Semantic Interactive Learning for Text Classification: A Constructive Approach for Contextual Interactions

Interactive Machine Learning (IML) can enable intelligent systems to interactively learn from their end-users, and is quickly becoming more and more relevant to many application domains. Although it places the human in the loop, interactions are mostly performed via mutual explanations that miss contextual information. Furthermore, current model-agnostic IML strategies such as CAIPI are limited to 'destructive' feedback, meaning that they solely allow an expert to prevent a learner from using irrelevant features. In this work, we propose a novel interaction framework called Semantic Interactive Learning for the domain of document classification, located at the intersection between Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML). We frame the problem of incorporating constructive and contextual feedback into the learner as a task involving finding an architecture that enables more semantic alignment between humans and machines while at the same time helping to maintain the statistical characteristics of the input domain when generating user-defined counterexamples based on meaningful corrections. Therefore, we introduce a technique called SemanticPush that is effective for translating conceptual corrections of humans to non-extrapolating training examples such that the learner's reasoning is pushed towards the desired behavior. Through several experiments we show how our method compares to CAIPI, a state of the art IML strategy, in terms of Predictive Performance and Local Explanation Quality in downstream multi-class classification tasks. Especially in the early stages of interactions, our proposed method clearly outperforms CAIPI while allowing for contextual interpretation and intervention. Overall, SemanticPush stands out with regard to data efficiency, as it requires fewer queries from the pool dataset to achieve high accuracy.

Automated summary

Interactive Machine Learning (IML) is becoming increasingly relevant in various application domains. This study proposes a novel framework called Semantic Interactive Learning for document classification, which incorporates constructive and contextual feedback into the learner. By introducing the SemanticPush technique, human conceptual corrections are effectively translated into non-extrapolating training examples, pushing the learner's reasoning towards the desired behavior.