arXiv:2507.03048cs.LGcs.AI2025-07

无需模型即可实时监控算法公平性,动态评估偏见程度。

Monitoring of Static Fairness

  • 基于马尔可夫链建模未知系统,设计可表达多种公平性的规范语言。
  • 实时输出定量公平度估计,误差随观测序列增长而缩小,置信度可调。
  • 适用于银行贷款、高校招生等场景,毫秒级响应,适合生产环境部署。

机器学习系统广泛用于涉及人类的决策,确保其公平性(即不因敏感属性产生偏见)至关重要。本文提出一种针对未知模型但具有马尔可夫链结构的系统运行时公平性验证通用框架,支持完全或部分状态观测。我们设计了一种可建模多种常见公平性质(如人口均等、平等机会、社会负担)的规范语言。构建的监控器通过观察系统生成的长期事件序列,在每次观测后输出截至当前时刻的公平性定量估计。该估计在给定置信水平下正确,误差边界随观测长度增加而收紧。我们提出两类监控算法:一类在所有时间点具统一误差界,另一类为更弱的非均匀、逐点误差界。算法采用适配动态监控需求与公平性特性的统计工具。原型实现表明,可有效监控银行对不同社会背景申请人发放贷款的公平性,以及高校招生是否在维持社会合理财政负担的前提下公平录取。实验中,监控器在每次观测后更新判断耗时不足1毫秒。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Machine-learned systems are in widespread use for making decisions about humans, and it is important that they are fair, i.e., not biased against individuals based on sensitive attributes. We present a general framework of runtime verification of algorithmic fairness for systems whose models are unknown, but are assumed to have a Markov chain structure, with or without full observation of the state space. We introduce a specification language that can model many common algorithmic fairness properties, such as demographic parity, equal opportunity, and social burden. We build monitors that observe a long sequence of events as generated by a given system, and output, after each observation, a quantitative estimate of how fair or biased the system was on that run until that point in time. The estimate is proven to be correct modulo a variable error bound and a given confidence level, where the error bound gets tighter as the observed sequence gets longer. We present two categories of monitoring algorithms, namely ones with a uniform error bound across all time points, and ones with weaker non-uniform, pointwise error bounds at different time points. Our monitoring algorithms use statistical tools that are adapted to suit the dynamic requirements of monitoring and the special needs of the fairness specifications. Using a prototype implementation, we show how we can monitor if a bank is fair in giving loans to applicants from different social backgrounds, and if a college is fair in admitting students while maintaining a reasonable financial burden on the society. In these experiments, our monitors took less than a millisecond to update their verdicts after each observation.

算法公平运行时监控马尔可夫链定量评估

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