DIAGNOSTIC TOOL FOR DEEP LEARNING SIMILARITY MODELS

A diagnostic tool for deep learning similarity models and image classifiers provides valuable insight into neural network decision-making. A disclosed solution generates a saliency map by: receiving a baseline image and a test image; determining, with a convolutional neural network (CNN), a first similarity between the baseline image and the test image; based on at least determining the first similarity, determining, for the test image, a first activation map for at least one CNN layer; based on at least determining the first similarity, determining, for the test image, a first gradient map for the at least one CNN layer; and generating a first saliency map as an element-wise function of the first activation map and the first gradient map. Some examples further determine a region of interest (ROI) in the first saliency map, cropping the test image to an area corresponding to the ROI, and determine a refined similarity score.