Actual causality canvas: A general framework for explanation-based socio-technical constructs

Amjad Ibrahim, Tobias Klesel, Ehsan Zibaei, Severin Kacianka, Alexander Pretschner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The rapid deployment of digital systems into all aspects of daily life requires embedding social constructs into the digital world. Because of the complexity of these systems, there is a need for technical support to understand their actions. Social concepts, such as explainability, accountability, and responsibility rely on a notion of actual causality. Encapsulated in the Halpern and Pearl's (HP) definition, actual causality conveniently integrates into the socio-technical world if operationalized in concrete applications. To the best of our knowledge, theories of actual causality such as the HP definition are either applied in correspondence with domain-specific concepts (e.g., a lineage of a database query) or demonstrated using straightforward philosophical examples. On the other hand, there is a lack of explicit automated actual causality theories and operationalizations for helping understand the actions of systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a unifying framework and an interactive platform (Actual Causality Canvas) to address the problem of operationalizing actual causality for different domains and purposes. We apply this framework in such areas as aircraft accidents, unmanned aerial vehicles, and artificial intelligence (AI) systems for purposes of forensic investigation, fault diagnosis, and explainable AI. We show that with minimal effort, using our general-purpose interactive platform, actual causality reasoning can be integrated into these domains.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationECAI 2020 - 24th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, including 10th Conference on Prestigious Applications of Artificial Intelligence, PAIS 2020 - Proceedings
EditorsGiuseppe De Giacomo, Alejandro Catala, Bistra Dilkina, Michela Milano, Senen Barro, Alberto Bugarin, Jerome Lang
PublisherIOS Press BV
Pages2978-2985
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781643681009
DOIs
StatePublished - 24 Aug 2020
Event24th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ECAI 2020, including 10th Conference on Prestigious Applications of Artificial Intelligence, PAIS 2020 - Santiago de Compostela, Online, Spain
Duration: 29 Aug 20208 Sep 2020

Publication series

NameFrontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications
Volume325
ISSN (Print)0922-6389
ISSN (Electronic)1879-8314

Conference

Conference24th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ECAI 2020, including 10th Conference on Prestigious Applications of Artificial Intelligence, PAIS 2020
Country/TerritorySpain
CitySantiago de Compostela, Online
Period29/08/208/09/20

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