A Machine Teaching Framework for Scalable Recognition

We consider the scalable recognition problem in the fine-grained expert domain where large-scale data collection is easy whereas annotation is difficult. Existing solutions are typically based on semi-supervised or self-supervised learning. We propose an alternative new framework, MEMORABLE, based on machine teaching and online crowd-sourcing platforms. A small amount of data is first labeled by experts and then used to teach online annotators for the classes of interest, who finally label the entire dataset. Preliminary studies show that the accuracy of classifiers trained on the final dataset is a function of the accuracy of the student annotators. A new machine teaching algorithm, CMaxGrad, is then proposed to enhance this accuracy by introducing explanations in a state-of-the-art machine teaching algorithm. For this, CMaxGrad leverages counterfactual explanations, which take into account student predictions, thereby proving feedback that is student-specific, explicitly addresses the causes of student confusion, and adapts to the level of competence of the student. Experiments show that both MEMORABLE and CMaxGrad outperform existing solutions to their respective problems.