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Documents authored by Dwork, Cynthia

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1
From the Real Towards the Ideal: Risk Prediction in a Better World

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Omer Reingold, and Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 256, 4th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2023)

Abstract
Prediction algorithms assign scores in [0,1] to individuals, often interpreted as "probabilities" of a positive outcome, for example, of repaying a loan or succeeding in a job. Success, however, rarely depends only on the individual: it is a function of the individual’s interaction with the environment, past and present. Environments do not treat all demographic groups equally. We initiate the study of corrective transformations τ that map predictors of success in the real world to predictors in a better world. In the language of algorithmic fairness, letting p^* denote the true probabilities of success in the real, unfair, world, we characterize the transformations τ for which it is feasible to find a predictor q̃ that is indistinguishable from τ(p^*). The problem is challenging because we do not have access to probabilities or even outcomes in a better world. Nor do we have access to probabilities p^* in the real world. The only data available for training are outcomes from the real world. We obtain a complete characterization of when it is possible to learn predictors that are indistinguishable from τ(p^*), in the form of a simple-to-state criterion describing necessary and sufficient conditions for doing so. This criterion is inextricably bound with the very existence of uncertainty.
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Omer Reingold, and Guy N. Rothblum. From the Real Towards the Ideal: Risk Prediction in a Better World. In 4th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 256, pp. 1:1-1:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Reingold, Omer and Rothblum, Guy N.},
  title =	{{From the Real Towards the Ideal: Risk Prediction in a Better World}},
  booktitle =	{4th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2023)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-272-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{256},
  editor =	{Talwar, Kunal},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-179224},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algorithmic Fairness, Affirmative Action, Learning, Predictions, Multicalibration, Outcome Indistinguishability}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.41
HappyMap : A Generalized Multicalibration Method

Authors: Zhun Deng, Cynthia Dwork, and Linjun Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 251, 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)

Abstract
Multicalibration is a powerful and evolving concept originating in the field of algorithmic fairness. For a predictor f that estimates the outcome y given covariates x, and for a function class C, multi-calibration requires that the predictor f(x) and outcome y are indistinguishable under the class of auditors in C. Fairness is captured by incorporating demographic subgroups into the class of functions C. Recent work has shown that, by enriching the class C to incorporate appropriate propensity re-weighting functions, multi-calibration also yields target-independent learning, wherein a model trained on a source domain performs well on unseen, future, target domains {(approximately) captured by the re-weightings.} Formally, multicalibration with respect to C bounds |𝔼_{(x,y)∼D}[c(f(x),x)⋅(f(x)-y)]| for all c ∈ C. In this work, we view the term (f(x)-y) as just one specific mapping, and explore the power of an enriched class of mappings. We propose s-Happy Multicalibration, a generalization of multi-calibration, which yields a wide range of new applications, including a new fairness notion for uncertainty quantification, a novel technique for conformal prediction under covariate shift, and a different approach to analyzing missing data, while also yielding a unified understanding of several existing seemingly disparate algorithmic fairness notions and target-independent learning approaches. We give a single HappyMap meta-algorithm that captures all these results, together with a sufficiency condition for its success.
Cite as

Zhun Deng, Cynthia Dwork, and Linjun Zhang. HappyMap : A Generalized Multicalibration Method. In 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 251, pp. 41:1-41:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{deng_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.41,
  author =	{Deng, Zhun and Dwork, Cynthia and Zhang, Linjun},
  title =	{{HappyMap : A Generalized Multicalibration Method}},
  booktitle =	{14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)},
  pages =	{41:1--41:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-263-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{251},
  editor =	{Tauman Kalai, Yael},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.41},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-175449},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.41},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness, target-independent learning, transfer learning}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2022.6
Improved Generalization Guarantees in Restricted Data Models

Authors: Elbert Du and Cynthia Dwork

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 218, 3rd Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2022)

Abstract
Differential privacy is known to protect against threats to validity incurred due to adaptive, or exploratory, data analysis - even when the analyst adversarially searches for a statistical estimate that diverges from the true value of the quantity of interest on the underlying population. The cost of this protection is the accuracy loss incurred by differential privacy. In this work, inspired by standard models in the genomics literature, we consider data models in which individuals are represented by a sequence of attributes with the property that where distant attributes are only weakly correlated. We show that, under this assumption, it is possible to "re-use" privacy budget on different portions of the data, significantly improving accuracy without increasing the risk of overfitting.
Cite as

Elbert Du and Cynthia Dwork. Improved Generalization Guarantees in Restricted Data Models. In 3rd Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 218, pp. 6:1-6:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{du_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2022.6,
  author =	{Du, Elbert and Dwork, Cynthia},
  title =	{{Improved Generalization Guarantees in Restricted Data Models}},
  booktitle =	{3rd Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2022)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-226-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{218},
  editor =	{Celis, L. Elisa},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2022.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-165299},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2022.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Differential Privacy, Adaptive Data Analysis, Transfer Theorem}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.7
Individual Fairness in Pipelines

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Christina Ilvento, and Meena Jagadeesan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 156, 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)

Abstract
It is well understood that a system built from individually fair components may not itself be individually fair. In this work, we investigate individual fairness under pipeline composition. Pipelines differ from ordinary sequential or repeated composition in that individuals may drop out at any stage, and classification in subsequent stages may depend on the remaining "cohort" of individuals. As an example, a company might hire a team for a new project and at a later point promote the highest performer on the team. Unlike other repeated classification settings, where the degree of unfairness degrades gracefully over multiple fair steps, the degree of unfairness in pipelines can be arbitrary, even in a pipeline with just two stages. Guided by a panoply of real-world examples, we provide a rigorous framework for evaluating different types of fairness guarantees for pipelines. We show that naïve auditing is unable to uncover systematic unfairness and that, in order to ensure fairness, some form of dependence must exist between the design of algorithms at different stages in the pipeline. Finally, we provide constructions that permit flexibility at later stages, meaning that there is no need to lock in the entire pipeline at the time that the early stage is constructed.
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Christina Ilvento, and Meena Jagadeesan. Individual Fairness in Pipelines. In 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 156, pp. 7:1-7:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2020.7,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Ilvento, Christina and Jagadeesan, Meena},
  title =	{{Individual Fairness in Pipelines}},
  booktitle =	{1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-142-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{156},
  editor =	{Roth, Aaron},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-120235},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness, fairness under composition, pipelines}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8
Abstracting Fairness: Oracles, Metrics, and Interpretability

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Christina Ilvento, Guy N. Rothblum, and Pragya Sur

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 156, 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)

Abstract
It is well understood that classification algorithms, for example, for deciding on loan applications, cannot be evaluated for fairness without taking context into account. We examine what can be learned from a fairness oracle equipped with an underlying understanding of "true" fairness. The oracle takes as input a (context, classifier) pair satisfying an arbitrary fairness definition, and accepts or rejects the pair according to whether the classifier satisfies the underlying fairness truth. Our principal conceptual result is an extraction procedure that learns the underlying truth; moreover, the procedure can learn an approximation to this truth given access to a weak form of the oracle. Since every "truly fair" classifier induces a coarse metric, in which those receiving the same decision are at distance zero from one another and those receiving different decisions are at distance one, this extraction process provides the basis for ensuring a rough form of metric fairness, also known as individual fairness. Our principal technical result is a higher fidelity extractor under a mild technical constraint on the weak oracle’s conception of fairness. Our framework permits the scenario in which many classifiers, with differing outcomes, may all be considered fair. Our results have implications for interpretablity - a highly desired but poorly defined property of classification systems that endeavors to permit a human arbiter to reject classifiers deemed to be "unfair" or illegitimately derived.
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Christina Ilvento, Guy N. Rothblum, and Pragya Sur. Abstracting Fairness: Oracles, Metrics, and Interpretability. In 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 156, pp. 8:1-8:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Ilvento, Christina and Rothblum, Guy N. and Sur, Pragya},
  title =	{{Abstracting Fairness: Oracles, Metrics, and Interpretability}},
  booktitle =	{1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-142-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{156},
  editor =	{Roth, Aaron},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-120247},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algorithmic fairness, fairness definitions, causality-based fairness, interpretability, individual fairness, metric fairness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.33
Fairness Under Composition

Authors: Cynthia Dwork and Christina Ilvento

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 124, 10th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2019)

Abstract
Algorithmic fairness, and in particular the fairness of scoring and classification algorithms, has become a topic of increasing social concern and has recently witnessed an explosion of research in theoretical computer science, machine learning, statistics, the social sciences, and law. Much of the literature considers the case of a single classifier (or scoring function) used once, in isolation. In this work, we initiate the study of the fairness properties of systems composed of algorithms that are fair in isolation; that is, we study fairness under composition. We identify pitfalls of naïve composition and give general constructions for fair composition, demonstrating both that classifiers that are fair in isolation do not necessarily compose into fair systems and also that seemingly unfair components may be carefully combined to construct fair systems. We focus primarily on the individual fairness setting proposed in [Dwork, Hardt, Pitassi, Reingold, Zemel, 2011], but also extend our results to a large class of group fairness definitions popular in the recent literature, exhibiting several cases in which group fairness definitions give misleading signals under composition.
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork and Christina Ilvento. Fairness Under Composition. In 10th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 124, pp. 33:1-33:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.33,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Ilvento, Christina},
  title =	{{Fairness Under Composition}},
  booktitle =	{10th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2019)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-095-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{124},
  editor =	{Blum, Avrim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-101269},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness, fairness, fairness under composition}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagSemRep.125
Parallel and Distributed Algorithms (Dagstuhl Seminar 9537)

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Ernst W. Mayr, and Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide

Published in: Dagstuhl Seminar Reports. Dagstuhl Seminar Reports, Volume 1 (2021)

Abstract
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Ernst W. Mayr, and Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide. Parallel and Distributed Algorithms (Dagstuhl Seminar 9537). Dagstuhl Seminar Report 125, pp. 1-17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (1995)

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@TechReport{dwork_et_al:DagSemRep.125,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Mayr, Ernst W. and Meyer auf der Heide, Friedhelm},
  title =	{{Parallel and Distributed Algorithms (Dagstuhl Seminar 9537)}},
  pages =	{1--17},
  ISSN =	{1619-0203},
  year =	{1995},
  type = 	{Dagstuhl Seminar Report},
  number =	{125},
  institution =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemRep.125},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-150135},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemRep.125},
}
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