Copying Machine Learning Classifiers
This addresses the need for adaptable and improved classifiers in scenarios with constraints like interpretability or fairness, though it is incremental as it builds on existing copying concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of creating model-agnostic copies of machine learning classifiers without access to their parameters or training data, and demonstrates that these copies can enhance solutions by adding features like interpretability and fairness.
We study model-agnostic copies of machine learning classifiers. We develop the theory behind the problem of copying, highlighting its differences with that of learning, and propose a framework to copy the functionality of any classifier using no prior knowledge of its parameters or training data distribution. We identify the different sources of loss and provide guidelines on how best to generate synthetic sets for the copying process. We further introduce a set of metrics to evaluate copies in practice. We validate our framework through extensive experiments using data from a series of well-known problems. We demonstrate the value of copies in use cases where desiderata such as interpretability, fairness or productivization constrains need to be addressed. Results show that copies can be exploited to enhance existing solutions and improve them adding new features and characteristics.