Interpretable Tabular Foundation Models via In-Context Kernel Regression
Tabular foundation models like TabPFN and TabICL achieve state-of-the-art performance through in-context learning, yet their architectures remain fundamentally opaque. We introduce KernelICL, a framework to enhance tabular foundation models with quantifiable sample-based interpretability. Building on the insight that in-context learning is akin to kernel regression, we make this mechanism explicit by replacing the final prediction layer with kernel functions (Gaussian, dot-product, kNN) so that every prediction is a transparent weighted average of training labels. We introduce a two-dimensional taxonomy that formally unifies standard kernel methods, modern neighbor-based approaches, and attention mechanisms under a single framework, and quantify inspectability via the perplexity of the weight distribution over training samples. On 55 TALENT benchmark datasets, KernelICL achieves performance on par with existing tabular foundation models, demonstrating that explicit kernel constraints on the final layer enable inspectable predictions without sacrificing performance.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Similar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
xRFM: Accurate, scalable, and interpretable feature learning models for tabular data
Inference from tabular data, collections of continuous and categorical variables organized into matrices, is a foundation for modern technology and science. Yet, in contrast to the explosive changes in the rest of AI, th…
VIP-COP: Context Optimization for Tabular Foundation Models
Tabular foundation models (TFMs) have emerged as a powerful paradigm for in-context learning on structured data, enabling direct prediction on new tabular tasks without task-specific training. However, their effectivenes…
Data AugmentationEXAONE Tabular 1.0 : Technical Report
EXAONE Tabular is a compact tabular foundation model family for classification and regression via in-context learning, producing predictions without dataset-specific gradient updates. Pretrained exclusively on a syntheti…
Selecting Feature Interactions for Generalized Additive Models by Distilling Foundation Models
Identifying meaningful feature interactions is a central challenge in building accurate and interpretable models for tabular data. Generalized additive models (GAMs) have shown great success at modeling tabular data, but…
Representation LearningReal-Time Explanations for Tabular Foundation Models
Interpretability is central for scientific machine learning, as understanding \emph{why} models make predictions enables hypothesis generation and validation. While tabular foundation models show strong performance, exis…