Bridging the Explanation Gap in AI Security: A Task-Driven Approach to XAI Methods Evaluation

Ondrej Lukas, Sebastian Garcia

2024

Abstract

Deciding which XAI technique is best depends not only on the domain, but also on the given task, the dataset used, the model being explained, and the target goal of that model. We argue that the evaluation of XAI methods has not been thoroughly analyzed in the network security domain, which presents a unique type of challenge. While there are XAI methods applied in network security there is still a large gap between the needs of security stakeholders and the selection of the optimal method. We propose to approach the problem by first defining the stack-holders in security and their prototypical tasks. Each task defines inputs and specific needs for explanations. Based on these explanation needs (e.g. understanding the performance, or stealing a model), we created five XAI evaluation techniques that are used to compare and select which XAI method is best for each task (dataset, model, and goal). Our proposed approach was evaluated by running experiments for different security stakeholders, machine learning models, and XAI methods. Results were compared with the AutoXAI technique and random selection. Results show that our proposal to evaluate and select XAI methods for network security is well-grounded and that it can help AI security practitioners find better explanations for their given tasks.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Lukas O. and Garcia S. (2024). Bridging the Explanation Gap in AI Security: A Task-Driven Approach to XAI Methods Evaluation. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART; ISBN 978-989-758-680-4, SciTePress, pages 1370-1377. DOI: 10.5220/0012475200003636

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart24,
author={Ondrej Lukas and Sebastian Garcia},
title={Bridging the Explanation Gap in AI Security: A Task-Driven Approach to XAI Methods Evaluation},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART},
year={2024},
pages={1370-1377},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012475200003636},
isbn={978-989-758-680-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART
TI - Bridging the Explanation Gap in AI Security: A Task-Driven Approach to XAI Methods Evaluation
SN - 978-989-758-680-4
AU - Lukas O.
AU - Garcia S.
PY - 2024
SP - 1370
EP - 1377
DO - 10.5220/0012475200003636
PB - SciTePress