# Interpreting deep learning output for out-of-distribution detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03637 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.03637/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 34 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Nov 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Explaining and Harnessing Adversarial Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6572/) (2014)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [A Baseline for Detecting Misclassified and Out-of-Distribution Examples in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02136/) (2016)
- [Concrete Problems in AI Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.06565/) (2016)
- [A Simple Unified Framework for Detecting Out-of-Distribution Samples and Adversarial Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03888/) (2018)
- [Enhancing The Reliability of Out-of-distribution Image Detection in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02690/) (2017)
- [Energy-based Out-of-distribution Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.03759/) (2020)
- [A Survey on Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.05747/) (2017)
- [Deep Anomaly Detection with Outlier Exposure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04606/) (2018)
- [TensorFlow: Large-Scale Machine Learning on Heterogeneous Distributed Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.04467/) (2016)
- [Using Self-Supervised Learning Can Improve Model Robustness and Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.12340/) (2019)
- [Generalized ODIN: Detecting Out-of-distribution Image without Learning from Out-of-distribution Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.11297/) (2020)
- [Deep Learning for Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.08987/) (2017)
- [Learning Confidence for Out-of-Distribution Detection in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.04865/) (2018)
- [Generative Adversarial Active Learning for Unsupervised Outlier Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.10816/) (2018)
- [Probabilistic Modeling of Deep Features for Out-of-Distribution and Adversarial Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.11786/) (2019)
- [Detecting Out-of-Distribution Inputs in Deep Neural Networks Using an Early-Layer Output](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10307/) (2019)
- [Review: Deep Learning in Electron Microscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.08328/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Commonly used AI networks are very self-confident in their predictions, even when the evidence for a certain decision is dubious. The investigation of a deep learning model output is pivotal for understanding its decision processes and assessing its capabilities and limitations. By analyzing the distributions of raw network output vectors, it can be observed that each class has its own decision boundary and, thus, the same raw output value has different support for different classes. Inspired by this fact, we have developed a new method for out-of-distribution detection. The method offers an explanatory step beyond simple thresholding of the softmax output towards understanding and interpretation of the model learning process and its output. Instead of assigning the class label of the highest logit to each new sample presented to the network, it takes the distributions over all classes into consideration. A probability score interpreter (PSI) is created based on the joint logit values in relation to their respective correct vs wrong class distributions. The PSI suggests whether the sample is likely to belong to a specific class, whether the network is unsure, or whether the sample is likely an outlier or unknown type for the network. The simple PSI has the benefit of being applicable on already trained networks. The distributions for correct vs wrong class for each output node are established by simply running the training examples through the trained network. We demonstrate our OOD detection method on a challenging transmission electron microscopy virus image dataset. We simulate a real-world application in which images of virus types unknown to a trained virus classifier, yet acquired with the same procedures and instruments, constitute the OOD samples.