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arXiv · 1711.08042

"I know it when I see it". Visualization and Intuitive Interpretability

Fabian Offert
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Abstract

Most research on the interpretability of machine learning systems focuses on the development of a more rigorous notion of interpretability. I suggest that a better understanding of the deficiencies of the intuitive notion of interpretability is needed as well. I show that visualization enables but also impedes intuitive interpretability, as it presupposes two levels of technical pre-interpretation: dimensionality reduction and regularization. Furthermore, I argue that the use of positive concepts to emulate the distributed semantic structure of machine learning models introduces a significant human bias into the model. As a consequence, I suggest that, if intuitive interpretability is needed, singular representations of internal model states should be avoided.

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Fabian Offert. 2017-11-20. "I know it when I see it". Visualization and Intuitive Interpretability. https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.08042

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