arXiv:2606.17810cs.LGcs.AI2026-06

公平性受限于任务本质、数据量和模型能力,无法自动实现。

No-Free-Fairness: Fundamental Limits and Trade-offs in Learning Systems

  • 从决策问题结构出发,揭示公平与性能的固有权衡。
  • 有限样本下即使理想设置也难逃子群体差异,需指数级数据才能保证公平。
  • 模型表达力不足时,公平性无法达成,需主动设计系统。

本文提出一组理论不可能性结果——无免费公平性定理,揭示学习系统中不公的三大根源:其一,当任务在某子群体上存在不可消除的成本时,任何决策规则都必须在整体性能与群体差异间权衡,形成固有的公平-成本边界;其二,在理想无噪声环境中,即使存在完全公平且准确的解,仅靠有限样本学习仍会引入显著子群体差异,排除分布无关的公平保障;更严重的是,强制严格相对公平会形成统计瓶颈:达到低误差可能需要指数级样本数量;其三,模型类表达能力不足时,若无法为某子群体表示准确解,则无论数据或训练方式如何,公平性均无法实现。这些结果表明,不公并非仅源于数据偏见或优化不佳,而是决策问题内在结构、有限数据约束及模型表达力共同导致。本框架适用于标准监督学习之外的广泛场景,提示公平性需作为核心设计考量,依赖显式权衡。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

In this paper, we establish a set of theoretical impossibility results, termed the No-Free-Fairness theorems, that identify three fundamental sources of disparity in learning systems. First, we show that when a task exhibits irreducible cost on a subgroup, any decision rule must trade off overall performance with disparity, yielding an inherent fairness--cost frontier. Second, we prove that even in ideal, noise-free settings where a perfectly fair and accurate solution exists, finite-sample learning alone induces nontrivial subgroup disparity, ruling out distribution-free fairness guarantees. More seriously, enforcing strict relative fairness creates a statistical bottleneck: achieving low cost may require exponentially many samples. Third, we show that limitations of the model class can independently induce disparity: if the model cannot represent accurate solutions for a subgroup, fairness remains unattainable regardless of data or training procedure. Overall, these results demonstrate that unfairness is not solely a consequence of biased data or suboptimal optimization, but arises from the intrinsic structure of decision problems, the constraints of finite data, and the expressivity of models. Our framework applies broadly beyond standard supervised learning, and suggests that achieving fairness requires explicit trade-offs and should be treated as a core design consideration.

公平性理论分析机器学习

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