publications

2026

1. Preprint

   

   Focus-LIME: Surgical Interpretation of Long-Context Large Language Models via Proxy-Based Neighborhood Selection

   Junhao Liu, Haonan Yu, Zhenyu Yan, and Xin Zhang

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.04607, 2026

   Abs arXiv PDF

   As Large Language Models (LLMs) scale to handle massive context windows, achieving surgical feature-level interpretation is essential for high-stakes tasks like legal auditing and code debugging. However, existing local model-agnostic explanation methods face a critical dilemma in these scenarios: feature-based methods suffer from attribution dilution due to high feature dimensionality, thus failing to provide faithful explanations. In this paper, we propose Focus-LIME, a coarse-to-fine framework designed to restore the tractability of surgical interpretation. Focus-LIME utilizes a proxy model to curate the perturbation neighborhood, allowing the target model to perform fine-grained attribution exclusively within the optimized context. Empirical evaluations on long-context benchmarks demonstrate that our method makes surgical explanations practicable and provides faithful explanations to users.

2. Preprint

   

   WASD: Locating Critical Neurons as Sufficient Conditions for Explaining and Controlling LLM Behavior

   Haonan Yu, Junhao Liu, Zhenyu Yan, Haoran Lin, and Xin Zhang

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.18474, 2026

   Abs arXiv PDF

   Precise behavioral control of large language models (LLMs) is critical for complex applications. However, existing methods often incur high training costs, lack natural language controllability, or compromise semantic coherence. To bridge this gap, we propose WASD (unWeaving Actionable Sufficient Directives), a novel framework that explains model behavior by identifying sufficient neural conditions for token generation. Our method represents candidate conditions as neuron-activation predicates and iteratively searches for a minimal set that guarantees the current output under input perturbations. Experiments on SST-2 and CounterFact with the Gemma-2-2B model demonstrate that our approach produces explanations that are more stable, accurate, and concise than conventional attribution graphs. Moreover, through a case study on controlling cross-lingual output generation, we validated the practical effectiveness of WASD in controlling model behavior.

2025

1. AAAI

   

   ReX: A framework for incorporating temporal information in model-agnostic local explanation techniques

   Junhao Liu, and Xin Zhang

   In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2025

   Oral Abs PDF

   Oral (4.68%)

   Existing local model-agnostic explanation techniques are ineffective for machine learning models that consider inputs of variable lengths, as they do not consider temporal information embedded in these models. To address this limitation, we propose ReX, a general framework for incorporating temporal information in these techniques. Our key insight is that these techniques typically learn a model surrogate by sampling model inputs and outputs, and we can incorporate temporal information in a uniform way by only changing the sampling process and the surrogate features. We instantiate our approach on three popular explanation techniques: Anchors, LIME, and Kernel SHAP. To evaluate the effectiveness of ReX, we apply our approach to six models in three different tasks. Our evaluation results demonstrate that our approach 1) significantly improves the fidelity of explanations, making model-agnostic techniques outperform a state-of-the-art model-specific technique on its target model, and 2) helps end users better understand the models’ behaviors.

2. Preprint

   

   MAnchors: Memorization-Based Acceleration of Anchors via Rule Reuse and Transformation

   Haonan Yu, Junhao Liu, and Xin Zhang

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.11068, 2025

   Abs arXiv PDF

   Anchors is a popular local model-agnostic explanation technique whose applicability is limited by its computational inefficiency. To address this limitation, we propose a memorization-based framework that accelerates Anchors while preserving explanation fidelity and interpretability. Our approach leverages the iterative nature of Anchors’ algorithm which gradually refines an explanation until it is precise enough for a given input by storing and reusing intermediate results obtained during prior explanations. Specifically, we maintain a memory of low-precision, high-coverage rules and introduce a rule transformation framework to adapt them to new inputs: the horizontal transformation adapts a pre-trained explanation to the current input by replacing features, and the vertical transformation refines the general explanation until it is precise enough for the input. We evaluate our method across tabular, text, and image datasets, demonstrating that it significantly reduces explanation generation time while maintaining fidelity and interpretability, thereby enabling the practical adoption of Anchors in time-sensitive applications.

3. Preprint

   

   Revitalizing Black-Box Interpretability: Actionable Interpretability for LLMs via Proxy Models

   Junhao Liu, Haonan Yu, and Xin Zhang

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.12509, 2025

   Abs arXiv PDF

   Post-hoc explanations provide transparency and are essential for guiding model optimization, such as prompt engineering and data sanitation. However, applying model-agnostic techniques to Large Language Models (LLMs) is hindered by prohibitive computational costs, rendering these tools dormant for real-world applications. To revitalize model-agnostic interpretability, we propose a budget-friendly proxy framework that leverages efficient models to approximate the decision boundaries of expensive LLMs. We introduce a screen-and-apply mechanism to statistically verify local alignment before deployment. Our empirical evaluation confirms that proxy explanations achieve over 90% fidelity with only 11% of the oracle’s cost. Building on this foundation, we demonstrate the actionable utility of our framework in prompt compression and poisoned example removal. Results show that reliable proxy explanations effectively guide optimization, transforming interpretability from a passive observation tool into a scalable primitive for LLM development. Additionally, we open-source code and datasets to facilitate future research.

2024

1. Preprint

   

   Beyond Attribution: Unified Concept-Level Explanations

   Junhao Liu, Haonan Yu, and Xin Zhang

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.12439, 2024

   Abs arXiv PDF

   There is an increasing need to integrate model-agnostic explanation techniques with concept-based approaches, as the former can explain models across different architectures while the latter makes explanations more faithful and understandable to end-users. However, existing concept-based model-agnostic explanation methods are limited in scope, mainly focusing on attribution-based explanations while neglecting diverse forms like sufficient conditions and counterfactuals, thus narrowing their utility. To bridge this gap, we propose a general framework UnCLE to elevate existing local model-agnostic techniques to provide concept-based explanations. Our key insight is that we can uniformly extend existing local model-agnostic methods to provide unified concept-based explanations with large pre-trained model perturbation. We have instantiated UnCLE to provide concept-based explanations in three forms: attributions, sufficient conditions, and counterfactuals, and applied it to popular text, image, and multimodal models. Our evaluation results demonstrate that UnCLE provides explanations more faithful than state-of-the-art concept-based explanation methods, and provides richer explanation forms that satisfy various user needs.