Silas: High Performance, Explainable and Verifiable Machine Learning

Silas: High Performance, Explainable and V erifiable Machine Learning Hadrien Bride, Zh e H ou Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, Australia Jie Dong Dependable Intelligence Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia Jin Song Dong National University of Singapore, Singapore Ali Mirjalili Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, AustraliaAbstract This paper introduces a new classification tool named Silas, which is built to provide a more transparent and dependable data analytics service. A focus of Silas is on providing a formal foundation of decision trees in order to support logical analysis and verification of learned prediction models. This paper describes the distinct features of Silas: The Model Audit module formally verifies the prediction model against user specifications, the Enforcement Learning module trains prediction models that are guaranteed correct, the Model Insight and Prediction Insight modules reason about the prediction model and explain the decision-making of predictions. We also discuss implementation details ranging from programming paradigm to memory management that help achieve high-performance computation.1. Introduction Machine learning has enjoyed great success in many research areas and industries, including entertainment [1], self-driving cars [2], banking [3], medical diagnosis [4], shopping [5], and among many others. However, the wide adoption of machine learn-Preprint submitted to Elsevier October 4, 2019 arXiv:1910.01382v1 The ramifications of the black-box approach are multifold. First, it may lead to unexpected results that are only observable after the deployment of the algorithm. For instance, Amazon's Alexa offered porn to a child [6], a self-driving car had a deadly accident [7], etc. Some of these accidents result in lawsuits or even lost lives, the cost of which is immeasurable. Second, it prevents the adoption in some applications and industries where an explanation is mandatory or certain specifications must be satisfied. For example, in some countries, it is required by law to give a reason why a loan application is rejected. In recent years, eXplainable AI (XAI) has been gaining attention, and there is a surge of interest in studying how prediction models work and how to provide formal guarantees for the models. A common theme in this space is to use statistical methods to analyse prediction models.