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I am working currently as a research intern on Binarized Neural Networks where the weights and the activations of the network are binary. The architecture of this type of networks makes them memory efficient and computationally efficient, which makes them ideal for resource constrained environments, like embedded devices and mobile phones.

The interesting part about BNNs is that we can encode a binarized network as a CNF formula (Boolean Formula). Using this formula, we can verify some properties of the network like Robustness against adversarial examples (carefully crafted samples looking similar to usual inputs but designed to mislead a pre-trained model). We can also extract explanations that support neural network decisions, hence make the neural network explainable.

Currently, I am trying to make a DNN explainable by verifying its decisions using BNNs. The first direction of research is to reduce a DNN to a BNN. Of course the two networks should be equivalent. I am researching ways to make this reduction but I haven't found any works in the subject. Is it possible to carry out this transformation ? Is there any techniques that can "binarize" a DNN ?

Thanks :)

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  • $\begingroup$ If you increase the inner dimensionality of a DNN by replacing all of the weights with vectors of their binary representation, does that count as a BNN? $\endgroup$
    – Andy
    Feb 27, 2020 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ It will be considered as a BNN if you use binary activations (like the sign function). However, the question is: are the two networks equivalent ? will the output of a particular input be the same when using the two networks ? Probably not. $\endgroup$
    – Achraf El Khamsi
    Feb 27, 2020 at 15:46
  • $\begingroup$ Well you also have to adjust the operations to consume binary instead of decimal, but aside from that you're just changing the data representation, which is reversible. $\endgroup$
    – Andy
    Feb 27, 2020 at 15:48

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I expect you'll run into two challenges in this line of research: (1) there are no known ways to construct a BNN that exactly matches an ordinary neural network; (2) verifying a BNN with a SAT solver won't scale to the size models needed for most interesting tasks.

Since you asked specifically about (1), no, I don't know of any way to do that. Probably you won't find exact equivalence. You might be able to train a BNN that has a very high agreement with the ordinary neural network on the training set; I don't know whether it will have the same adversarial examples or not.

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  • $\begingroup$ The original idea was to bound the DNN by two BNNs. For instance, in the case of a binary output, The upper BNN's responses will be yes/unknown. The lower BNN's responses will be no/unknown. The idea is to pass the input through the two BNNs first, if we obtain an answer (yes or no), then the result is known and can be explained since BNNs are close to propositional logic. Else, we will pass through the DNN and the output will not be explained. The problem here is how to build these two BNNs. They will certainly derive from the DNN and if what you say is true, such networks could not be built. $\endgroup$
    – Achraf El Khamsi
    Feb 28, 2020 at 13:35

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