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Metric-Fair Classifier Derandomization

Jimmy Wu · Yatong Chen · Yang Liu

Ballroom 3 & 4
[ ] [ Visit Theory ]

Abstract: We study the problem of \emph{classifier derandomization} in machine learning: given a stochastic binary classifier f:X[0,1], sample a deterministic classifier f^:X{0,1} that approximates the output of f in aggregate over any data distribution. Recent work revealed how to efficiently derandomize a stochastic classifier with strong output approximation guarantees, but at the cost of individual fairness --- that is, if f treated similar inputs similarly, f^ did not. In this paper, we initiate a systematic study of classifier derandomization with metric fairness guarantees. We show that the prior derandomization approach is almost maximally metric-unfair, and that a simple random threshold'' derandomization achieves optimal fairness preservation but with weaker output approximation. We then devise a derandomization procedure that provides an appealing tradeoff between these two: if f is α-metric fair according to a metric d with a locality-sensitive hash (LSH) family, then our derandomized f^ is, with high probability, O(α)-metric fair and a close approximation of f. We also prove generic results applicable to all (fair and unfair) classifier derandomization procedures, including a bias-variance decomposition and reductions between various notions of metric fairness.

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