Natural XAI: generating feasible, actionable, and causally-aware counterfactual explanations in natural language.

Counterfactual explanations have become a significant component in eXplainable AI (XAI), offering intuitive "what if" scenarios. However, typical numeric or tabular outputs can be vague to non-technical audiences. Additionally, many counterfactual methods ignore causal relationships or suggest inactionable changes such as "be younger by five years," raising concerns over realism and ethics. To address these issues, we propose a holistic approach that integrates a Feature Actionability Taxonomy (FAT) and causal discovery into counterfactual generation, thereby ensuring realistic, ethically sound, and semantically transparent explanations in natural language. We further introduce an interactive, agentic workflow enabling users to iteratively refine constraints. Through extensive user studies, pilot evaluations, and synergy with Case-Based Reasoning (CBR), this approach yields explanations that are accessible, trust-enhancing, and practically useful in domains such as healthcare, finance, and education.

Publication Details

Journal
Open Access Institutional Repository at Robert Gordon University (Robert Gordon University)
Published
2025-06-12
Primary Topic
Information and Cyber Security
Type
article
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article

Natural XAI: generating feasible, actionable, and causally-aware counterfactual explanations in natural language.

Open Access Institutional Repository at Robert Gordon University (Robert Gordon University)
Information and Cyber Security
article

Natural XAI: generating feasible, actionable, and causally-aware counterfactual explanations in natural language.

article en

Abstract

Counterfactual explanations have become a significant component in eXplainable AI (XAI), offering intuitive "what if" scenarios. However, typical numeric or tabular outputs can be vague to non-technical audiences. Additionally, many counterfactual methods ignore causal relationships or suggest inactionable changes such as "be younger by five years," raising concerns over realism and ethics. To address these issues, we propose a holistic approach that integrates a Feature Actionability Taxonomy (FAT) and causal discovery into counterfactual generation, thereby ensuring realistic, ethically sound, and semantically transparent explanations in natural language. We further introduce an interactive, agentic workflow enabling users to iteratively refine constraints. Through extensive user studies, pilot evaluations, and synergy with Case-Based Reasoning (CBR), this approach yields explanations that are accessible, trust-enhancing, and practically useful in domains such as healthcare, finance, and education.

Open Access Institutional Repository at Robert Gordon University (Robert Gordon University)
Openalex Percentile: Top 35%
Information and Cyber Security
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