Introduction to Counterfactual Explanations

What If AI Could Rewrite Its Decisions? In a world increasingly shaped by algorithmic decisions, a fundamental question emerges: when AI makes a decision about us, how can we understand why and — more importantly — what we could change to get a different outcome? Explainable AI (XAI) is all about answering those questions, pulling back the curtain from black-box algorithms. But while most XAI tools tell you what went wrong, one approach — counterfactual explanations (CFEs) — goes further. CFEs don’t just tell you why an AI decided what it did, but shows you how that decision could be different. ...

March 1, 2025 · 5 min · Marcin Kostrzewa