Explainable Neural Claim Verification Using Rationalization

The dependence on Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems has grown significantly in the last decade. Recent advances in deep learning have enabled language models to generate high-quality text at the same level as human-written text. If this growth continues, it can potentially lead to increased misinformation, which is a significant challenge. Although claim verification techniques exist, they lack proper explainability. Numerical scores such as Attention and Lime and visualization techniques such as saliency heat maps are insufficient because they require specialized knowledge. It is inaccessible and challenging for the nonexpert to understand black-box NLP systems. We propose a novel approach called, ExClaim for explainable claim verification using NLP rationalization. We demonstrate that our approach can predict a verdict for the claim but also justify and rationalize its output as a natural language explanation (NLE). We extensively evaluate the system using statistical and Explainable AI (XAI) metrics to ensure the outcomes are valid, verified, and trustworthy to help reinforce the human-AI trust. We propose a new subfield in XAI called Rational AI (RAI) to improve research progress on rationalization and NLE-based explainability techniques. Ensuring that claim verification systems are assured and explainable is a step towards trustworthy AI systems and ultimately helps mitigate misinformation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science and Applications

Department dc:contributor.department

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Gurrapu, Sai Charan

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Batarseh, Feras A.
• Huang, Lifu

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Freeman, Laura J.
• Lourentzou, Ismini

• Claim Verification
• Rationalization
• Explainability
• NLP Assurance
• Rational AI
• Rationality
• Misinformation Detection

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:34983

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110790