Diffeomorphic Counterfactuals with Generative Models
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Abstract (arXiv)
Counterfactuals can explain classification decisions of neural networks in a human interpretable way. We propose a simple but effective method to generate such counterfactuals. More specifically, we perform a suitable diffeomorphic coordinate transformation and then perform gradient ascent in these coordinates to find counterfactuals which are classified with great confidence as a specified target class. We propose two methods to leverage generative models to construct such suitable coordinate systems that are either exactly or approximately diffeomorphic. We analyze the generation process theoretically using Riemannian differential geometry and validate the quality of the generated counterfactuals using various qualitative and quantitative measures.
Key facts. Cited by 29 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 70 of its 119 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Jun 2022.
Builds on
70 of 119 references.
References · 70
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50 most cited of 70 All 70 (JSON)
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Citing papers per year: 2022: 1; 2023: 2; 2024: 9; 2025: 7; 2026: 10.
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- 2025RIE-SenseNet: Riemannian Manifold Embedding of Multi-Source Industrial Sensor Signals for Robust Pattern Recognition4 Feb 2025
- 2024Adversarial Purification by Consistency-aware Latent Space Optimization on Data Manifolds11 Dec 2024
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- 2024D-Flow: Differentiating through Flows for Controlled Generation21 Feb 2024
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- 2024Decoupling Pixel Flipping and Occlusion Strategy for Consistent XAI Benchmarks12 Jan 2024
- 2023Towards Fixing Clever-Hans Predictors with Counterfactual Knowledge Distillation2 Oct 2023
- 2023Preemptively Pruning Clever-Hans Strategies in Deep Neural Networks12 Apr 2023
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- 2025Diffusion Counterfactuals for Image Regressorscited by 5
- 2025LeapFactual: Reliable Visual Counterfactual Explanation Using Conditional Flow Matchingcited by 4
- 2026Faithful, Sufficient and Understandable: Rethinking Graph Counterfactual Explanations via Discrete Diffusion Inversioncited by 1
- 2024Adversarial Purification by Consistency-aware Latent Space Optimization on Data Manifoldscited by 0
- 2026Faithful, Sufficient and Understandable: Rethinking Graph Counterfactual Explanations via Discrete Diffusion Inversion12 Aug 2026
- 2025LeapFactual: Reliable Visual Counterfactual Explanation Using Conditional Flow Matching16 Oct 2025
- 2025Diffusion Counterfactuals for Image Regressors26 Mar 2025
- 2024Adversarial Purification by Consistency-aware Latent Space Optimization on Data Manifolds11 Dec 2024
- 2024D-Flow: Differentiating through Flows for Controlled Generation21 Feb 2024
- 2024Decoupling Pixel Flipping and Occlusion Strategy for Consistent XAI Benchmarkscited by 28
- 2022Disentangled Explanations of Neural Network Predictions by Finding Relevant Subspacescited by 25
- 2023Towards Fixing Clever-Hans Predictors with Counterfactual Knowledge Distillationcited by 14
- 2024Probabilistically Plausible Counterfactual Explanations with Normalizing Flowscited by 11
- 2023Preemptively Pruning Clever-Hans Strategies in Deep Neural Networkscited by 9
- 2024Counterfactual Explanations via Riemannian Latent Space Traversalcited by 9
- 2024Symmetry Discovery for Different Data Typescited by 7
- 2025Towards Desiderata-Driven Design of Visual Counterfactual Explainerscited by 7
- 2024Generating Likely Counterfactuals Using Sum-Product Networkscited by 6
- 2025Mitigating Clever Hans Strategies in Image Classifiers through Generating Counterexamplescited by 6
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- 2026Residual-Space Evolutionary Optimization via Flow-based Generative Models18 Jun 2026
- 2026Manifold-Aligned Guided Integrated Gradients for Reliable Feature Attribution4 May 2026
- 2026SCE-LITE-HQ: Smooth visual counterfactual explanations with generative foundation models17 Mar 2026
- 2026Protein Counterfactuals via Diffusion-Guided Latent Optimization11 Mar 2026
- 2026Visual Disentangled Diffusion Autoencoders: Scalable Counterfactual Generation for Foundation Models29 Jan 2026
- 2026Counterfactual Explanations on Robust Perceptual Geodesics26 Jan 2026
- 2025Graph Diffusion Counterfactual Explanation20 Nov 2025
- 2025Mitigating Clever Hans Strategies in Image Classifiers through Generating Counterexamples20 Oct 2025
- 2025Towards Desiderata-Driven Design of Visual Counterfactual Explainers17 Jun 2025
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