System and method for utilizing grouped partial dependence plots and shapley additive explanations in the generation of adverse action reason codes

Abstract

A framework for interpreting machine learning models is proposed that utilizes interpretability methods to determine the contribution of groups of input variables to the output of the model. Input variables are grouped based on correlation with other input variables. The groups are identified by processing a training data set with a clustering algorithm. Once the groups of input variables are defined, partial dependent plot (PDP) tables for each group are calculated and stored in a memory, which are used for calculating scores related to each group of input variables for a given instance of the input vector processed by the model. Furthermore, Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) values for each group can be calculated by summing the SHAP values of the input variables for a given instance of an input vector per group. These scores can then be sorted, ranked for each interpretability method, and then combined into one hybrid ranking.