ShapeX: Shapelet-Driven Post Hoc Explanations for Time Series Classification Models

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Huang, Bosong
Jin, Ming
Liang, Yuxuan
Barthelemy, Johan
Cheng, Debo
Wen, Qingsong
Liu, Chenghao
Pan, Shirui
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2025
Size
File type(s)
Location

San Diego, United States

Abstract

Explaining time series classification models is crucial, particularly in high-stakes applications such as healthcare and finance, where transparency and trust play a critical role. Although numerous time series classification methods have identified key subsequences, known as shapelets, as core features for achieving state-of-the-art performance and validating their pivotal role in classification outcomes, existing post-hoc time series explanation (PHTSE) methods primarily focus on timestep-level feature attribution. These explanation methods overlook the fundamental prior that classification outcomes are predominantly driven by key shapelets. To bridge this gap, we present ShapeX, an innovative framework that segments time series into meaningful shapelet-driven segments and employs Shapley values to assess their saliency. At the core of ShapeX lies the Shapelet Describe-and-Detect (SDD) framework, which effectively learns a diverse set of shapelets essential for classification. We further demonstrate that ShapeX produces explanations which reveal causal relationships instead of just correlations, owing to the atomicity properties of shapelets. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that ShapeX outperforms existing methods in identifying the most relevant subsequences, enhancing both the precision and causal fidelity of time series explanations.

Journal Title
Conference Title

39th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025)

Book Title
Edition
Volume
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
DOI
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

This resource is distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Artificial intelligence

Machine learning

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Huang, B; Jin, M; Liang, Y; Barthelemy, J; Cheng, D; Wen, Q; Liu, C; Pan, S, ShapeX: Shapelet-Driven Post Hoc Explanations for Time Series Classification Models, 39th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025), 2025