Interventional Multi-Instance Learning with Deconfounded Instance-Level Prediction
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Abstract (arXiv)
When applying multi-instance learning (MIL) to make predictions for bags of instances, the prediction accuracy of an instance often depends on not only the instance itself but also its context in the corresponding bag. From the viewpoint of causal inference, such bag contextual prior works as a confounder and may result in model robustness and interpretability issues. Focusing on this problem, we propose a novel interventional multi-instance learning (IMIL) framework to achieve deconfounded instance-level prediction. Unlike traditional likelihood-based strategies, we design an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm based on causal intervention, providing a robust instance selection in the training phase and suppressing the bias caused by the bag contextual prior. Experiments on pathological image analysis demonstrate that our IMIL method substantially reduces false positives and outperforms state-of-the-art MIL methods.
Key facts. Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 32 of its 53 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 Apr 2022.
Builds on
32 of 53 references.
References · 32
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Citing papers per year: 2022: 1; 2023: 3; 2024: 4; 2025: 4; 2026: 1.
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- 2023Interventional Bag Multi-Instance Learning On Whole-Slide Pathological Imagescited by 91
- 2024Transcriptomics-guided Slide Representation Learning in Computational Pathologycited by 50
- 2023The Rise of AI Language Pathologists: Exploring Two-level Prompt Learning for Few-shot Weakly-supervised Whole Slide Image Classificationcited by 41
- 2024Pathology-knowledge Enhanced Multi-instance Prompt Learning for Few-shot Whole Slide Image Classificationcited by 13
- 2022Interpreting Vulnerabilities of Multi-Instance Learning to Adversarial Perturbationscited by 3
- 2023Data-driven Knowledge Fusion for Deep Multi-instance Learningcited by 3
- 2025Cracking Instance Jigsaw Puzzles: An Alternative to Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Analysiscited by 3
- 2024Rethinking Attention-Based Multiple Instance Learning for Whole-Slide Pathological Image Classification: An Instance Attribute Viewpointcited by 2
- 2024Compact and De-biased Negative Instance Embedding for Multi-Instance Learning on Whole-Slide Image Classificationcited by 0
- 2025Weakly Semi-supervised Whole Slide Image Classification by Two-level Cross Consistency Supervisioncited by 0
- 2025SimMIL: A Universal Weakly Supervised Pre-Training Framework for Multi-Instance Learning in Whole Slide Pathology Imagescited by 0
- 2025DLiPath: A Benchmark for the Comprehensive Assessment of Donor Liver Based on Histopathological Image Datasetcited by 0
- 2026Diffusion Attention Expert Model for Predicting and Semi-automatic Localizing STAS in Lung Cancer Histopathological Images15 May 2026
- 2025Cracking Instance Jigsaw Puzzles: An Alternative to Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Analysis10 Jul 2025
- 2025DLiPath: A Benchmark for the Comprehensive Assessment of Donor Liver Based on Histopathological Image Dataset30 May 2025
- 2025SimMIL: A Universal Weakly Supervised Pre-Training Framework for Multi-Instance Learning in Whole Slide Pathology Images10 May 2025
- 2025Weakly Semi-supervised Whole Slide Image Classification by Two-level Cross Consistency Supervision16 Apr 2025
- 2024Pathology-knowledge Enhanced Multi-instance Prompt Learning for Few-shot Whole Slide Image Classification15 Jul 2024
- 2024Transcriptomics-guided Slide Representation Learning in Computational Pathology19 May 2024
- 2024Rethinking Attention-Based Multiple Instance Learning for Whole-Slide Pathological Image Classification: An Instance Attribute Viewpoint30 Mar 2024
- 2024Compact and De-biased Negative Instance Embedding for Multi-Instance Learning on Whole-Slide Image Classification16 Feb 2024
- 2023The Rise of AI Language Pathologists: Exploring Two-level Prompt Learning for Few-shot Weakly-supervised Whole Slide Image Classification29 May 2023
- 2023Data-driven Knowledge Fusion for Deep Multi-instance Learning24 Apr 2023
- 2023Interventional Bag Multi-Instance Learning On Whole-Slide Pathological Images13 Mar 2023
1 more
- 2023Interventional Bag Multi-Instance Learning On Whole-Slide Pathological Imagescited by 91
- 2024Transcriptomics-guided Slide Representation Learning in Computational Pathologycited by 50
- 2023The Rise of AI Language Pathologists: Exploring Two-level Prompt Learning for Few-shot Weakly-supervised Whole Slide Image Classificationcited by 41
- 2024Pathology-knowledge Enhanced Multi-instance Prompt Learning for Few-shot Whole Slide Image Classificationcited by 13
- 2022Interpreting Vulnerabilities of Multi-Instance Learning to Adversarial Perturbationscited by 3
- 2023Data-driven Knowledge Fusion for Deep Multi-instance Learningcited by 3
- 2025Cracking Instance Jigsaw Puzzles: An Alternative to Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Analysiscited by 3
- 2024Rethinking Attention-Based Multiple Instance Learning for Whole-Slide Pathological Image Classification: An Instance Attribute Viewpointcited by 2
- 2024Compact and De-biased Negative Instance Embedding for Multi-Instance Learning on Whole-Slide Image Classificationcited by 0
- 2025Weakly Semi-supervised Whole Slide Image Classification by Two-level Cross Consistency Supervisioncited by 0
- 2025SimMIL: A Universal Weakly Supervised Pre-Training Framework for Multi-Instance Learning in Whole Slide Pathology Imagescited by 0
- 2025DLiPath: A Benchmark for the Comprehensive Assessment of Donor Liver Based on Histopathological Image Datasetcited by 0
12 most cited of 13 All 13 (JSON)
- 2026Diffusion Attention Expert Model for Predicting and Semi-automatic Localizing STAS in Lung Cancer Histopathological Images15 May 2026
- 2025Cracking Instance Jigsaw Puzzles: An Alternative to Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Analysis10 Jul 2025
- 2025DLiPath: A Benchmark for the Comprehensive Assessment of Donor Liver Based on Histopathological Image Dataset30 May 2025
- 2025SimMIL: A Universal Weakly Supervised Pre-Training Framework for Multi-Instance Learning in Whole Slide Pathology Images10 May 2025
- 2025Weakly Semi-supervised Whole Slide Image Classification by Two-level Cross Consistency Supervision16 Apr 2025
- 2024Pathology-knowledge Enhanced Multi-instance Prompt Learning for Few-shot Whole Slide Image Classification15 Jul 2024
- 2024Transcriptomics-guided Slide Representation Learning in Computational Pathology19 May 2024
- 2024Rethinking Attention-Based Multiple Instance Learning for Whole-Slide Pathological Image Classification: An Instance Attribute Viewpoint30 Mar 2024
- 2024Compact and De-biased Negative Instance Embedding for Multi-Instance Learning on Whole-Slide Image Classification16 Feb 2024
- 2023The Rise of AI Language Pathologists: Exploring Two-level Prompt Learning for Few-shot Weakly-supervised Whole Slide Image Classification29 May 2023
- 2023Data-driven Knowledge Fusion for Deep Multi-instance Learning24 Apr 2023
- 2023Interventional Bag Multi-Instance Learning On Whole-Slide Pathological Images13 Mar 2023
12 newest of 13 All 13 (JSON)