Book Image

Causal Inference and Discovery in Python

By : Aleksander Molak
4.7 (9)
Book Image

Causal Inference and Discovery in Python

4.7 (9)
By: Aleksander Molak

Overview of this book

Causal methods present unique challenges compared to traditional machine learning and statistics. Learning causality can be challenging, but it offers distinct advantages that elude a purely statistical mindset. Causal Inference and Discovery in Python helps you unlock the potential of causality. You’ll start with basic motivations behind causal thinking and a comprehensive introduction to Pearlian causal concepts, such as structural causal models, interventions, counterfactuals, and more. Each concept is accompanied by a theoretical explanation and a set of practical exercises with Python code. Next, you’ll dive into the world of causal effect estimation, consistently progressing towards modern machine learning methods. Step-by-step, you’ll discover Python causal ecosystem and harness the power of cutting-edge algorithms. You’ll further explore the mechanics of how “causes leave traces” and compare the main families of causal discovery algorithms. The final chapter gives you a broad outlook into the future of causal AI where we examine challenges and opportunities and provide you with a comprehensive list of resources to learn more. By the end of this book, you will be able to build your own models for causal inference and discovery using statistical and machine learning techniques as well as perform basic project assessment.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Causality – an Introduction
7
Part 2: Causal Inference
14
Part 3: Causal Discovery

Encoding expert knowledge

Combining expert knowledge with automated methods can be incredibly beneficial. It can help algorithms learn while inspiring human stakeholders to deepen their own insights and understanding of their environments and processes.

In this section, we’ll demonstrate how to incorporate expert knowledge into the workflow of our causal discovery algorithms.

By the end of this section, you’ll be able to translate expert knowledge into the language of graphs and pass it to causal discovery algorithms.

What is expert knowledge?

In this section, we think about expert knowledge as an umbrella term for any type of knowledge or insight that we’re willing to accept as valid.

From the algorithmic point of view, we can think of expert knowledge as a strong (but usually local) prior. We encode expert knowledge by freezing one or more edges in the graph. The model treats these edges as existing and adapts their behavior accordingly.

Expert...