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Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) represent areas of reduced electron density that develop within Earth’s ionosphere as a result of Rayleigh–Taylor instability. These formations can trigger signal scintillation, which induces signal degradation and navigation positioning inaccuracies. EPBs can be identified via imagery gathered by All-Sky Imager (ASI) networks. The present research introduces an inexpensive, automated technique for identifying EPBs within ASI datasets, suitable for real-time monitoring as well as categorization tasks. This approach couples Two-Dimensional Principal Component Analysis (2DPCA) and Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) alongside a Random Forest machine learning classifier to construct an Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) framework. This framework extracts image characteristics to automate EPB detection using minimal dimensionality, yielding a compact and exceptionally rapid-to-train model designed to discern EPBs in recorded ASI frames. A collection of 2458 images, categorized into "Event" and "Empty" classes, was assembled to construct the database. This image repository was partitioned randomly into two distinct portions: an 80% training dataset and a 20% testing dataset. The developed XAI framework achieved a marginally better detection accuracy relative to the conventional 2DPCA approach while maintaining a notably smaller structural footprint. Additionally, the execution of the proposed framework was assessed and contrasted against alternative deep learning baselines (ResNet18, Inception-V3, VGG16, and VGG19) under identical environmental conditions.

The escalating complexity of malicious digital activities highlights the necessity for dependable and transparent intrusion detection systems (IDS) to preserve network integrity. Although machine learning frameworks like Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), k-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN), and XGBoost demonstrate exceptional capabilities in identifying malicious behavior, their inner mechanics grow increasingly opaque as structural complexity and predictive precision expand, creating challenges for high-stakes safety operations. Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME) is frequently deployed to mitigate this issue; nevertheless, its dependency on Gaussian distributions when generating data variations often fails to capture the non-linear and disproportionate traits of frameworks like CIC-IDS-2018. To overcome these limitations, we introduce an adapted LIME variation strategy utilizing Weibull, Gamma, Beta, and Pareto distributions to more accurately represent the attributes of network telemetry. Our framework enhances the consistency of diverse machine learning systems optimized on CIC-IDS repositories, yielding more constructive and dependable rationales for predictive outputs. These proposed algorithmic adjustments yield a gain in explanatory fidelity of up to 78% relative to the standard normal distribution framework. Variations rooted in the Pareto distribution deliver the most optimal outcomes. Across all evaluated distributions, the Pareto framework consistently generated the peak explanation fidelity and consistency, notably for K-NN (R^2 = 0.9971, S = 0.9907) and DT (R^2 = 0.9267, S = 0.9797). This demonstrates that heavy-tailed distributions align effectively with actual network operational trends, minimizing the discrepancy in attribute significance justifications and rendering them more resilient.

This research investigates and refines the MINDWALC node classification algorithm, specifically targeting its capacity to extract human-interpretable decision trees from knowledge graph (KG) architectures. We propose techniques to tailor MINDWALC for environments where the knowledge graph is bifurcated into internal background knowledge (domain-specific data) and instance knowledge (specific case data). While the core logic of MINDWALC—utilizing discriminative graph walks as features—is preserved, we introduce two primary enhancements. First, we implement relation-tail merging to empower the algorithm to process relation-modified nodes. Second, we propose flexible walking depths that, when combined with the original MINDWALC strategy, improve the detection of commonalities between node instances. Our findings suggest that these flexible walks can markedly increase classification accuracy in hierarchical or incomplete tree-like graphs, though performance varies on more heterogeneous KG structures. Ultimately, this work demonstrates that our refinements significantly boost MINDWALC’s utility in tree-structured environments, allowing the system to use background knowledge to bridge gaps in instance data in a transparent way. Initial evaluations on medical toy datasets suggest these optimizations could refine clinical decision-making, particularly in sectors requiring explainable artificial intelligence.

In recent years, considerable attention has been directed toward clarifying complex, opaque systems, commonly referred to as black-box models, including deep neural networks and random forests. So-called model-agnostic techniques generally approximate the outputs of these non-transparent systems using an interpretable architecture, ignoring the internal mechanisms of the primary black-box system itself. Consequently, it remains an important inquiry whether the straightforward training of transparent, white-box architectures ought to be favored over the post-hoc approximation of these opaque models. This study presents the findings of an empirical investigation comparing post-hoc explanatory methods against inherently interpretable architectures across multiple datasets, focusing on both rule-based and feature-based frameworks. The empirical outcomes indicate that directly trained transparent models frequently approximate black-box models with an accuracy that matches or exceeds that of post-hoc surrogate models, despite lacking direct access to the underlying black-box structure.

We introduce and execute a transparent machine learning classification model designed for Explainable AI (XAI) that leverages expressive Boolean formulas. Potential domains of use include credit risk evaluation and medical diagnostics. The system utilizes a Boolean formula to establish a rule with adjustable complexity (or interpretability) for categorizing input data. This formula accommodates any operator applicable to single or multiple Boolean variables, offering superior expressivity relative to more rigid rule- and tree-based methodologies. Native local optimization methods are used to train the classifier, allowing for an efficient search of the feasible formula space. Fast Integer Linear Programming (ILP) or Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) solvers—potentially enhanced by custom hardware or quantum systems—can identify shallow rules. By executing non-local moves that optimize across subtrees of the complete Boolean formula, we merge the expressivity and efficiency of the native local optimizer with the rapid processing capabilities of these devices. We present comprehensive numerical benchmarking data against multiple baseline models using recognized public datasets. The findings indicate that the native local rule classifier performs competitively with alternative models. Incorporating non-local moves yields comparable outcomes with a reduced number of iterations. Consequently, deploying specialized or quantum hardware could provide substantial acceleration by rapidly generating non-local moves.

Artificial intelligence increasingly informs consequential decisions, yet high predictive performance alone does not establish that an intelligent system is worthy of trust. This systematic review examines trustworthy AI as a multidimensional, socio-technical, and lifecycle-dependent research domain. It synthesises selected peer-reviewed journal evidence addressing transparency, interpretability, explainability, robustness, safety, privacy, security, fairness, accountability, governance, and meaningful human oversight. The review applies predefined questions, eligibility principles, trustworthiness-dimension mapping, claim-level evidence extraction, and cross-dimensional synthesis without undertaking meta-analysis or inventing quantitative screening results. The evidence indicates that transparency and explanation must be assessed in relation to fidelity, stability, completeness, usefulness, stakeholder needs, contestability, recourse, and the practical authority of human overseers. Robustness and safety require evaluation under adversarial conditions, uncertainty, context shift, system failure, and residual risk, while privacy-preserving approaches must still be examined for leakage, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and governance limitations. Fairness depends on context-sensitive definitions, bias identification, distributional consequences, documentation, responsibility allocation, auditability, and institutional mechanisms for correction. Cross-dimensional analysis reveals persistent tensions between transparency and privacy, explainability and security, automation and human control, and performance and fairness. Important gaps remain in multidimensional evaluation, realistic human-oversight studies, explanation-usefulness validation, lifecycle monitoring, accountability operationalisation, stakeholder participation, and foundation-model assurance. The review contributes an integrated evidence synthesis showing that AI worthiness of trust should be supported through coordinated technical validation, human-centred assessment, institutional governance, and continuing monitoring rather than inferred from any isolated property.

Explainability has become central to discussions of trustworthy and responsible intelligent systems, yet it is frequently reduced to the technical production of information about model structure, features, rules, or predictions. This critical review examines why opening a computational black box is not equivalent to producing an explanation that people can understand or use responsibly. The review synthesises conceptual, technical, human-centred, decisional, and accountability-oriented scholarship to evaluate the shift from model interpretability toward meaningful explanation. It distinguishes technical properties such as transparency, fidelity, plausibility, completeness, stability, and local or global scope from human outcomes such as comprehension, cognitive accessibility, mental-model development, decision usefulness, calibrated trust, and appropriate reliance. It further examines how explanations may produce overreliance, underreliance, automation bias, false reassurance, cognitive overload, or explanation mismatch when their content and presentation are not aligned with users, tasks, uncertainty, and decision consequences. From an accountability perspective, explanations may contribute to auditability, traceability, contestability, and recourse, but they cannot independently assign responsibility, provide institutional authority, or guarantee effective remedies. The main contribution is a human-centred critical synthesis that treats explainability as a socio-technical achievement rather than a model output. Meaningful explanation requires technical credibility, cognitive accessibility, contextual relevance, decision-sensitive evaluation, uncertainty communication, opportunities for challenge, and governance mechanisms capable of acting on explanatory evidence. The review therefore rejects universal explanation-sufficiency claims and identifies conditions under which explanations may assist understanding and responsible decision use without being treated as proof of trustworthiness, accountability, fairness, safety, or deployment readiness.

Explainable artificial intelligence increasingly offers diverse ways to communicate how intelligent systems operate, yet explanation selection is still frequently driven by method availability or model compatibility rather than stakeholder need. This article develops a stakeholder-oriented taxonomy for determining which explanation type may be appropriate for whom, at which decision moment, and for what purpose. Explanation is treated as a multiform system capability encompassing different scopes, reasoning functions, presentation modes, interaction patterns, and quality requirements. The taxonomy distinguishes global explanations concerned with model-level behaviour from local explanations directed at individual predictions, while clarifying the roles and limitations of feature attribution, saliency, surrogate models, rule extraction, transparency, fidelity, stability, and completeness. It further differentiates counterfactual, contrastive, and causal explanations according to their contributions to alternative reasoning, actionability, contestability, recourse, and accountability. Example-based, case-based, prototype, rule-based, natural-language, interactive, dialogue-based, adaptive, and personalized explanations are positioned according to user expertise, cognitive accessibility, task demands, and interaction context. The proposed taxonomy connects explanation families with stakeholder roles, pre-decision, during-decision, and post-decision timing, explanation purpose, decision consequence, uncertainty, trust calibration, human oversight, and accountability requirements. Its central contribution is a structured selection logic that moves beyond technical method categories toward stakeholder–purpose–timing–risk alignment. The taxonomy can guide explanation design and evaluation but does not independently establish understanding, fairness, recourse, accountability, legal sufficiency, trustworthiness, or deployment readiness. Stakeholder-specific and decision-context-specific validation therefore remains necessary.