WWW: A Unified Framework for Explaining What, Where and Why of Neural Networks by Interpretation of Neuron Concepts
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Abstract (arXiv)
Recent advancements in neural networks have showcased their remarkable capabilities across various domains. Despite these successes, the "black box" problem still remains. Addressing this, we propose a novel framework, WWW, that offers the 'what', 'where', and 'why' of the neural network decisions in human-understandable terms. Specifically, WWW utilizes adaptive selection for concept discovery, employing adaptive cosine similarity and thresholding techniques to effectively explain 'what'. To address the 'where' and 'why', we proposed a novel combination of neuron activation maps (NAMs) with Shapley values, generating localized concept maps and heatmaps for individual inputs. Furthermore, WWW introduces a method for predicting uncertainty, leveraging heatmap similarities to estimate 'how' reliable the prediction is. Experimental evaluations of WWW demonstrate superior performance in both quantitative and qualitative metrics, outperforming existing methods in interpretability. WWW provides a unified solution for explaining 'what', 'where', and 'why', introducing a method for localized explanations from global interpretations and offering a plug-and-play solution adaptable to various architectures.
Key facts. Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 24 of its 29 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Feb 2024.
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24 of 29 references.
References · 24
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12 more
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Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 8; 2026: 5.
14 papers.
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- 2025Mechanistic understanding and validation of large AI models with SemanticLenscited by 29
- 2025From What to How: Attributing CLIP's Latent Components Reveals Unexpected Semantic Reliancecited by 4
- 2025Disentangled Concepts Speak Louder Than Words: Explainable Video Action Recognitioncited by 2
- 2025PCBEAR: Pose Concept Bottleneck for Explainable Action Recognitioncited by 1
- 2025CE-FAM: Concept-Based Explanation via Fusion of Activation Mapscited by 1
- 2026What is Missing? Explaining Neurons Activated by Absent Conceptscited by 1
- 2024Mask-Free Neuron Concept Annotation for Interpreting Neural Networks in Medical Domaincited by 0
- 2025Toward Neurosymbolic Program Comprehensioncited by 0
- 2025Caption-Driven Explainability: Probing CNNs for Bias via CLIPcited by 0
- 2025Guaranteed Optimal Compositional Explanations for Neuronscited by 0
- 2026UNBOX: Unveiling Black-box visual models with Natural-languagecited by 0
- 2026Select, Hypothesize and Verify: Towards Verified Neuron Concept Interpretationcited by 0
- 2026When Structured Sparse Autoencoders Learn Consistent Concepts Across Modalities9 Jul 2026
- 2026Contrastive Semantic Projection: Faithful Neuron Labeling with Contrastive Examples24 Apr 2026
- 2026Select, Hypothesize and Verify: Towards Verified Neuron Concept Interpretation26 Mar 2026
- 2026What is Missing? Explaining Neurons Activated by Absent Concepts10 Mar 2026
- 2026UNBOX: Unveiling Black-box visual models with Natural-language9 Mar 2026
- 2025Guaranteed Optimal Compositional Explanations for Neurons25 Nov 2025
- 2025Disentangled Concepts Speak Louder Than Words: Explainable Video Action Recognition5 Nov 2025
- 2025Caption-Driven Explainability: Probing CNNs for Bias via CLIP24 Oct 2025
- 2025CE-FAM: Concept-Based Explanation via Fusion of Activation Maps28 Sep 2025
- 2025From What to How: Attributing CLIP's Latent Components Reveals Unexpected Semantic Reliance26 May 2025
- 2025PCBEAR: Pose Concept Bottleneck for Explainable Action Recognition17 Apr 2025
- 2025Toward Neurosymbolic Program Comprehension3 Feb 2025
- 2025Mechanistic understanding and validation of large AI models with SemanticLenscited by 29
- 2025From What to How: Attributing CLIP's Latent Components Reveals Unexpected Semantic Reliancecited by 4
- 2025Disentangled Concepts Speak Louder Than Words: Explainable Video Action Recognitioncited by 2
- 2025PCBEAR: Pose Concept Bottleneck for Explainable Action Recognitioncited by 1
- 2025CE-FAM: Concept-Based Explanation via Fusion of Activation Mapscited by 1
- 2026What is Missing? Explaining Neurons Activated by Absent Conceptscited by 1
- 2024Mask-Free Neuron Concept Annotation for Interpreting Neural Networks in Medical Domaincited by 0
- 2025Toward Neurosymbolic Program Comprehensioncited by 0
- 2025Caption-Driven Explainability: Probing CNNs for Bias via CLIPcited by 0
- 2025Guaranteed Optimal Compositional Explanations for Neuronscited by 0
- 2026UNBOX: Unveiling Black-box visual models with Natural-languagecited by 0
- 2026Select, Hypothesize and Verify: Towards Verified Neuron Concept Interpretationcited by 0
12 most cited of 14 All 14 (JSON)
- 2026When Structured Sparse Autoencoders Learn Consistent Concepts Across Modalities9 Jul 2026
- 2026Contrastive Semantic Projection: Faithful Neuron Labeling with Contrastive Examples24 Apr 2026
- 2026Select, Hypothesize and Verify: Towards Verified Neuron Concept Interpretation26 Mar 2026
- 2026What is Missing? Explaining Neurons Activated by Absent Concepts10 Mar 2026
- 2026UNBOX: Unveiling Black-box visual models with Natural-language9 Mar 2026
- 2025Guaranteed Optimal Compositional Explanations for Neurons25 Nov 2025
- 2025Disentangled Concepts Speak Louder Than Words: Explainable Video Action Recognition5 Nov 2025
- 2025Caption-Driven Explainability: Probing CNNs for Bias via CLIP24 Oct 2025
- 2025CE-FAM: Concept-Based Explanation via Fusion of Activation Maps28 Sep 2025
- 2025From What to How: Attributing CLIP's Latent Components Reveals Unexpected Semantic Reliance26 May 2025
- 2025PCBEAR: Pose Concept Bottleneck for Explainable Action Recognition17 Apr 2025
- 2025Toward Neurosymbolic Program Comprehension3 Feb 2025
12 newest of 14 All 14 (JSON)