Interpretable Ranking with Generalized Additive Models
Honglei Zhuang, Xuanhui Wang, Michael Bendersky, Alexander Grushetsky, Yonghui Wu, Petr Mitrichev, Ethan Sterling, Nathan Bell, Walker Ravina, Hai Qian
Abstract
Interpretability of ranking models is a crucial yet relatively under-examined research area. Recent progress on this area largely focuses on generating post-hoc explanations for existing black-box ranking models. Though promising, such post-hoc methods cannot provide sufficiently accurate explanations in general, which makes them infeasible in many high-stakes scenarios, especially the ones with legal or policy constraints. Thus, building an intrinsically interpretable ranking model with transparent, self-explainable structure becomes necessary, but this remains less explored in the learning-to-rank setting.