Prophecy: Inferring Formal Properties from Neuron Activations
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Abstract (arXiv)
We present Prophecy, a tool for automatically inferring formal properties of feed-forward neural networks. Prophecy is based on the observation that a significant part of the logic of feed-forward networks is captured in the activation status of the neurons at inner layers. Prophecy works by extracting rules based on neuron activations (values or on/off statuses) as preconditions that imply certain desirable output property, e.g., the prediction being a certain class. These rules represent network properties captured in the hidden layers that imply the desired output behavior. We present the architecture of the tool, highlight its features and demonstrate its usage on different types of models and output properties. We present an overview of its applications, such as inferring and proving formal explanations of neural networks, compositional verification, run-time monitoring, repair, and others. We also show novel results highlighting its potential in the era of large vision-language models.
Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 13 of its 35 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 25 Sep 2025.
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13 of 35 references.
References · 13
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 1.
2 papers.
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- 2026Formal Mechanistic Interpretability: Automated Circuit Discovery with Provable Guarantees
- 2025Neural Probabilistic Circuits: Enabling Compositional and Interpretable Predictions through Logical Reasoning
- 2023Understanding CNN Hidden Neuron Activations Using Structured Background Knowledge and Deductive Reasoning
- 2022Semantic Probabilistic Layers for Neuro-Symbolic Learning
- 2026To Neuro-Symbolic Classification and Beyond by Compiling Description Logic Ontologies to Probabilistic Circuits
- 2026Causal Interpretation of Neural Network Computations with Contribution Decomposition
- 2024Symbol Correctness in Deep Neural Networks Containing Symbolic Layers
- 2023Codebook Features: Sparse and Discrete Interpretability for Neural Networks