论文标题
关于图神经网络中偏差的结构解释
On Structural Explanation of Bias in Graph Neural Networks
论文作者
论文摘要
图形神经网络(GNN)显示出在各种图分析问题中令人满意的性能。因此,在各种决策方案中,它们已成为\ emph {de exto}解决方案。但是,GNN可以针对某些人口亚组产生偏差的结果。最近的一些作品在经验上表明,输入网络的偏见结构是GNN的重要来源。然而,没有系统地仔细研究输入网络结构的哪一部分会导致对任何给定节点的偏见预测。对输入网络的结构如何影响GNN结果的偏见的透明度很大,在很大程度上限制了在各种决策方案中安全采用GNN。在本文中,我们研究了GNN中偏差结构解释的新研究问题。具体而言,我们提出了一个新颖的事后解释框架,以识别可以最大程度地解释展示偏见的两个边缘集,并分别对任何给定节点的GNN预测的公平水平最大程度地贡献。这种解释不仅提供了对GNN预测的偏见/公平性的全面理解,而且在建立有效但公平的GNN模型方面具有实际意义。对现实世界数据集的广泛实验验证了拟议框架在为GNN偏见提供有效的结构解释方面的有效性。可以在https://github.com/yushundong/referee上找到开源代码。
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have shown satisfying performance in various graph analytical problems. Hence, they have become the \emph{de facto} solution in a variety of decision-making scenarios. However, GNNs could yield biased results against certain demographic subgroups. Some recent works have empirically shown that the biased structure of the input network is a significant source of bias for GNNs. Nevertheless, no studies have systematically scrutinized which part of the input network structure leads to biased predictions for any given node. The low transparency on how the structure of the input network influences the bias in GNN outcome largely limits the safe adoption of GNNs in various decision-critical scenarios. In this paper, we study a novel research problem of structural explanation of bias in GNNs. Specifically, we propose a novel post-hoc explanation framework to identify two edge sets that can maximally account for the exhibited bias and maximally contribute to the fairness level of the GNN prediction for any given node, respectively. Such explanations not only provide a comprehensive understanding of bias/fairness of GNN predictions but also have practical significance in building an effective yet fair GNN model. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework towards delivering effective structural explanations for the bias of GNNs. Open-source code can be found at https://github.com/yushundong/REFEREE.