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arXiv 2409.12428cs.LGcs.AIcs.CYcs.HC
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它仍然公平吗?通过协变量漂移视角对公平性算法的比较评估

Is it Still Fair? A Comparative Evaluation of Fairness Algorithms through the Lens of Covariate Drift

University of South Australia(南澳大学);Charles Sturt University(查尔斯达尔文大学)

Oscar Blessed Deho, Michael Bewong, Selasi Kwashie, Jiuyong Li, Jixue Liu, Lin Liu, Srecko Joksimovic

AI总结:

本研究通过比较4种基线和7种公平性算法在5个数据集上的表现,发现数据分布漂移会严重恶化公平性,且漂移大小与不公平性不相关,为利益相关者提供了政策启示。

摘要:

在过去的几十年里,机器学习(ML)应用呈指数级增长,为社会带来了诸多益处。然而,这些益处伴随着对机器学习模型可能表现出的歧视性行为的担忧。在这方面,机器学习中的公平性已成为一个优先研究领域。因此,已经开发了多种公平性指标和算法,以减轻机器学习模型可能具有的歧视性行为。然而,对于数据模式自然发生的变化(即数据分布漂移)及其对公平性算法和指标的影响,人们仍然很少关注。在这项工作中,我们全面研究了这一问题,分析了4种不考虑公平性的基线算法和7种考虑公平性的算法,这些算法经过精心挑选以涵盖其类型学的广度,使用了包括公共和专有数据在内的5个数据集,并使用3个预测性能和10个公平性指标对它们进行了评估。通过这样做,我们表明:(1)数据分布漂移并非微不足道的现象,在多种情况下可能导致所谓的公平模型中的公平性严重恶化;(2)与一些现有文献相反,数据分布漂移的大小和方向与由此产生的不公平性的大小和方向不相关;(3)公平性算法的选择和训练受到数据分布漂移的影响,而这一点在文献中很大程度上被忽视了。根据我们的发现,我们综合了数据分布漂移对公平性算法的若干政策影响,这些影响对利益相关者和从业者可能非常相关。

英文摘要:

Over the last few decades, machine learning (ML) applications have grown exponentially, yielding several benefits to society. However, these benefits are tempered with concerns of discriminatory behaviours exhibited by ML models. In this regard, fairness in machine learning has emerged as a priority research area. Consequently, several fairness metrics and algorithms have been developed to mitigate against discriminatory behaviours that ML models may possess. Yet still, very little attention has been paid to the problem of naturally occurring changes in data patterns (\textit{aka} data distributional drift), and its impact on fairness algorithms and metrics. In this work, we study this problem comprehensively by analyzing 4 fairness-unaware baseline algorithms and 7 fairness-aware algorithms, carefully curated to cover the breadth of its typology, across 5 datasets including public and proprietary data, and evaluated them using 3 predictive performance and 10 fairness metrics. In doing so, we show that (1) data distributional drift is not a trivial occurrence, and in several cases can lead to serious deterioration of fairness in so-called fair models; (2) contrary to some existing literature, the size and direction of data distributional drift is not correlated to the resulting size and direction of unfairness; and (3) choice of, and training of fairness algorithms is impacted by the effect of data distributional drift which is largely ignored in the literature. Emanating from our findings, we synthesize several policy implications of data distributional drift on fairness algorithms that can be very relevant to stakeholders and practitioners.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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