Shaping Scientific Explanations to Expert Perspectives with Persona-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning

arXiv:2603.21846v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Explainable AI is increasingly important to scientific discovery. However, existing methods largely ignore that explanation quality is not universal: experts differ in how they assess evidence, prioritize mechanisms, and construct explanatory narratives. We introduce perspective-conditioned explanations, a framework for adapting explanation generation to epistemic variation in expert judgment. Using knowledge graph reasoning paths in drug discovery, we show that preferences organize into coherent epistemic perspectives that can be captured by agentic personas, representations of how experts evaluate explanations. Persona-aligned rewards then guide reinforcement learning-based explanation generation without large-scale expert supervision. Expert user studies show that perspective-conditioned explanations are preferred over general-purpose explanations and improve perceived relevance and validity. Moreover, they match or exceed state-of-the-art predictive performance and reduce expert feedback time by two orders of magnitude. Together, these findings demonstrate that explanation quality is perspective-dependent and that modeling this variation enables scalable and human-aligned explanation generation for scientific discovery.

Abstract:Explainable AI is increasingly important to scientific discovery. However, existing methods largely ignore that explanation quality is not universal: experts differ in how they assess evidence, prioritize mechanisms, and construct explanatory narratives. We introduce perspective-conditioned explanations, a framework for adapting explanation generation to epistemic variation in expert judgment. Using knowledge graph reasoning paths in drug discovery, we show that preferences organize into coherent epistemic perspectives that can be captured by agentic personas, representations of how experts evaluate explanations. Persona-aligned rewards then guide reinforcement learning-based explanation generation without large-scale expert supervision. Expert user studies show that perspective-conditioned explanations are preferred over general-purpose explanations and improve perceived relevance and validity. Moreover, they match or exceed state-of-the-art predictive performance and reduce expert feedback time by two orders of magnitude. Together, these findings demonstrate that explanation quality is perspective-dependent and that modeling this variation enables scalable and human-aligned explanation generation for scientific discovery.

Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)

arXiv:2603.21846 [cs.AI]

(or arXiv:2603.21846v2 [cs.AI] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.21846 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

aiqbench analysis

Shaping Scientific Explanations to Expert Perspectives with Persona-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning

Related coverage