Treat it as a statistical model

[blengerich]

Have you checked the list of proposed rules to see if the rule has already been proposed?

• [x] Yes

This rule is related to @ttriche's comments in #5. Because DL models can be difficult to interpret intuitively, there is a temptation to anthropomorphize DL models. We should resist this temptation. We would not expect a linear model to learn beyond pattern recognition, so we should also not expect an overparameterized non-linear model to do so. Because of this, we need to pay just as much attention to statistical caveats with DL models as we do with traditional models. For instance:

• Don't use a deep learning model to extrapolate beyond the domain of the training set. While architectures with saturating nonlinearities will produce outputs in a reasonable range outside the training domain, that does not mean the predictions are reliable.
• Don't use predictive accuracy or interpretability as evidence of casual reasoning (#9). We wouldn't interpret R^2 or MSE as evidence of causal reasoning in statistical models; don't do it for DL models either.
• Interrogate the model for input sensitivity. Does your model respond to confounding effects, translations on the data domain, etc.? Do you want it to? Just as we would inspect the coefficients of a linear model, we should inspect the sensitivity of DL models to understand which signals they identify.

[Benjamin-Lee]

"There is a temptation to anthropomorphize DL models. We should resist this temptation."

Well said, particularly with respect to #26. Both for better and for worse, DL models are not humans. Recognizing their capabilities and limitations is key for using them properly.