TalkToEBM

A Natural Language Interface to Explainable Boosting Machines

TalkToEBM is an open-source package that provides a natural language interface to Explainable Boosting Machines (EBMs). With this package, you can convert the graphs of Explainable Boosting Machines to text and generate prompts for LLMs. We also have higher-level functions that directly ask the LLM to describe entire models. This package is under active development, so the current API is not guaranteed to stay stable.

Features:

• Convert EBMs and their graphs to text that can be understood by LLMs. Includes confidence intervals.
• Ask the LLM to describe and summarize individual graphs or entire models.
• Modular approach that allows to write custom prompts - ask the LLM to perform any desired task with the EBM.
• Automatic simplification of minor details in graphs to stay within the desired token limit.

Installation

Python 3.7+ | Linux, Mac, Windows

pip install t2ebm

High-Level API: Pass the EBM to the LLM

We have trained an ExplainableBoostingClassifier on the Kaggle Spaceship Titanic Dataset.

ebm = ExplainableBoostingClassifier(feature_names=feature_names)
ebm.fit(X_train, y_train)

Getting the LLM to describe a graph from the model is as simple as this. Let's describe the graph for feature 0, 'Home Planet'.

import t2ebm

t2ebm.describe_graph('gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09', ebm, 0)

GPT-4: The graph illustrates the effects of the categorical feature HomePlanet on a dependent variable, as modeled by a Generalized Additive Model (GAM). The feature HomePlanet includes three categories: "Earth," "Europa," and "Mars." Passengers from Europa exhibit a notably high positive mean effect of 0.5678 on the dependent variable, with a tight confidence interval ranging from 0.5116 to 0.624, suggesting a strong and consistent positive impact. In contrast, Earth shows a negative mean effect of -0.3246 with the confidence interval from -0.354 to -0.2952, indicating a robust negative association. Mars, while also positive, has a much milder effect of 0.1713, with its confidence interval spanning from 0.1256 to 0.2171. This pronounced disparity in the effects, especially the negative impact associated with Earth, is surprising and could hint at underlying socio-economic or contextual factors influencing these outcomes. Understanding these patterns might require further investigation into the dataset's characteristics, including possible biases or the nature of the dependent variable.

We can give the LLM more context by providing a description of the dataset and the outcome. This allows the LLM to talk about the spacetime anomaly.

dataset_description = """ The description of the dataset from Kaggle """

y_axis_descripton = """The y-axis depicts contributions in log-odds towards the probability
that the passenger was transported to another dimension."""

t2ebm.describe_graph('gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09', 
                      ebm,
                      0, 
                      graph_description=y_axis_descripton,
                      dataset_description=dataset_description)  

GPT-4: The graph from the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) showcases the contributions of different home planets—Earth, Europa, and Mars—towards the log-odds of passengers being transported to another dimension on the Spaceship Titanic. Passengers from Europa exhibit a strong positive contribution to the likelihood of being transported, with a mean log-odds contribution of 0.5678, indicating a higher propensity for these individuals to experience the anomalous event. Conversely, Earth shows a negative contribution (-0.3246 mean log-odds), suggesting that passengers from Earth are less likely to be transported compared to the baseline. Mars, while also showing a positive contribution (0.1713 mean log-odds), has a lesser effect than Europa, but still indicates an increased likelihood over Earth. This pattern could suggest unique environmental, technological, or cultural factors on Europa and Mars that influence their inhabitants' interactions with the spacetime anomaly encountered during the voyage. The observed negative contribution from Earth might hint at more effective protective measures or less vulnerability to such spacetime disturbances. These findings highlight planet-based differences in susceptibility to extraordinary events, revealing insights into interplanetary travel and safety in this futuristic scenario.

Instead of describing individual graphs, we can also ask the LLM to summarize the entire model. We can also ask for a summary in a given number of sentences.

t2ebm.describe_ebm('gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09',
                   ebm,
                   dataset_description=dataset_description, 
                   y_axis_description=y_axis_descripton) 

GPT-4: The Generalized Additive Model (GAM) applied to the Spaceship Titanic dataset has uncovered significant relationships between passenger features and the likelihood of being transported to an alternate dimension during a spacetime anomaly. Here's a condensed summary of the key findings: 1. CryoSleep (Feature Importance: 0.56): - Passengers in CryoSleep are significantly more likely to be transported (mean effect = 0.814) compared to those not in CryoSleep (mean effect = -0.447). This suggests unique interactions between the CryoSleep technology and the anomaly. 2. Spa (Feature Importance: 0.72): There is a strong negative correlation between spa spending and the likelihood of transportation, with a steep decline in likelihood as expenditures increase. This counterintuitive pattern points to complex, non-linear effects of luxury expenditures on outcomes. 3. VRDeck (Feature Importance: 0.63): - Higher spending on the VRDeck is associated with a lower likelihood of being transported, with an increasing negative effect as expenditure rises. 4. RoomService (Feature Importance: 0.48): - Minimal initial spending on room service slightly increases the likelihood of being transported, but as spending rises, the effect becomes negatively pronounced. This indicates complex interactions influenced by passenger behavior or security measures. 5. HomePlanet (Feature: 0.35): - Europa passengers are notably more likely to be transported (mean = 0.5678) compared to those from Earth (mean = -0.3246) and Mars (mean = 0.1713), suggesting differences in technology or emergency responses among the planets. 6. Cabin (Feature: 0.39): - Cabin location significantly affects transportation likelihood, with notable disparities between cabin sides (Port vs. Starboard) on the same deck, indicating uneven exposure to the anomaly or structural differences in the ship. Surprising Patterns: - Age: There's a non-linear relationship with age, where both very young and older seniors show higher transportation probabilities, highlighting age-specific dynamics in anomaly interaction. - Destination: Passengers to "55 Cancri e" have a higher transportation likelihood compared to other destinations, indicating unique risks associated with this route. This GAM analysis provides crucial insights into the dynamics of spacetime anomalies in interstellar travel, emphasizing the importance of considering complex and non- linear interactions between features and outcomes for safety and operational strategies.

Low-Level API: Extract Graphs from the EBM and perform custom prompts

import t2ebm.graphs as graphs

We have a simple datastructure for graphs, and some useful operations on them

graph = graphs.extract_graph(ebm, 9)  # feature 9, 'Spa'
graphs.plot_graph(graph)

The graphs learned by EBMs can contain many small details. We can simplify them to reduce the number of tokens. There is a parameter to control the degree of simplification.

t2ebm.graphs.plot_graph(t2ebm.graphs.simplify_graph(graph, min_variation_per_cent=0.041))

The package also supports categorical and boolean features

graphs.plot_graph(graphs.extract_graph(ebm, 0)) # home planet

We have to convert graphs to text before passing them to the LLM

graph_as_text = graphs.graph_to_text(graph, max_tokens=1000)
print(graph_as_text)

This graph represents a continuous-valued feature. The keys are intervals that represent ranges where the function predicts the same value.

Feature Name: Spa Feature Type: continuous Means: {"(0.0, 36.5)": 0.517, "(36.5, 117.5)": 0.212, ..., "(3978.0, 18572.0)": -5.917}

Lower Bounds (95%-Confidence Interval): {"(0.0, 36.5)": 0.068, "(36.5, 117.5)": 0.049, ..., "(3978.0, 18572.0)": -6.956}

Upper Bounds (95%-Confidence Interval): {"(0.0, 36.5)": 0.966, "(36.5, 117.5)": 0.374, ..., "(3978.0, 18572.0)": -4.877}

Given the textual representation of the graph, you can start to write your own prompts. Usually, the first prompt will ask the LLM to describe the graph.

t2ebm.prompts.describe_graph(graph_as_text,
                             graph_description="{The y-axis on the graph depicts how cool the graph is.}",
                             dataset_description="{The dataset is great!}",
                             task_description="{Please summarize the graph. Pay special attention to run 'pip install t2ebm'}",)

Below is the graph of a Generalized Additive Model (GAM). The graph is presented as a JSON object with keys representing the x-axis and values representing the y-axis. For continuous features, the keys are intervals that represent ranges where the function predicts the same value. For categorical features, each key represents a possible value that the feature can take.
    
The graph is provided in the following format:
    - The name of the feature depicted in the graph
    - The type of the feature (continuous, categorical, or boolean)
    - Mean values
    - Lower bounds of confidence interval (optional)
    - Upper bounds of confidence interval (optional)

Here is the graph:

This graph represents categorical feature. Each key represents a possible value that the feature can take.

Feature Name: HomePlanet
Feature Type: categorical
Means: {"Earth": -0.3246, "Europa": 0.5678, "Mars": 0.1713}
Lower Bounds (95%-Confidence Interval): {"Earth": -0.354, "Europa": 0.5116, "Mars": 0.1256}
Upper Bounds (95%-Confidence Interval): {"Earth": -0.2952, "Europa": 0.624, "Mars": 0.2171}


{The y-axis on the graph depicts how cool the graph is.}

Here is a description of the dataset that the model was trained on:

{The dataset is great!}

{Please summarize the graph. Pay special attention to run 'pip install t2ebm'}

Citation

If you use this software in your research, please consider citing our research papers.

@inproceedings{bordt2024talktoebm,
  author    = {Sebastian Bordt, Ben Lengerich, Harsha Nori, Rich Caruana},
  title     = {Data Science with LLMs and Interpretable Models},
  booktitle = {XAI4Sci Workshop at AAAI-24},
  year      = {2024}
 }

@inproceedings{lengerich2023llms,
  author    = {Benjamin J. Lengerich, Sebastian Bordt, Harsha Nori, Mark E. Nunnally, Yin Aphinyanaphongs, Manolis Kellis, and Rich Caruana},
  title     = {LLMs Understand Glass-Box Models, Discover Surprises, and Suggest Repairs},
  booktitle = {arxiv},
  year      = {2023}
 }