduced the number of fuzzy sets for each variable and simplified the rule base. Prototype software is developed and mean annual precipitation data of Turkey is examined as case study to assess the results of the approach in terms of both precision and interpretability. In the first step of the approach, in which fuzzy models are constructed from data, &quot / Fuzzy Clustering and Data Analysis Toolbox&quot / , which is developed for use with MATLAB, is used. For the other steps, the optimization of obtained fuzzy models from data using adapted simulated annealing algorithm step and the generation of compact and interpretable fuzzy models by simplification algorithm step, developed prototype software is used. If the accuracy is the primary objective then the proposed approach can produce more accurate solutions for training data than geographically weighted regression method. The minimum training error value produced by the proposed approach is 74.82 mm while the error obtained by geographically weighted regression method is 106.78 mm. The minimum error value on test data is 202.93 mm. An understandable fuzzy model for annual precipitation is generated only with 12 membership functions and 8 fuzzy rules. Furthermore, more interpretable fuzzy models are obtained when Gath-Geva fuzzy clustering algorithms are used during fuzzy model construction.

This thesis is an attempt to improve visual object retrieval by allowing users to interact with the system. Our solution lies in constructing an interactive system that allows users to define their own visual concept from a concise set of visual patches given as input. These patches, which represent the most informative clues of a given visual category, are trained beforehand with a supervised learning algorithm in a discriminative manner. Then, and in order to specialize their models, users have the possibility to send their feedback on the model itself by choosing and weighting the patches they are confident of. The real challenge consists in how to generate concise and visually interpretable models. Our contribution relies on two points. First, in contrast to the state-of-the-art approaches that use bag-of-words, we propose embedding local visual features without any quantization, which means that each component of the high-dimensional feature vectors used to describe an image is associated to a unique and precisely localized image patch. Second, we suggest using regularization constraints in the loss function of our classifier to favor sparsity in the models produced. Sparsity is indeed preferable for concision (a reduced number of patches in the model) as well as for decreasing prediction time. To meet these objectives, we developed a multiple-instance learning scheme using a modified version of the BLasso algorithm. BLasso is a boosting-like procedure that behaves in the same way as Lasso (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator). It efficiently regularizes the loss function with an additive L1-constraint by alternating between forward and backward steps at each iteration. The method we propose here is generic in the sense that it can be used with any local features or feature sets representing the content of an image region.

Title: Relational Approach to Universal Algebra Author: Jakub Opršal Department: Department of Algebra Supervisor: doc. Libor Barto, Ph.D., Department of Algebra Abstract: We give some descriptions of certain algebraic properties using rela- tions and relational structures. In the first part, we focus on Neumann's lattice of interpretability types of varieties. First, we prove a characterization of vari- eties defined by linear identities, and we prove that some conditions cannot be characterized by linear identities. Next, we provide a partial result on Taylor's modularity conjecture, and we discuss several related problems. Namely, we show that the interpretability join of two idempotent varieties that are not congruence modular is not congruence modular either, and the analogue for idempotent va- rieties with a cube term. In the second part, we give a relational description of higher commutator operators, which were introduced by Bulatov, in varieties with a Mal'cev term. Furthermore, we use this result to prove that for every algebra with a Mal'cev term there exists a largest clone containing the Mal'cev operation and having the same congruence lattice and the same higher commu- tator operators as the original algebra, and to describe explicit (though infinite) set of identities describing supernilpotence...

I en framtid där förutsägelser och beslut som tas av maskininlärningssystem överträffar människors förmåga behöver systemen att vara tolkbara för att vi skall kunna lita på och förstå dem. Vår studie utforskar världen av tolkbar maskininlärning genom att designa och undersöka artefakter. Vi genomför experiment för att utforska förklarbarhet, tolkbarhet samt tekniska utmaningar att skapa maskininlärningsmodeller för att identifiera liknande men unika objekt. Slutligen genomför vi ett användartest för att utvärdera toppmoderna förklaringsverktyg i ett direkt mänskligt sammanhang. Med insikter från dessa experiment diskuterar vi den potentiella framtiden för detta fält / In a future where predictions and decisions made by machine learning systems outperform humans we need the systems to be interpretable in order for us to trust and understand them. Our study explore the realm of interpretable machine learning through designing artifacts. We conduct experiments to explore explainability, interpretability as well as technical challenges of creating machine learning models to identify objects that appear similar to humans. Lastly, we conduct a user test to evaluate current state-of-the-art visual explanatory tools in a human setting. From these insights, we discuss the potential future of this field.

Throughout this project, we perform a multivariate analysis of the parameters of a long short-term memory (LSTM) system for handwritten digit recognition in order to understand the model’s behaviour. In particular, we are interested in explaining how this behaviour precipitate from its parameters, and what in the network is responsible for the model arriving at a certain decision. This problem is often referred to as the interpretability problem, and falls under scope of Explainable AI (XAI). The motivation is to make AI systems more transparent, so that we can establish trust between humans. For this purpose, we make use of the MNIST dataset, which has been successfully used in the past for tackling digit recognition problem. Moreover, the balance and the simplicity of the data makes it an appropriate dataset for carrying out this research. We start by investigating the linear output layer of the LSTM, which is directly associated with the models’ predictions. The analysis includes several experiments, where we apply various methods from linear algebra such as principal component analysis (PCA) and singular value decomposition (SVD), to interpret the parameters of the network. For example, we experiment with different setups of low-rank approximations of the weight output matrix, in order to see the importance of each singular vector for each class of the digits. We found out that cutting off the fifth left and right singular vectors the model practically losses its ability to predict eights. Finally, we present a framework for analysing the parameters of the hidden layer, along with our implementation of an LSTM based variational autoencoder that serves this purpose. / I det här projektet utför vi en multivariatanalys av parametrarna för ett long short-term memory system (LSTM) för igenkänning av handskrivna siffror för att förstå modellens beteende. Vi är särskilt intresserade av att förklara hur detta uppträdande kommer ur parametrarna, och vad i nätverket som ligger bakom den modell som kommer fram till ett visst beslut. Detta problem kallas ofta för interpretability problem och omfattas av förklarlig AI (XAI). Motiveringen är att göra AI-systemen öppnare, så att vi kan skapa förtroende mellan människor. I detta syfte använder vi MNIST-datamängden, som tidigare framgångsrikt har använts för att ta itu med problemet med igenkänning av siffror. Dessutom gör balansen och enkelheten i uppgifterna det till en lämplig uppsättning uppgifter för att utföra denna forskning. Vi börjar med att undersöka det linjära utdatalagret i LSTM, som är direkt kopplat till modellernas förutsägelser. Analysen omfattar flera experiment, där vi använder olika metoder från linjär algebra, som principalkomponentanalys (PCA) och singulärvärdesfaktorisering (SVD), för att tolka nätverkets parametrar. Vi experimenterar till exempel med olika uppsättningar av lågrangordnade approximationer av viktutmatrisen för att se vikten av varje enskild vektor för varje klass av siffrorna. Vi upptäckte att om man skär av den femte vänster och högervektorn förlorar modellen praktiskt taget sin förmåga att förutsäga siffran åtta. Slutligen lägger vi fram ett ramverk för analys av parametrarna för det dolda lagret, tillsammans med vårt genomförande av en LSTM-baserad variational autoencoder som tjänar detta syfte.

Understanding a black-box model is a major problem in domains that relies on model predictions in critical tasks. If solved, can help to evaluate the trustworthiness of a model. This thesis proposes a user-centric approach to black-box interpretability. It addresses the problem in semantic segmentation setting with an example of humanitarian remote sensing application for building detection. The question that drives this work was, Can existing methods for explaining black-box classifiers be used for a deep learning semantic segmentation model? We approached this problem with exploratory qualitative research involving a case study and human evaluation. The study showed that it is possible to explain a segmentation model with adapted methods for classifiers but not without a cost. The specificity of the model is likely to be lost in the process. The sole process could include introducing artificial classes or fragmenting image into super-pixels. Other approaches are necessary to mitigate identified drawback. The main contribution of this work is an interactive visualisation approach for exploring learned latent space via a deep segmenter, named U-Net, evaluated with a user study involving 45 respondents. We developed an artefact (accessible online) to evaluate the approach with the survey. It presents an example of this approach with a real-world satellite image dataset. In the evaluation study, the majority of users had a computer science background (80%), including a large percentage of users with machine learning specialisation (44.4% of all respondents). The model distinguishes rurality vs urbanization (58% of users). External quantitative comparison of building densities of each city concerning the location in the latent space confirmed the later. The representation of the model was found faithful to the underlying model (62% of users). Preliminary results show the utility of the pursued approach in the application domain. Limited possibility to present complex model visually requires further investigation. / Att förstå en svartboxmodell är ett stort problem inom domäner som förlitar sig på modellprognoser i kritiska uppgifter. Om det löses, kan det hjälpa till att utvärdera en modells pålitlighet. Den här avhandlingen föreslår en användarcentrisk strategi för svartboxtolkbarhet. Den tar upp problemet i semantisk segmentering med ett exempel på humanitär fjärranalysapplikation för byggnadsdetektering. Frågan som driver detta arbete var: Kan befintliga metoder för att förklara svartruta klassificerare användas för en djup semantisk segmenteringsmodell? Vi närmade oss detta problem med utforskande kvalitativ forskning som involverade en fallstudie och mänsklig utvärdering. Studien visade att det är möjligt att förklara en segmenteringsmodell med anpassade metoder för klassificerare men inte utan kostnad. Modellens specificitet kommer sannolikt att gå förlorad i processen. Den enda processen kan inkludera införande av konstgjorda klasser eller fragmentering av bild i superpixlar. Andra tillvägagångssätt är nödvändiga för att mildra identifierad nackdel. Huvudbidraget i detta arbete är en interaktiv visualiseringsmetod för att utforska lärt latent utrymme via en djup segmenter, benämnd U-Net, utvärderad med en användarstudie med 45 svarande. Vi utvecklade en artefakt (tillgänglig online) för att utvärdera tillvägagångssättet med undersökningen. Den presenterar ett exempel på denna metod med en verklig satellitbilddatasats. I utvärderingsstudien hade majoriteten av användarna en datavetenskaplig bakgrund (80%), inklusive en stor andel användare med specialisering av maskininlärning (44,4 % av alla svarande). Modellen skiljer ruralitet och urbanisering (58 % av användarna). Den externa kvantitativa jämförelsen av byggnadstätheten i varje stad angående platsen i det latenta utrymmet bekräftade det senare. Representationen av modellen visade sig vara trogen mot den underliggande modellen (62% av användarna). Preliminära resultat visar användbarheten av den eftersträvade metoden inom applikationsdomänen. Begränsad möjlighet att presentera komplexa modeller visuellt kräver ytterligare utredning.

Online supervised learning from fast-evolving imbalanced data streams has applications in many areas. That is, the development of techniques that are able to handle highly skewed class distributions (or 'class imbalance') is an important area of research in domains such as manufacturing, the environment, and health. Solutions should be able to analyze large repositories in near real-time and provide accurate models to describe rare classes that may appear infrequently or in bursts while continuously accommodating new instances. Although numerous online learning methods have been proposed to handle binary class imbalance, solutions suitable for multi-class streams with varying degrees of imbalance in evolving streams have received limited attention. To address this knowledge gap, the first contribution of this thesis introduces the Online Learning from Imbalanced Multi-Class Streams through Dynamic Sampling (DynaQ) algorithm for learning in such multi-class imbalanced settings. Our approach utilizes a queue-based learning method that dynamically creates an instance queue for each class. The number of instances is balanced by maintaining a queue threshold and removing older samples during training. In addition, new and rare classes are dynamically added to the training process as they appear. Our experimental results confirm a noticeable improvement in minority-class detection and classification performance. A comparative evaluation shows that the DynaQ algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches. Our second contribution in this thesis focuses on fairness-aware learning from imbalanced streams. Our work is motivated by the observation that the decisions made by online learning algorithms may negatively impact individuals or communities. Indeed, the development of approaches to handle these concerns is an active area of research in the machine learning community. However, most existing methods process the data in offline settings and are not directly suitable for online learning from evolving data streams. Further, these techniques fail to take the effects of class imbalance, on fairness-aware supervised learning into account. In addition, recent fairness-aware online learning supervised learning approaches focus on one sensitive attribute only, which may lead to subgroup discrimination. In a fair classification, the equality of fairness metrics across multiple overlapping groups must be considered simultaneously. In our second contribution, we thus address the combined problem of fairness-aware online learning from imbalanced evolving streams, while considering multiple sensitive attributes. To this end, we introduce the Multi-Sensitive Queue-based Online Fair Learning (MQ-OFL) algorithm, an online fairness-aware approach, which maintains valid and fair models over evolving streams. MQ-OFL changes the training distribution in an online fashion based on both stream imbalance and discriminatory behavior of the model evaluated over the historical stream. We compare our MQ-OFL method with state-of-art studies on real-world datasets and present comparative insights on the performance. Our final contribution focuses on explainability and interpretability in fairness-aware online learning. This research is guided by the concerns raised due to the black-box nature of models, concealing internal logic from users. This lack of transparency poses practical and ethical challenges, particularly when these algorithms make decisions in finance, healthcare, and marketing domains. These systems may introduce biases and prejudices during the learning phase by utilizing complex machine learning algorithms and sensitive data. Consequently, decision models trained on such data may make unfair decisions and it is important to realize such issues before deploying the models. To address this issue, we introduce techniques for interpreting the outcomes of fairness-aware online learning. Through a case study predicting income based on features such as ethnicity, biological sex, age, and education level, we demonstrate how our fairness-aware learning process (MQ-OFL) maintains a balance between accuracy and discrimination trade-off using global and local surrogate models.

Machine learning has revolutionized recommendation systems by employing ranking models for personalized item suggestions. However, the complexity of learning-to-rank (LTR) models poses challenges in understanding the underlying reasons contributing to the ranking outcomes. This lack of transparency raises concerns about potential errors, biases, and ethical implications. To address these issues, interpretable LTR models have emerged as a solution. Currently, the state-of-the-art for interpretable LTR models is led by generalized additive models (GAMs). However, ranking GAMs face limitations in terms of computational intensity and handling high-dimensional data. To overcome these drawbacks, post-hoc methods, including local interpretable modelagnostic explanations (LIME), have been proposed as potential alternatives. Nevertheless, a quantitative evaluation comparing post-hoc methods efficacy to state-of-the-art ranking GAMs remains largely unexplored. This study aims to investigate the capabilities and limitations of LIME in an attempt to approximate a complex ranking model using a surrogate model. The proposed methodology for this study is an experimental approach. The neural ranking GAM, trained on two benchmark information retrieval datasets, serves as the ground truth for evaluating LIME’s performance. The study adapts LIME in the context of ranking by translating the problem into a classification task and asses three different sampling strategies against the prevalence of imbalanced data and their influence on the correctness of LIME’s explanations. The findings of this study contribute to understanding the limitations of LIME in the context of ranking. It analyzes the low similarity between the explanations of LIME and those generated by the ranking model, highlighting the need to develop more robust sampling strategies specific to ranking. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of developing appropriate evaluation metrics for assessing the quality of explanations in ranking tasks.