ICSE 2026
Sun 12 - Sat 18 April 2026 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Thu 16 Apr 2026 15:00 - 15:15 at Oceania VII - Software Engineering for AI 5 Chair(s): Stefan Wagner

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is a crucial domain within research and industry, aiming to develop AI models that provide human-understandable explanations for their decisions. While the challenges in AI, deep learning, and big data have been extensively explored, the specific concerns of XAI developers have received limited attention. To address this gap, we analysed discussions on Stack Exchange websites to delve into these issues. Through a combination of automated and Manual analysis, we identified 6 overarching categories, 10 distinct topics, and 40 sub-topics commonly discussed by developers. Our examination revealed a steady rise in discussions on XAI since late 2015, initially focusing on conceptualisation and practical applications, with a notable surge in activity across all topic categories since 2019. Notably, Concepts and Applications, Tools Troubleshooting, and Neural Networks Interpretation emerged as the most popular topics. Troubleshooting challenges were commonly encountered with tools like SHAP, ELI5, and AIF360, while visualisation issues were prevalent with Yellowbrick and SHAP. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that addressing questions related to XAI poses greater difficulty compared to other machine-learning questions.

Thu 16 Apr

Displayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change

14:00 - 15:30
Software Engineering for AI 5Research Track / Journal-first Papers / New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER) at Oceania VII
Chair(s): Stefan Wagner Technical University of Munich
14:00
15m
Talk
Logging requirement for continuous auditing of responsible machine learning-based applications
Journal-first Papers
Foalem Patrick Loic Polytechnique Montréal, Leuson Da Silva Polytechnique Montreal, Foutse Khomh Polytechnique Montréal, Heng Li Polytechnique Montréal, Ettore Merlo Polytechnique Montreal
14:15
15m
Talk
Model Cards for Responsible AI: Stop Carding, Start Modelling
New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER)
Kalvin Thuan-Phong Khuu McMaster University, McSCert, Nicolas Lacroix Université Côte d'Azur, I3S, Baptiste Lacroix McMaster University, McSCert, Richard Paige McMaster University, Mireille Blay-Fornarino Université Côte d'Azur, I3S, Sébastien Mosser McMaster University
14:30
15m
Talk
Redundancy as the Shadow of Explainability: A Trade-Off Principle for AI-Intensive Systems
New Ideas and Emerging Results (NIER)
Yan Liu Concordia University, Jun Huang Concordia University, Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, Zheng Li Queen's University Belfast, UK
14:45
15m
Talk
FairFLRep: Fairness aware fault localization and repair of Deep Neural Networks
Journal-first Papers
Moses Openja Polytechnique Montreal, Paolo Arcaini National Institute of Informatics, Foutse Khomh Polytechnique Montréal, Fuyuki Ishikawa National Institute of Informatics
Link to publication DOI
15:00
15m
Talk
Exploring the black box: analysing explainable AI challenges and best practices through stack exchange discussionsVirtual Attendance
Journal-first Papers
Mohammad Mahdi Sayyadnejad Shiraz University, Ali Asgari TU Delft, Ashkan Sami Edinburgh Napier University, Hooman Tahayori Shiraz University
Link to publication DOI Media Attached
15:15
15m
Talk
SustainDiffusion: Optimising the Social and Environmental Sustainability of Stable Diffusion Models
Research Track
Giordano d'Aloisio University of L'Aquila, Tosin Fadahunsi University College London, Jay Choy University College London, Rebecca Moussa University College London, Federica Sarro University College London
Pre-print