aiqbench analysis
SPELUNKA introduces an automated, inference-time framework designed to detect unanticipated distributional biases in Vision-Language Models without requiring model fine-tuning or pre-specified subgroups. By analyzing frequency-based over- and under-representation in retrieval outputs, the method effectively identifies spurious correlations that could impact multimodal system reliability. This research advances the field of AI safety by providing a novel tool for auditing VLMs against hidden biases during operation rather than just at training time.
SPELUNKA: A Framework for Finding Unanticipated Associations in Vision-Language Models
arXiv:2610.23979v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are the backbone of many state-of-the-art multimodal systems, but often encode spurious and harmful associations from their training data. While prior work focuses on removing known biases from VLMs, methods for discovering unanticipated associations for retrieval tasks remain underexplored. We introduce SPELUNKA, an automated, inference-time framework for finding unanticipated distributional biases for retrieval tasks in VLMs without pre-specified labeled subgroups, inference-time human supervision, or model fine-tuning. Given a concept of interest, SPELUNKA generates captions for related images, extracts relevant entities from captions, and selects semantically meaningful associations. A frequency-based detection rule then identifies spurious associations by measuring over- or under-representation of these attributes in a VLM's top-ranked outputs relative to their full dataset distribution. We evaluate SPELUNKA across four datasets, and find that it 1) successfully recovers both synthetic and naturally occurring spurious correlations, 2) achieves an average AUROC of 0.93 across four datasets in identifying images strongly associated with a query, and 3) outperforms baselines in finding features that are strongly associated with a given query.
Abstract:Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are the backbone of many state-of-the-art multimodal systems, but often encode spurious and harmful associations from their training data. While prior work focuses on removing known biases from VLMs, methods for discovering unanticipated associations for retrieval tasks remain underexplored. We introduce SPELUNKA, an automated, inference-time framework for finding unanticipated distributional biases for retrieval tasks in VLMs without pre-specified labeled subgroups, inference-time human supervision, or model fine-tuning. Given a concept of interest, SPELUNKA generates captions for related images, extracts relevant entities from captions, and selects semantically meaningful associations. A frequency-based detection rule then identifies spurious associations by measuring over- or under-representation of these attributes in a VLM's top-ranked outputs relative to their full dataset distribution. We evaluate SPELUNKA across four datasets, and find that it 1) successfully recovers both synthetic and naturally occurring spurious correlations, 2) achieves an average AUROC of 0.93 across four datasets in identifying images strongly associated with a query, and 3) outperforms baselines in finding features that are strongly associated with a given query.
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV); Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2610.23979 [cs.CV]
(or arXiv:2610.23979v1 [cs.CV] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.23979 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.
Full text under the publisher's open licence · 268 words