Flow Matching with General Discrete Paths: A Kinetic-Optimal Perspective

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Shaul, Neta, Gat, Itai, Havasi, Marton, Severo, Daniel, Sriram, Anuroop, Holderrieth, Peter, Karrer, Brian, Lipman, Yaron, Chen, Ricky T. Q.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866913597812113408
author Shaul, Neta
Gat, Itai
Havasi, Marton
Severo, Daniel
Sriram, Anuroop
Holderrieth, Peter
Karrer, Brian
Lipman, Yaron
Chen, Ricky T. Q.
author_facet Shaul, Neta
Gat, Itai
Havasi, Marton
Severo, Daniel
Sriram, Anuroop
Holderrieth, Peter
Karrer, Brian
Lipman, Yaron
Chen, Ricky T. Q.
contents The design space of discrete-space diffusion or flow generative models are significantly less well-understood than their continuous-space counterparts, with many works focusing only on a simple masked construction. In this work, we aim to take a holistic approach to the construction of discrete generative models based on continuous-time Markov chains, and for the first time, allow the use of arbitrary discrete probability paths, or colloquially, corruption processes. Through the lens of optimizing the symmetric kinetic energy, we propose velocity formulas that can be applied to any given probability path, completely decoupling the probability and velocity, and giving the user the freedom to specify any desirable probability path based on expert knowledge specific to the data domain. Furthermore, we find that a special construction of mixture probability paths optimizes the symmetric kinetic energy for the discrete case. We empirically validate the usefulness of this new design space across multiple modalities: text generation, inorganic material generation, and image generation. We find that we can outperform the mask construction even in text with kinetic-optimal mixture paths, while we can make use of domain-specific constructions of the probability path over the visual domain.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_03487
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Flow Matching with General Discrete Paths: A Kinetic-Optimal Perspective
Shaul, Neta
Gat, Itai
Havasi, Marton
Severo, Daniel
Sriram, Anuroop
Holderrieth, Peter
Karrer, Brian
Lipman, Yaron
Chen, Ricky T. Q.
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
The design space of discrete-space diffusion or flow generative models are significantly less well-understood than their continuous-space counterparts, with many works focusing only on a simple masked construction. In this work, we aim to take a holistic approach to the construction of discrete generative models based on continuous-time Markov chains, and for the first time, allow the use of arbitrary discrete probability paths, or colloquially, corruption processes. Through the lens of optimizing the symmetric kinetic energy, we propose velocity formulas that can be applied to any given probability path, completely decoupling the probability and velocity, and giving the user the freedom to specify any desirable probability path based on expert knowledge specific to the data domain. Furthermore, we find that a special construction of mixture probability paths optimizes the symmetric kinetic energy for the discrete case. We empirically validate the usefulness of this new design space across multiple modalities: text generation, inorganic material generation, and image generation. We find that we can outperform the mask construction even in text with kinetic-optimal mixture paths, while we can make use of domain-specific constructions of the probability path over the visual domain.
title Flow Matching with General Discrete Paths: A Kinetic-Optimal Perspective
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.03487