ICON decomposition: Multivariate concept auditing reveals shortcuts that neural networks rely on
arXiv:2608.26083v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Deep neural networks often exploit spurious associations, a failure known as shortcut learning. Before deployment, models should therefore be audited for reliance on concepts such as acquisition artifacts and patient demographics. Current methods, including linear probes and concept activation vectors, measure concept reliance by asking whether each concept is decodable from a layer. We show that this framing is misleading: decodability…