4 research outputs found
Domain Generalization -- A Causal Perspective
Machine learning models rely on various assumptions to attain high accuracy.
One of the preliminary assumptions of these models is the independent and
identical distribution, which suggests that the train and test data are sampled
from the same distribution. However, this assumption seldom holds in the real
world due to distribution shifts. As a result models that rely on this
assumption exhibit poor generalization capabilities. Over the recent years,
dedicated efforts have been made to improve the generalization capabilities of
these models collectively known as -- \textit{domain generalization methods}.
The primary idea behind these methods is to identify stable features or
mechanisms that remain invariant across the different distributions. Many
generalization approaches employ causal theories to describe invariance since
causality and invariance are inextricably intertwined. However, current surveys
deal with the causality-aware domain generalization methods on a very
high-level. Furthermore, we argue that it is possible to categorize the methods
based on how causality is leveraged in that method and in which part of the
model pipeline is it used. To this end, we categorize the causal domain
generalization methods into three categories, namely, (i) Invariance via Causal
Data Augmentation methods which are applied during the data pre-processing
stage, (ii) Invariance via Causal representation learning methods that are
utilized during the representation learning stage, and (iii) Invariance via
Transferring Causal mechanisms methods that are applied during the
classification stage of the pipeline. Furthermore, this survey includes
in-depth insights into benchmark datasets and code repositories for domain
generalization methods. We conclude the survey with insights and discussions on
future directions