Trustworthy Convolutional Neural Networks: A Gradient Penalized-based Approach

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are commonly used for image classification. Saliency methods are examples of approaches that can be used to interpret CNNs post hoc, identifying the most relevant pixels for a prediction following the gradients flow. Even though CNNs can correctly classify images, the underlying saliency maps could be erroneous in many cases. This can result in skepticism as to the validity of the model or its interpretation. We propose a novel approach for training trustworthy CNNs by penalizing parameter choices that result in inaccurate saliency maps generated during training. We add a penalty term for inaccurate saliency maps produced when the predicted label is correct, a penalty term for accurate saliency maps produced when the predicted label is incorrect, and a regularization term penalizing overly confident saliency maps. Experiments show increased classification performance, user engagement, and trust.

Nicholas Halliwell, Freddy Lecue · 2020