Explaining Predictive Uncertainty with Information Theoretic Shapley Values
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Abstract (arXiv)
Researchers in explainable artificial intelligence have developed numerous methods for helping users understand the predictions of complex supervised learning models. By contrast, explaining the textituncertainty of model outputs has received relatively little attention. We adapt the popular Shapley value framework to explain various types of predictive uncertainty, quantifying each feature's contribution to the conditional entropy of individual model outputs. We consider games with modified characteristic functions and find deep connections between the resulting Shapley values and fundamental quantities from information theory and conditional independence testing. We outline inference procedures for finite sample error rate control with provable guarantees, and implement efficient algorithms that perform well in a range of experiments on real and simulated data. Our method has applications to covariate shift detection, active learning, feature selection, and active feature-value acquisition.
Key facts. Cited by 36 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 58 of its 96 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Jun 2023.
Builds on
58 of 96 references.
References · 58
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50 most cited of 58 All 58 (JSON)
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Citing papers per year: 2023: 2; 2024: 10; 2025: 10; 2026: 14.
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- 2024shapiq: Shapley Interactions for Machine Learningcited by 43
- 2024Uncertainty in Graph Neural Networks: A Surveycited by 23
- 2025Anthropomimetic Uncertainty: What Verbalized Uncertainty in Language Models is Missingcited by 14
- 2024Explaining Bayesian Optimization by Shapley Values Facilitates Human-AI Collaborationcited by 12
- 2024Explaining Predictive Uncertainty by Exposing Second-Order Effectscited by 10
- 2024Uncertainty quantification for probabilistic machine learning in earth observation using conformal predictioncited by 9
- 2023Model-agnostic variable importance for predictive uncertainty: an entropy-based approachcited by 6
- 2025Unveil Sources of Uncertainty: Feature Contribution to Conformal Prediction Intervalscited by 5
- 2023Identifying Drivers of Predictive Aleatoric Uncertaintycited by 4
- 2024X-Fake: Juggling Utility Evaluation and Explanation of Simulated SAR Imagescited by 4
- 2025UbiQTree: Uncertainty Quantification in XAI with Tree Ensemblescited by 4
- 2026LLM Performance Predictors: Learning When to Escalate in Hybrid Human-AI Moderation Systemscited by 4
24 more
- 2024Investigating the Impact of Model Instability on Explanations and Uncertaintycited by 3
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- 2025Beyond Shapley Values: Cooperative Games for the Interpretation of Machine Learning Modelscited by 3
- 2024A Comprehensive Study of Shapley Value in Data Analyticscited by 2
- 2024Segmentation, Classification and Interpretation of Breast Cancer Medical Images using Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learningcited by 1
- 2025On Using the Shapley Value for Anomaly Localization: A Statistical Investigationcited by 1
- 2025A Systematic Review of Conformal Inference Procedures for Treatment Effect Estimation: Methods and Challengescited by 1
- 2026Uncertainty-Aware Multimodal Learning via Conformal Shapley Intervalscited by 1
- 2025Conceptualizing Uncertainty: A Concept-based Approach to Explaining Uncertaintycited by 0
- 2025Understanding Action Effects through Instrumental Empowerment in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
- 2025φ-Table: A Statistical Explanation for Global SHAPcited by 0
- 2025UbiQVision: Quantifying Uncertainty in XAI for Image Recognitioncited by 0
- 2026How important are the genes to explain the outcome - the asymmetric Shapley value as an honest importance metric for high-dimensional featurescited by 0
- 2026EviATTA: Evidential Active Test-Time Adaptation for Medical Segment Anything Modelscited by 0
- 2026No Single Metric Tells the Whole Story: A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Framework for Uncertainty Attributionscited by 0
- 2026Quantifying and Understanding Uncertainty in Large Reasoning Modelscited by 0
- 2026RoSHAP: A Distributional Framework and Robust Metric for Stable Feature Attributioncited by 0
- 2026Verified SHAP: Provable Bounds for Exact Shapley Values of Neural Networkscited by 0
- 2026Localizing Input Uncertainty Quantification for Large Language Models via Shapley Valuescited by 0
- 2026Statistical Analysis of using the Shapley Value for Sensor Anomaly Localization with Accurate Classifierscited by 0
- 2026Explainable Uncertainty Estimation for Reliable Medical AIcited by 0
- 2026LandscapeSHAP: Which Persistent Homology Class Gets the Credit?cited by 0
- 2026A Hierarchy of Entropy-Shapley Games for Multivariate Predictive Uncertaintycited by 0
- 2026XU-RS: Explaining Credal Width in Random-Set Language Modelscited by 0
- 2026XU-RS: Explaining Credal Width in Random-Set Language Models29 Sep 2026
- 2026A Hierarchy of Entropy-Shapley Games for Multivariate Predictive Uncertainty28 Sep 2026
- 2026LandscapeSHAP: Which Persistent Homology Class Gets the Credit?25 Sep 2026
- 2026Explainable Uncertainty Estimation for Reliable Medical AI28 Aug 2026
- 2026Statistical Analysis of using the Shapley Value for Sensor Anomaly Localization with Accurate Classifiers30 May 2026
- 2026Localizing Input Uncertainty Quantification for Large Language Models via Shapley Values27 May 2026
- 2026Verified SHAP: Provable Bounds for Exact Shapley Values of Neural Networks22 May 2026
- 2026RoSHAP: A Distributional Framework and Robust Metric for Stable Feature Attribution14 May 2026
- 2026Quantifying and Understanding Uncertainty in Large Reasoning Models15 Apr 2026
- 2026No Single Metric Tells the Whole Story: A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Framework for Uncertainty Attributions25 Mar 2026
- 2026EviATTA: Evidential Active Test-Time Adaptation for Medical Segment Anything Models15 Mar 2026
- 2026How important are the genes to explain the outcome - the asymmetric Shapley value as an honest importance metric for high-dimensional features5 Mar 2026
24 more
- 2026Uncertainty-Aware Multimodal Learning via Conformal Shapley Intervals30 Jan 2026
- 2026LLM Performance Predictors: Learning When to Escalate in Hybrid Human-AI Moderation Systems11 Jan 2026
- 2025UbiQVision: Quantifying Uncertainty in XAI for Image Recognition23 Dec 2025
- 2025φ-Table: A Statistical Explanation for Global SHAP8 Dec 2025
- 2025A Systematic Review of Conformal Inference Procedures for Treatment Effect Estimation: Methods and Challenges25 Sep 2025
- 2025Understanding Action Effects through Instrumental Empowerment in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning21 Aug 2025
- 2025UbiQTree: Uncertainty Quantification in XAI with Tree Ensembles13 Aug 2025
- 2025On Using the Shapley Value for Anomaly Localization: A Statistical Investigation28 Jul 2025
- 2025Anthropomimetic Uncertainty: What Verbalized Uncertainty in Language Models is Missing11 Jul 2025
- 2025Beyond Shapley Values: Cooperative Games for the Interpretation of Machine Learning Models16 Jun 2025
- 2025Unveil Sources of Uncertainty: Feature Contribution to Conformal Prediction Intervals19 May 2025
- 2025Conceptualizing Uncertainty: A Concept-based Approach to Explaining Uncertainty5 Mar 2025
- 2024A Comprehensive Study of Shapley Value in Data Analytics2 Dec 2024
- 2024shapiq: Shapley Interactions for Machine Learning2 Oct 2024
- 2024Sufficient and Necessary Explanations (and What Lies in Between)30 Sep 2024
- 2024X-Fake: Juggling Utility Evaluation and Explanation of Simulated SAR Images28 Jul 2024
- 2024Segmentation, Classification and Interpretation of Breast Cancer Medical Images using Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning29 Mar 2024
- 2024Uncertainty in Graph Neural Networks: A Survey11 Mar 2024
- 2024Explaining Bayesian Optimization by Shapley Values Facilitates Human-AI Collaboration7 Mar 2024
- 2024Investigating the Impact of Model Instability on Explanations and Uncertainty20 Feb 2024
- 2024Explaining Predictive Uncertainty by Exposing Second-Order Effects30 Jan 2024
- 2024Uncertainty quantification for probabilistic machine learning in earth observation using conformal prediction12 Jan 2024
- 2023Identifying Drivers of Predictive Aleatoric Uncertainty12 Dec 2023
- 2023Model-agnostic variable importance for predictive uncertainty: an entropy-based approach19 Oct 2023
- 2024shapiq: Shapley Interactions for Machine Learningcited by 43
- 2024Uncertainty in Graph Neural Networks: A Surveycited by 23
- 2025Anthropomimetic Uncertainty: What Verbalized Uncertainty in Language Models is Missingcited by 14
- 2024Explaining Bayesian Optimization by Shapley Values Facilitates Human-AI Collaborationcited by 12
- 2024Explaining Predictive Uncertainty by Exposing Second-Order Effectscited by 10
- 2024Uncertainty quantification for probabilistic machine learning in earth observation using conformal predictioncited by 9
- 2023Model-agnostic variable importance for predictive uncertainty: an entropy-based approachcited by 6
- 2025Unveil Sources of Uncertainty: Feature Contribution to Conformal Prediction Intervalscited by 5
- 2023Identifying Drivers of Predictive Aleatoric Uncertaintycited by 4
- 2024X-Fake: Juggling Utility Evaluation and Explanation of Simulated SAR Imagescited by 4
- 2025UbiQTree: Uncertainty Quantification in XAI with Tree Ensemblescited by 4
- 2026LLM Performance Predictors: Learning When to Escalate in Hybrid Human-AI Moderation Systemscited by 4
12 most cited of 35 All 35 (JSON)
- 2026XU-RS: Explaining Credal Width in Random-Set Language Models29 Sep 2026
- 2026A Hierarchy of Entropy-Shapley Games for Multivariate Predictive Uncertainty28 Sep 2026
- 2026LandscapeSHAP: Which Persistent Homology Class Gets the Credit?25 Sep 2026
- 2026Explainable Uncertainty Estimation for Reliable Medical AI28 Aug 2026
- 2026Statistical Analysis of using the Shapley Value for Sensor Anomaly Localization with Accurate Classifiers30 May 2026
- 2026Localizing Input Uncertainty Quantification for Large Language Models via Shapley Values27 May 2026
- 2026Verified SHAP: Provable Bounds for Exact Shapley Values of Neural Networks22 May 2026
- 2026RoSHAP: A Distributional Framework and Robust Metric for Stable Feature Attribution14 May 2026
- 2026No Single Metric Tells the Whole Story: A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Framework for Uncertainty Attributions25 Mar 2026
- 2026EviATTA: Evidential Active Test-Time Adaptation for Medical Segment Anything Models15 Mar 2026
- 2026How important are the genes to explain the outcome - the asymmetric Shapley value as an honest importance metric for high-dimensional features5 Mar 2026
- 2026Uncertainty-Aware Multimodal Learning via Conformal Shapley Intervals30 Jan 2026
12 newest of 35 All 35 (JSON)