Finale Doshi-Velez: Combining Statistical methods with Human Input for Evaluation and Optimization in Batch Settings

Statistical methods for off-policy evaluation and counterfactual reasoning will have fundamental limitations based on what assumptions can be made and what kind of exploration is present in the data (some of which is being presented here by other speakers!). In this talk, I'll discuss some recent directions in our lab regarding ways to integrate human experts into the process of policy evaluation and selection in batch settings. The first deals with statistical limitations by seeking a diverse collection of statistically-indistinguishable (with respect to outcome) policies for humans to eventually decide from. The second involves directly integrating human feedback to eliminate or validate specific sources of sensitivity in an off-policy evaluation to get more robust estimates (or at least better understand the source of their non-robustness). More broadly, I will discuss open directions for moving from purely-statistical (e.g. off-policy evaluation) or purely-human (e.g. interpretability-based) approaches for robust/safe decision-making toward combining the advantages of both.