arXiv:2502.06343cs.LGstat.ML2025-02NeurIPS被引 7

用机器学习预测辅助因果推断,实现无标注实验的可靠效果评估

Prediction-Powered Causal Inferences

  • 通过条件校准和表征约束,确保预测结果可直接用于因果推断
  • 在无标注复杂实验中实现有效因果推断,突破传统方法极限
  • 适用于缺乏人工标注的科学实验,尤其适合大模型微调场景

在许多科学实验中,数据标注成本限制了新假说的测试速度。现代机器学习流水线提供了解决方案,前提是其预测能得出正确结论。本文聚焦预测驱动的因果推断(PPCI),即在未标注的目标实验中估计处理效应,依赖于具有相同结果但可能不同处理或效应修饰因子的训练数据。我们首先证明条件校准可保证在总体层面的PPCI有效性。随后提出一种充分表征约束,可在实验间传递有效性,并在去混淆经验风险最小化(Deconfounded Empirical Risk Minimization)中实际施加。我们在合成与真实世界科学数据上验证该方法,解决了即使使用标准不变性约束也无法解决的难题。特别是首次在复杂记录且无人工标注的科学实验中实现有效因果推断,通过在相似标注实验上微调基础模型完成。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

In many scientific experiments, the data annotating cost constraints the pace for testing novel hypotheses. Yet, modern machine learning pipelines offer a promising solution, provided their predictions yield correct conclusions. We focus on Prediction-Powered Causal Inferences (PPCI), i.e., estimating the treatment effect in an unlabeled target experiment, relying on training data with the same outcome annotated but potentially different treatment or effect modifiers. We first show that conditional calibration guarantees valid PPCI at population level. Then, we introduce a sufficient representation constraint transferring validity across experiments, which we propose to enforce in practice in Deconfounded Empirical Risk Minimization, our new model-agnostic training objective. We validate our method on synthetic and real-world scientific data, solving impossible problem instances for Empirical Risk Minimization even with standard invariance constraints. In particular, for the first time, we achieve valid causal inference on a scientific experiment with complex recording and no human annotations, fine-tuning a foundational model on our similar annotated experiment.

因果推断机器学习无标注数据模型微调

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