Summary of Perfect Counterfactuals in Imperfect Worlds: Modelling Noisy Implementation Of Actions in Sequential Algorithmic Recourse, by Yueqing Xuan et al.
Perfect Counterfactuals in Imperfect Worlds: Modelling Noisy Implementation of Actions in Sequential Algorithmic Recourse
by Yueqing Xuan, Kacper Sokol, Mark Sanderson, Jeffrey Chan
First submitted to arxiv on: 3 Oct 2024
Categories
- Main: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
- Secondary: None
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| Summary difficulty | Written by | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| High | Paper authors | High Difficulty Summary Read the original abstract here |
| Medium | GrooveSquid.com (original content) | Medium Difficulty Summary This paper proposes a new approach to generating recourse in automated decision-making systems, taking into account the imperfect implementation of users’ actions. The authors frame this problem as a Markov Decision Process and develop the RObust SEquential (ROSE) recourse generator, which outputs a sequence of steps that can lead to the desired outcome even under noisy or sub-optimal implementation. The algorithm is designed to balance recourse robustness with costs, ensuring low sparsity and fast computation. Empirical evaluation shows that ROSE outperforms existing methods in managing this trade-off while achieving higher chances of success at lower recourse costs. |
| Low | GrooveSquid.com (original content) | Low Difficulty Summary This paper helps people who have been affected by computers making decisions for them. It’s like a game where the computer gives you options to make things better, but it doesn’t always work perfectly because humans are messy and make mistakes. The researchers created a new way to generate these options that accounts for how humans might not follow the plan exactly. They call this “plausible noise” and think about it as a sequence of steps. Their algorithm, called ROSE, is good at making sure the options lead to the best outcome even if they’re not followed perfectly. The researchers tested their method and found that it works better than other methods in achieving the desired outcome while keeping costs low. |
