Explainable AI (XAI): Generating Counterfactual Explanations for Interpretable Machine Learning

btd
4 min readNov 22, 2023

Counterfactual explanations in the context of machine learning and AI are a type of interpretability technique that provides insights into model predictions by generating hypothetical instances, known as counterfactuals. These counterfactuals represent variations of the input data that would lead to a different model prediction while maintaining certain constraints.

I. Key Concepts:

1. Counterfactual Instance:

  • A counterfactual instance is an artificial data point that is similar to the original instance but has a different outcome. It is created by perturbing the input features within certain bounds.

2. Objective:

  • The goal of counterfactual explanations is to answer questions like “What changes to the input features would have resulted in a different prediction?” This helps users understand the model’s decision-making process.

II. Process of Generating Counterfactual Explanations:

1. Selecting an Instance:

  • Choose a specific instance for which you want to generate a counterfactual explanation. This instance is typically…

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