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Abstract

This research proposes a novel drift detection methodology for machine learning (ML) models based on the concept of ''deformation'' in the vector space representation of data. Recognizing that new data can act as forces stretching, compressing, or twisting the geometric relationships learned by a model, we explore various mathematical frameworks to quantify this deformation. We investigate measures such as eigenvalue analysis of covariance matrices to capture global shape changes, local density estimation using kernel density estimation (KDE), and Kullback-Leibler divergence to identify subtle shifts in data concentration. Additionally, we draw inspiration from continuum mechanics by proposing a ''strain tensor'' analogy to capture multi-faceted deformations across different data types. This requires careful estimation of the displacement field, and we delve into strategies ranging from density-based approaches to manifold learning and neural network methods. By continuously monitoring these deformation metrics and correlating them with model performance, we aim to provide a sensitive, interpretable, and adaptable drift detection system capable of distinguishing benign data evolution from true drift, enabling timely interventions and ensuring the reliability of machine learning systems in dynamic environments. Addressing the computational challenges of this methodology, we discuss mitigation strategies like dimensionality reduction, approximate algorithms, and parallelization for real-time and large-scale applications. The method's effectiveness is demonstrated through experiments on real-world text data, focusing on detecting context shifts in Generative AI. Our results, supported by publicly available code, highlight the benefits of this deformation-based approach in capturing subtle drifts that traditional statistical methods often miss. Furthermore, we present a detailed application example within the healthcare domain, showcasing the methodology's potential in diverse fields. Future work will focus on further improving computational efficiency and exploring additional applications across different ML domains.