Summary and Setup

This lesson equips participants with trustworthy AI/ML practices, emphasizing fairness, explainability, reproducibility, accountability, and safety across three general data/model modalities: structured data (tabular), natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision. Participants will learn to evaluate and enhance the trustworthiness and reliability of models in each modality. Additionally, they will explore how to integrate these principles into future models, bridging ethical practices with practical applications in their research.

Prerequisite

  • Participants should have experience using Python.
  • Participants should have a basic understanding of machine learning (e.g., familiar with the concepts like train/test split and cross-validation) and should have trained at least one model in the past.
  • Participants should have some preliminary experience (or at least exposure) to neural networks.
  • Participants should care about the interpretability, reproducibility, and/or fairness of the models they build.
  • Participants should have domain knowledge of the field they work in and want to build models for.

1) Software setup

Installing Python using Anaconda

[Python][python] is a popular language for scientific computing, and a frequent choice for machine learning as well. Installing all of its scientific packages individually can be a bit difficult, however, so we recommend the installer [Anaconda][anaconda] which includes most (but not all) of the software you will need.

Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.4 is fine). Also, please set up your python environment at least a day in advance of the workshop. If you encounter problems with the installation procedure, ask your workshop organizers via e-mail for assistance so you are ready to go as soon as the workshop begins.

Checkout the [video tutorial][video-windows] or:

  1. Open [https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution][anaconda-distribution] with your web browser.
  2. Download the Python 3 installer for Windows.
  3. Double-click the executable and install Python 3 using MOST of the default settings. The only exception is to check the Make Anaconda the default Python option.

Checkout the [video tutorial][video-mac] or:

  1. Open [https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution][anaconda-distribution] with your web browser.
  2. Download the Python 3 installer for OS X. Make sure to use the correct version for your hardware, i.e. choose the options with “(M1)” if yours is one of the more recent models containing Apple’s chip.
  3. Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.

Note that the following installation steps require you to work from the shell. If you run into any difficulties, please request help before the workshop begins.

  1. Open [https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution][anaconda-distribution] with your web browser.
  2. Download the Python 3 installer for Linux.
  3. Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.
    1. Open a terminal window.
    2. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the installer
    3. Type

    BASH 

    bash Anaconda3-
    and press tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should appear.
    1. Press enter.
    2. Follow the text-only prompts. When the license agreement appears (a colon will be present at the bottom of the screen) hold the down arrow until the bottom of the text. Type yes and press enter to approve the license. Press enter again to approve the default location for the files. Type yes and press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH (this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).

Installing the required packages

Conda is the package management system associated with Anaconda and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Conda should already be available in your system once you installed Anaconda successfully. Conda thus works regardless of the operating system.

  1. Make sure you have an up-to-date version of Conda running. See these instructions for updating Conda if required.

  2. Create the Conda Environment (CPU only) We’ve chosen a CPU-only setup for this lesson to make the environment simpler and more accessible for everyone. By avoiding GPU-specific dependencies like CUDA, we reduce the storage requirements by 3-4 GB and eliminate potential compatibility issues related to GPU hardware. This streamlined approach ensures the environment is portable and works seamlessly across different systems, making it easier for learners to set up and focus on the lesson content without worrying about hardware constraints.

    To create a conda environment called trustworthy_ML with the required packages, open a terminal (Mac/Linux) or Anaconda prompt (Windows) and type the below command. This command creates a new conda environment named trustworthy_ML and installs the necessary packages from the conda-forge and pytorch channels. When prompted to Proceed ([y]/n) during environment setup, press y. It may take around 10-20 minutes to complete the full environment setup. Please reach out to the workshop organizers sooner rather than later to fix setup issues prior to the workshop.

    SH 

    conda create --name trustworthy_ML python=3.9 pytorch torchvision torchaudio -c pytorch

# NOT RECOMMENDED for this workshop, but for future purposes, here is how you would setup the GPU verison
# To install other pytorch version based on your cuda version / more detailed instructions, you can checkout https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/.
#conda create --name trustworthy_ML python=3.9 pytorch torchvision torchaudio pytorch-cuda=11.8 -c pytorch -c nvidia

  3. Activate the Conda Environment: After creating the environment, activate it using the following command.

    SH 

    conda activate trustworthy_ML

  4. Use conda to install core libraries

    Conda is used to install core libraries like pytorch, torchvision, and other popular libraries such as jupyter, scikit-learn, pandas, matplotlib, etc. These packages often include complex dependencies (e.g., CUDA binaries for GPU support) that Conda handles more robustly compared to pip.

    In this command, all packages are sourced from the conda-forge channel. The -c conda-forge is a community-driven conda channel that provides a wide array of up-to-date packages, ensuring better compatibility and a more extensive package library.

    Make sure to do this AFTER activating the environment.

    SH 

    conda install jupyter scikit-learn pandas matplotlib keras tensorflow umap-learn aif360 -c conda-forge

  5. Install pytorch-ood, fairlearn, aif360[Reductions], and aif360[inFairness] using pip. Some libraries, like pytorch-ood, fairlearn, and specific extras for aif360 ([Reductions] and [inFairness]), may not be available in Conda or may not be up-to-date in Conda repositories. In these cases, pip is used to fill the gap.

    Best practice is to first make sure pip is up-to-date.

    SH 

    python -m pip install --upgrade pip

    SH 

    pip install datasets
pip install pytorch-ood
pip install transformers
pip install fairlearn
pip install aif360[Reductions]
pip install aif360[inFairness]

    Depending on your AIF360 installation, the final two pip install commands may or may not work. If they do not work, then installing these sub-packages is not necessary – you can continue on.

Create a folder on your Desktop for storing code later

SH 

mkdir Desktop/trustworthy_ML

Starting Jupyter Lab

We want Jupyter Lab to have access to the enviornment we just built. Before launching a notebook, make sure the environment is activated:

SH 

conda activate trustworthy_ML

Change directory to your code folder before launching Jupyter. This will help us keep our code organized in one place.

SH 

cd Desktop/trustworthy_ML

To start jupyter lab, open a terminal (Mac/Linux) or Anaconda prompt (Windows) and type the command after activating your conda environment:

BASH 

jupyter lab

Check your software setup

To check whether all packages installed correctly, start a jupyter notebook in jupyter lab as explained above. Run the following lines of code:

PYTHON 

import sklearn
print('sklearn version: ', sklearn.__version__) # >= 1.5.2

import pandas
print('pandas version: ', pandas.__version__) # >= 2.2.3

import torch
print('torch version: ', torch.__version__) # >= 2.5.1

This should output the versions of all required packages without giving errors. Most versions should work fine with this lesson, but we’ve only tested thoroughly with the versions commented above.

Fallback option: cloud environment

If a local installation does not work for you, it is also possible to run this lesson in Google Colab. Some packages may need to be installed on the fly within the notebook (TBD).

Deactivating environment (complete at end of each day)

Deactivating environments is part of good workflow hygiene. If you keep your conda environment active and then start working on another project, you may inadvertently use the wrong environment. This can lead to package conflicts or incorrect dependencies being used. To deactive your environment, you can either close out of your shell entirely or type:

SH 

conda deactivate

2) Download and move the data needed

For the fairness evaluation episode, you will need access to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Dataset. Please complete these steps to ensure you have access:

  1. Download AI 360 Fairness example data: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data (zip file)

  2. Unzip h181.zip (right-click and extract all on Windows; double-click zip file on Mac)

  3. In the unzipped folder, find the h181.csv file. If you installed conda with Anaconda, i.e., as described earlier in this document, move this file to the following location:

    • Windows: C:\Users\[Usernmae]\anaconda3\envs\trustworthy_ML\Lib\site-packages\aif360\data\raw\meps\h181.csv
    • Mac: /Users/[Username]/opt/anaconda3/envs/trustworthy_ML/lib/python3.9/site-packages/aif360/data/raw/meps/h181.csv

    If you installed conda in a different way, or don’t remember how you installed it, check the location of your trustworthy_ML environment (make sure this environment is active, first!):

    • Windows: where python3.9
    • Mac: which python3.9.

    Follow the instructions above, but replace everything before /trustworthy_ML with the printed path to /trustworthy_ML.

3) Create a Hugging Face account and access Token

You will need a Hugging Face account for the workshop episode on model sharing. Hugging Face is a very popular machine learning (ML) platform and community that helps users build, deploy, share, and train machine learning models.

Create account: To create an account on Hugging Face, visit: huggingface.co/join. Enter an email address and password, and follow the instructions provided via Hugging Face (you may need to verify your email address) to complete the process.

Setup access token: Once you have your account created, you’ll need to generate an access token so that you can upload/share models to your Hugging Face account during the workshop. To generate a token, visit the Access Tokens setting page after logging in. Once there, click “New token” to generate an access token. We’ll use this token later to log in to Hugging Face via Python