2018/02/22 by Silvia Chiappa, Chiappa, Silvia, Thomas P. S. Gillam +1 · 1 voice · 21 citations
Mathematics · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Machine Learning (stat.ML) #stat.ML
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1802.08139
arxiv created 2018/02/22 · arxiv published 2018/02/22 · arxiv updated 2018/02/23
We consider the problem of learning fair decision systems in complex scenarios in which a sensitive attribute might affect the decision along both fair and unfair pathways. We introduce a causal approach to disregard effects along unfair pathways that simplifies and generalizes previous literature. Our method corrects observations adversely affected by the sensitive attribute, and uses these to form a decision. This avoids disregarding fair information, and does not require an often intractable computation of the path-specific effect. We leverage recent developments in deep learning and approximate inference to achieve a solution that is widely applicable to complex, non-linear scenarios.