arXiv Machine Learning

Diverse and Plausible Algorithmic Recourse via Tractable Recourse Distributions

arXiv:2608. 04677v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Algorithmic recourse seeks to help individuals reverse unfavorable automated decisions by recommending actionable changes that achieve a desired outcome.

arXiv AI
3d ago

Algorithmic Recourse Under Competition

arXiv:2609.39877v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Algorithmic recourse provides individuals who have received undesirable outcomes from machine learning models with suggestions for minimum-cost impro...

By Shahin Jabbari
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Explanations-Driven Active Feature Acquisition for Algorithmic Recourse

The paper introduces Explanation-Driven Feature Acquisition (EDFA), a method that jointly optimizes algorithmic recourse and feature acquisition by selecting features based on explanatory value per unit cost. Using Markov Blanket theory, EDFA unifies various explanation types and provides distribution‑free validity guarantees for recourse derived from partial information. Experiments on seven datasets show that EDFA requires fewer features than existing active feature acquisition baselines while maintaining accuracy and producing more actionable recourse.

By Vinura Galwaduge, Jagath Samarabandu
arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 31

The Role of Causality in Algorithmic Recourse

arXiv:2607. 28497v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Algorithmic recourse aims to provide individuals with actionable changes to improve their predicted outcomes in high-stakes classification settings, such as loan and mortgage applications.

By Srikanth Avasarala, Varun Gupta, Shahin Jabbari, Saber Salehkaleybar, Juba Ziani
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 18

FCx: An algorithm for finding Feasible Counterfactual Explanations

FCx is a new algorithm that generates counterfactual explanations while explicitly enforcing feasibility constraints. It uses a modified Variational Autoencoder with a multi‑factor loss to produce realistic, low‑cost counterfactuals that satisfy both hard constraints supplied by users and soft constraints inferred via causal inference. Experiments on four public datasets demonstrate that FCx matches state‑of‑the‑art performance across multiple metrics while guaranteeing feasibility.

By Kleopatra Markou, Vana Kalogeraki, Dimitrios Gunopulos
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Aug 18

Judge, Retrieve, or Abstain: Uncertainty-Guarded LLM Judging with Provable Risk Guarantees

The paper introduces a risk‑controlled framework for using large language models (LLMs) as judges in tasks without reference answers. By calibrating uncertainty thresholds on a held‑out set, the method ensures that the false discovery rate of accepted verdicts stays below a user‑specified level α with high probability, using finite‑sample Clopper–Pearson intervals. When the parametric judge lacks confidence, the instance is routed to a retrieval‑augmented mode with a second calibrated threshold, preserving the error guarantee while achieving higher coverage than single‑mode baselines.

arXiv AI
3d ago

Revisiting scaling laws for reward optimization

The paper presents a new scaling law for reward optimization in AI alignment, showing that performance scales as Θ(√min{log(M), K}), where M is the number of preference comparisons used to train a proxy reward model and K is the KL‑divergence budget relative to a reference policy. The authors derive this law using an information‑theoretic model, prove its tightness, and validate it with extensive experiments involving a 70B gold reward model and smaller proxy models (0.6B–4B). The empirical results demonstrate a strong fit (R² 97–99 %) across different model sizes, noise levels, and optimization methods, suggesting that reward optimization behaves like a simple selection task over IID Gaussian variables with noisy feedback.

By Ali Aouad, Aymane El Gadarri, Vivek F. Farias