Explainable AI (XAI) for Anomaly Detection: Understanding Outlier Predictions

btd
4 min readNov 23, 2023

Explainable AI (XAI) for anomaly detection focuses on enhancing the interpretability of models designed to identify outliers or anomalies in data. Understanding why a model flags certain instances as anomalies is crucial for decision-making and building trust in anomaly detection systems. Let’s explore key concepts, techniques, and considerations for XAI in the context of anomaly detection.

I. Key Concepts:

1. Anomaly Detection:

  • Anomaly detection involves identifying patterns in data that deviate significantly from the norm. XAI aims to provide insights into why a specific instance is flagged as an anomaly.

2. Feature Importance for Anomalies:

  • Determining which features contribute most to the identification of anomalies is essential for understanding the decision-making process of an anomaly detection model.

3. Local vs. Global Interpretability:

  • Local interpretability focuses on understanding the reasons behind individual predictions, while global interpretability provides insights into the overall behavior of the model across the entire dataset.

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