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Enhancing LIME using Neural Decision Trees

Machine Learning 2026-03-24 v1 Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Interpreting complex machine learning models is a critical challenge, especially for tabular data where model transparency is paramount. Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) has been a very popular framework for interpretable machine learning, also inspiring many extensions. While traditional surrogate models used in LIME variants (e.g. linear regression and decision trees) offer a degree of stability, they can struggle to faithfully capture the complex non-linear decision boundaries that are inherent in many sophisticated black-box models. This work contributes toward bridging the gap between high predictive performance and interpretable decision-making. Specifically, we propose the NDT-LIME variant that integrates Neural Decision Trees (NDTs) as surrogate models. By leveraging the structured, hierarchical nature of NDTs, our approach aims at providing more accurate and meaningful local explanations. We evaluate its effectiveness on several benchmark tabular datasets, showing consistent improvements in explanation fidelity over traditional LIME surrogates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.20919,
  title  = {Enhancing LIME using Neural Decision Trees},
  author = {Mohamed Aymen Bouyahia and Argyris Kalogeratos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.20919},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:31:39.325Z