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Clash of the Explainers: Argumentation for Context-Appropriate Explanations

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Artificial Intelligence. ECAI 2023 International Workshops (ECAI 2023)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1947))

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Abstract

Understanding when and why to apply any given eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) technique is not a straightforward task. There is no single approach that is best suited for a given context. This paper aims to address the challenge of selecting the most appropriate explainer given the context in which an explanation is required. For AI explainability to be effective, explanations and how they are presented needs to be oriented towards the stakeholder receiving the explanation. If—in general—no single explanation technique surpasses the rest, then reasoning over the available methods is required in order to select one that is context-appropriate. Due to the transparency they afford, we propose employing argumentation techniques to reach an agreement over the most suitable explainers from a given set of possible explainers.

In this paper, we propose a modular reasoning system consisting of a given mental model of the relevant stakeholder, a reasoner component that solves the argumentation problem generated by a multi-explainer component, and an AI model that is to be explained suitably to the stakeholder of interest. By formalizing supporting premises—and inferences—we can map stakeholder characteristics to those of explanation techniques. This allows us to reason over the techniques and prioritise the best one for the given context, while also offering transparency into the selection decision.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is worth noting that as decision trees scale, their interpretability may also decline due to the sheer size of the structure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Leila Methnani, Virginia Dignum & Andreas Theodorou

Authors
  1. Leila Methnani
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  2. Virginia Dignum
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  3. Andreas Theodorou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leila Methnani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden

    Sławomir Nowaczyk

  2. Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    Przemysław Biecek

  3. Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland

    Neo Christopher Chung

  4. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Mauro Vallati

  5. AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland

    Paweł Skruch

  6. AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland

    Joanna Jaworek-Korjakowska

  7. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Simon Parkinson

  8. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Alexandros Nikitas

  9. Universität Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    Martin Atzmüller

  10. University of Economics Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Kliegr

  11. University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Ute Schmid

  12. Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

    Szymon Bobek

  13. Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nada Lavrac

  14. HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Marieke Peeters

  15. Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Roland van Dierendonck

  16. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Saskia Robben

  17. University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France

    Eunika Mercier-Laurent

  18. Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye

    Gülgün Kayakutlu

  19. Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Wrocław, Poland

    Mieczyslaw Lech Owoc

  20. University of Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Karl Mason

  21. University of Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Abdul Wahid

  22. University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Pierangela Bruno

  23. University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Francesco Calimeri

  24. Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Francesco Cauteruccio

  25. University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Giorgio Terracina

  26. University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Diedrich Wolter

  27. Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Germany

    Jochen L. Leidner

  28. FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Michael Kohlhase

  29. University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Vania Dimitrova

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Methnani, L., Dignum, V., Theodorou, A. (2024). Clash of the Explainers: Argumentation for Context-Appropriate Explanations. In: Nowaczyk, S., et al. Artificial Intelligence. ECAI 2023 International Workshops. ECAI 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1947. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50396-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50396-2_1

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