A Tale of Two Cities: Data and Configuration Variances in Robust Deep Learning

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have widespread applications in industries such as image recognition, supply chain, medical diagnosis, and autonomous driving. However, previous work has shown that the high accuracy of a DNN model does not imply high robustness (i.e., consistent performances on new and future datasets) because the input data and external environment (e.g., software and model configurations) for a deployed model are constantly changing. Therefore, ensuring robustness is crucial to enhance business and consumer confidence. Previous research focuses mostly on the data aspect of model variance. This article takes a holistic view of DNN robustness by summarizing the issues related to both data and software configuration variances. We also present a predictive framework using search-based optimization to generate representative variances for robust learning, considering data and configurations.