On Logic-based Self-Explainable Graph Neural Networks

Alessio Ragno, Marc Plantevit, Céline Robardet

Keywords: graph neural networks, explainable ai, self-explainable gnns, interpretability

Abstract: Graphs are complex, non-Euclidean structures that require specialized models, such as Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Graph Transformers, or kernel-based approaches, to effectively capture their relational patterns. This inherent complexity makes explaining GNNs decisions particularly challenging. Most existing explainable AI (XAI) methods for GNNs focus on identifying influential nodes or extracting subgraphs that highlight relevant motifs. However, these approaches often fall short of clarifying how such elements contribute to the final prediction. To overcome this limitation, logic-based explanations aim to derive explicit logical rules that reflect the model's decision-making process. Current logic-based methods are limited to post-hoc analyzes and are predominantly applied to graph classification, leaving a significant gap in intrinsically explainable GNN architectures. In this paper, we explore the potential of integrating logic reasoning directly into graph learning. We introduce LogiX-GIN, a novel, self-explainable GNN architecture that incorporates logic layers to produce interpretable logical rules as part of the learning process. Unlike post-hoc methods, LogiX-GIN provides faithful, transparent, and inherently interpretable explanations aligned with the model's internal computations. We evaluate LogiX-GIN across several graph-based tasks and show that it achieves competitive predictive performance while delivering clear, logic-based insights into its decision-making process.

Primary Area: Social and economic aspects of machine learning (e.g., fairness, interpretability, human-AI interaction, privacy, safety, strategic behavior)

Submission Number: 10589