Explaining Why Explainable AI (XAI) Is Needed For Autonomous Vehicles And Especially Self-Driving Cars
Our lives are filled with explanations.
You go to see your primary physician due to a rather sore shoulder. The doctor tells you to rest your arm and avoid any heavy lifting. In addition, a prescription is given. You immediately wonder why you would need to take medication and also are undoubtedly interested in knowing what the medical diagnosis and overall prognosis are.
So, you ask for an explanation.
In a sense, you have just opened a bit of Pandora’s box, at least with regards to the nature of the explanation that you might get. For example, the medical doctor could rattle a lengthy and jargon-filled indication of shoulder anatomy and dive deeply into the chemical properties of the medication that has been prescribed. That’s probably not the explanation you were seeking.
It used to be that physicians did not expect patients to ask for explanations. Whatever was said by the doctor was considered somewhat sacrosanct. The very nerve of asking for an explanation was tantamount to questioning the veracity of a revered medical opinion. Some doctors would gruffly tell you to simply do as they have instructed (no questions permitted) or might utter something rather insipid like your shoulder needs help and this is the best course of action. Period, end of story.
Nowadays, medical doctors are aware of the need for viable explanations. There is specialized “bedside” training that takes place in medical schools. Hospitals have their own in-house courses. Upcoming medical doctors are graded on how they interact with patients. And so on.
Though that certainly has opened the door toward improved interaction with patients, it does not necessarily completely solve the explanations issue.
Knowing how to best provide an explanation is both art and science. You need to consider that there is the explainer that will be providing the explanation, and there is a person that will be the recipient of the explanation.
Explanations come in all shapes and sizes.
A person seeking an explanation might have in mind that they want a fully elaborated explanation, containing all available bells and whistles. The person giving the explanation might in their mind be thinking that the appropriate explanation is short and sweet. There you have it, an explanation mismatch brewing right before our eyes.
The explainer might do a crisp explanation and be happily satisfied with their explanation. Meanwhile, the person receiving the explanation is entirely dissatisfied. At this point, the person that received the explanation could potentially grit their teeth and just figure that this is all they are going to get. They might silently walk away and be darned upset, opting to not try and fight city hall, as it were, and merely accede to the minimal explanation proffered.
Perhaps the person receiving the explanation decides they would like to get a more elaborated version. They might stand their ground and ask for a more in-depth explanation. Now we need to consider what the explainer is going to do. The explainer might believe that the explanation was more than sufficient, and see no need to provide any additional articulation.
The explainer might be confused about why the initial explanation was not acceptable. Maybe the person receiving the explanation wasn’t listening or had failed to grasp the meaning of the words spoken. At this juncture, the explainer might therefore decide to repeat the same explanation that was just given and do so to ensure that the person receiving the original explanation really understood what was said.
You can likely anticipate that this is about to spiral out of control.
The person that is receiving this “elaborated” explanation is bound to ascertain that it is merely the same explanation and has been repeated, nearly verbatim. That’s insulting! The person receiving the explanation now believes they are being belittled by the explainer.
