Title: Temporality in Sequential Explainable AI 

Amal Alabdulkarim

Ph.D. Student in Computer Science

School of Interactive Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology

Date: April 30, 2025

Time: 10 AM ET

Location: Coda C1115 Druid Hills, or join online on Microsoft Teams (link)

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Committee

Mark Riedl (Advisor) - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Sonia Chernova - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Matthew Gombolay - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Kartik Goyal - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Sarath Sreedharan -  Department of Computer Science, Colorado State University

Lara Martin - Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Abstract

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is a growing area of research that focuses on making AI systems easier for people to understand and trust. Explanations are critical in sensitive areas that require human-AI teaming, where people must understand and trust the AI’s decisions. However, making AI models explainable becomes much harder in sequential decision-making, like reinforcement learning agents. These agents make decisions based on a series of past and future actions, so an actionable explanation has to look at the bigger picture, not just what happened right before a choice was made.

In this thesis, I present algorithms and representations for reasoning about how future expectations and past events play into an agent's decision-making to generate actionable explanations. I develop an interactive pipeline that personalizes system explanations and meets variable user explainability goals, leveraging the affordances of retrospectives. I present my work across three domains: single-agent reinforcement learning, multi-agent systems, and narrative understanding.