aiqbench analysis
This paper introduces CIViC, a rigorous four-gate protocol designed to validate whether visual predictors genuinely utilize audio inputs rather than relying on spurious correlations or static priors. By employing interventions like cross-actor audio replacement and synthetic feature mixtures, the study provides empirical evidence that output activations and held-out error metrics can reveal distinct interpretative behaviors across different proxy tasks. The work advances the field of multimodal machine learning by establishing standardized methods for auditing causal dependencies between audio conditions and visual predictions.
CIViC: Evidence Gates for Audio-Conditioned Visual Prediction on Proxy Tasks
arXiv:2610.15327v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Removing audio can shift a visual predictor's output without showing whether the task uses the intended audio information. We introduce Conditional Input and Visual Interpretation Checks (CIViC), a four-gate protocol that links an interpretation to an intervention, held-out task comparison, or endpoint control. We demonstrate CIViC on actor-disjoint face-raster tests, a synthetic audio-feature mixture, and source-video-disjoint SpeakerVid proxy tasks. In the static face-raster test, cross-actor audio replacement meets the registered detection rule with a small effect; on a separate temporal endpoint, constant-audio fits score better than audio-trained fits in four matched seeds. In the synthetic mixture, the condition-augmented fit has higher 1,000-step RMSE than the audio-only fit (0.1807 vs. 0.1707), with the gap shrinking during training. In the SpeakerVid proxy, the five-feature-zero fit (five low-level audio summaries zeroed; identity, dialogue, and condition inputs retained) has lower whole-frame grayscale RMSE than aligned audio across four held-out conditions and five paired seeds, while aligned audio has lower segment-drift error. The results show that output activation, held-out error, and endpoint controls support different interpretations across these proxy tasks.
Abstract:Removing audio can shift a visual predictor's output without showing whether the task uses the intended audio information. We introduce Conditional Input and Visual Interpretation Checks (CIViC), a four-gate protocol that links an interpretation to an intervention, held-out task comparison, or endpoint control. We demonstrate CIViC on actor-disjoint face-raster tests, a synthetic audio-feature mixture, and source-video-disjoint SpeakerVid proxy tasks. In the static face-raster test, cross-actor audio replacement meets the registered detection rule with a small effect; on a separate temporal endpoint, constant-audio fits score better than audio-trained fits in four matched seeds. In the synthetic mixture, the condition-augmented fit has higher 1,000-step RMSE than the audio-only fit (0.1807 vs. 0.1707), with the gap shrinking during training. In the SpeakerVid proxy, the five-feature-zero fit (five low-level audio summaries zeroed; identity, dialogue, and condition inputs retained) has lower whole-frame grayscale RMSE than aligned audio across four held-out conditions and five paired seeds, while aligned audio has lower segment-drift error. The results show that output activation, held-out error, and endpoint controls support different interpretations across these proxy tasks.
Machine Learning (cs.LG); Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV); Sound (cs.SD); Audio and Speech Processing (eess.AS)
arXiv:2610.15327 [cs.LG]
(or arXiv:2610.15327v1 [cs.LG] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.15327 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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Full text under the publisher's open licence · 282 words
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