skip to main content


Title: Runtime Monitoring of Deep Neural Networks Using Top-Down Context Models Inspired by Predictive Processing and Dual Process Theory
Deep neural networks (DNNs) have achieved near-human level accuracy on many datasets across different domains. But they are known to produce incorrect predictions with high confidence on inputs far from the training distribution. This challenge of lack of calibration of DNNs has limited the adoption of deep learning models in high-assurance systems such as autonomous driving, air traffic management, cybersecurity, and medical diagnosis. The problem of detecting when an input is outside the training distribution of a machine learning model, and hence, its prediction on this input cannot be trusted, has received significant attention recently. Several techniques based on statistical, geometric, topological, or relational signatures have been developed to detect the out-of-distribution (OOD) or novel inputs. In this paper, we present a runtime monitor based on predictive processing and dual process theory. We posit that the bottom-up deep neural networks can be monitored using top-down context models comprising two layers. The first layer is a feature density model that learns the joint distribution of the original DNN’s inputs, outputs, and the model’s explanation for its decisions. The second layer is a graph Markov neural network that captures an even broader context. We demonstrate the efficacy of our monitoring architecture in recognizing out-of-distribution and out-of-context inputs on the image classification and object detection tasks.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1740079
NSF-PAR ID:
10389007
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
AAAI Spring Symposium 2022
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Several recent works have demonstrated highly effective model stealing (MS) attacks on Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) in black-box settings, even when the training data is unavailable. These attacks typically use some form of Out of Distribution (OOD) data to query the target model and use the predictions obtained to train a clone model. Such a clone model learns to approximate the decision boundary of the target model, achieving high accuracy on in-distribution examples. We propose Ensemble of Diverse Models (EDM) to defend against such MS attacks. EDM is made up of models that are trained to produce dissimilar predictions for OOD inputs. By using a different member of the ensemble to service different queries, our defense produces predictions that are highly discontinuous in the input space for the adversary's OOD queries. Such discontinuities cause the clone model trained on these predictions to have poor generalization on in-distribution examples. Our evaluations on several image classification tasks demonstrate that EDM defense can severely degrade the accuracy of clone models (up to 39.7%). Our defense has minimal impact on the target accuracy, negligible computational costs during inference, and is compatible with existing defenses for MS attacks. 
    more » « less
  2. The use of learning based components in cyber-physical systems (CPS) has created a gamut of possible avenues to use high dimensional real world signals generated from sensors like camera and LiDAR. The ability to process such signals can be largely attributed to the adoption of high-capacity function approximators like deep neural networks. However, this does not come without its potential perils. The pitfalls arise from possible over-fitting, and subsequent unsafe behavior when exposed to unknown environments. One challenge is that, in high dimensional input spaces it is almost impossible to experience enough training data in the design phase. What is required here, is an efficient way to flag out-of-distribution (OOD) samples that is precise enough to not raise too many false alarms. In addition, the system needs to be able to detect these in a computationally efficient manner at runtime. In this paper, our proposal is to build good representations for in-distribution data. We introduce the idea of a memory bank to store prototypical samples from the input space. We use these memories to compute probability density estimates using kernel density estimation techniques. We evaluate our technique on two challenging scenarios : a self-driving car setting implemented inside the simulator CARLA with image inputs, and an autonomous racing car navigation setting, with LiDAR inputs. In both settings, it was observed that a deviation from in-distribution setting can potentially lead to deviation from safe behavior. An added benefit of using training samples as memories to detect out-of-distribution inputs is that the system is interpretable to a human operator. Explanation of this nature is generally hard to obtain from pure deep learning based alternatives. Our code for reproducing the experiments is available at https:// github.com/ yangy96/ interpretable_ood_detection.git 
    more » « less
  3. Topological data analysis (TDA) is a branch of computational mathematics, bridging algebraic topology and data science, that provides compact, noise-robust representations of complex structures. Deep neural networks (DNNs) learn millions of parameters associated with a series of transformations defined by the model architecture resulting in high-dimensional, difficult to interpret internal representations of input data. As DNNs become more ubiquitous across multiple sectors of our society, there is increasing recognition that mathematical methods are needed to aid analysts, researchers, and practitioners in understanding and interpreting how these models' internal representations relate to the final classification. In this paper we apply cutting edge techniques from TDA with the goal of gaining insight towards interpretability of convolutional neural networks used for image classification. We use two common TDA approaches to explore several methods for modeling hidden layer activations as high-dimensional point clouds, and provide experimental evidence that these point clouds capture valuable structural information about the model's process. First, we demonstrate that a distance metric based on persistent homology can be used to quantify meaningful differences between layers and discuss these distances in the broader context of existing representational similarity metrics for neural network interpretability. Second, we show that a mapper graph can provide semantic insight as to how these models organize hierarchical class knowledge at each layer. These observations demonstrate that TDA is a useful tool to help deep learning practitioners unlock the hidden structures of their models. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    Security of modern Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) is under severe scrutiny as the deployment of these models become widespread in many intelligence-based applications. Most recently, DNNs are attacked through Trojan which can effectively infect the model during the training phase and get activated only through specific input patterns (i.e, trigger) during inference. In this work, for the first time, we propose a novel Targeted Bit Trojan(TBT) method, which can insert a targeted neural Trojan into a DNN through bit-flip attack. Our algorithm efficiently generates a trigger specifically designed to locate certain vulnerable bits of DNN weights stored in main memory (i.e., DRAM). The objective is that once the attacker flips these vulnerable bits, the network still operates with normal inference accuracy with benign input. However, when the attacker activates the trigger by embedding it with any input, the network is forced to classify all inputs to a certain target class. We demonstrate that flipping only several vulnerable bits identified by our method, using available bit-flip techniques (i.e, row-hammer), can transform a fully functional DNN model into a Trojan-infected model. We perform extensive experiments of CIFAR-10, SVHN and ImageNet datasets on both VGG-16 and Resnet-18 architectures. Our proposed TBT could classify 92 of test images to a target class with as little as 84 bit-flips out of 88 million weight bits on Resnet-18 for CIFAR10 dataset. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    Machine learning (ML) tools are able to learn relationships between the inputs and outputs of large complex systems directly from data. However, for time-varying systems, the predictive capabilities of ML tools degrade if the systems are no longer accurately represented by the data with which the ML models were trained. For complex systems, re-training is only possible if the changes are slow relative to the rate at which large numbers of new input-output training data can be non-invasively recorded. In this work, we present an approach to deep learning for time-varying systems that does not require re-training, but uses instead an adaptive feedback in the architecture of deep convolutional neural networks (CNN). The feedback is based only on available system output measurements and is applied in the encoded low-dimensional dense layers of the encoder-decoder CNNs. First, we develop an inverse model of a complex accelerator system to map output beam measurements to input beam distributions, while both the accelerator components and the unknown input beam distribution vary rapidly with time. We then demonstrate our method on experimental measurements of the input and output beam distributions of the HiRES ultra-fast electron diffraction (UED) beam line at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and showcase its ability for automatic tracking of the time varying photocathode quantum efficiency map. Our method can be successfully used to aid both physics and ML-based surrogate online models to provide non-invasive beam diagnostics.

     
    more » « less