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Main Authors: Huang, Yingsong, Guo, Hui, Huang, Jing, Bai, Bing, Xiong, Qi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14625
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author Huang, Yingsong
Guo, Hui
Huang, Jing
Bai, Bing
Xiong, Qi
author_facet Huang, Yingsong
Guo, Hui
Huang, Jing
Bai, Bing
Xiong, Qi
contents The rapid progress of diffusion models highlights the growing need for detecting generated images. Previous research demonstrates that incorporating diffusion-based measurements, such as reconstruction error, can enhance the generalizability of detectors. However, ignoring the differing impacts of aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty on reconstruction error can undermine detection performance. Aleatoric uncertainty, arising from inherent data noise, creates ambiguity that impedes accurate detection of generated images. As it reflects random variations within the data (e.g., noise in natural textures), it does not help distinguish generated images. In contrast, epistemic uncertainty, which represents the model's lack of knowledge about unfamiliar patterns, supports detection. In this paper, we propose a novel framework, Diffusion Epistemic Uncertainty with Asymmetric Learning~(DEUA), for detecting diffusion-generated images. We introduce Diffusion Epistemic Uncertainty~(DEU) estimation via the Laplace approximation to assess the proximity of data to the manifold of diffusion-generated samples. Additionally, an asymmetric loss function is introduced to train a balanced classifier with larger margins, further enhancing generalizability. Extensive experiments on large-scale benchmarks validate the state-of-the-art performance of our method.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14625
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Diffusion Epistemic Uncertainty with Asymmetric Learning for Diffusion-Generated Image Detection
Huang, Yingsong
Guo, Hui
Huang, Jing
Bai, Bing
Xiong, Qi
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
The rapid progress of diffusion models highlights the growing need for detecting generated images. Previous research demonstrates that incorporating diffusion-based measurements, such as reconstruction error, can enhance the generalizability of detectors. However, ignoring the differing impacts of aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty on reconstruction error can undermine detection performance. Aleatoric uncertainty, arising from inherent data noise, creates ambiguity that impedes accurate detection of generated images. As it reflects random variations within the data (e.g., noise in natural textures), it does not help distinguish generated images. In contrast, epistemic uncertainty, which represents the model's lack of knowledge about unfamiliar patterns, supports detection. In this paper, we propose a novel framework, Diffusion Epistemic Uncertainty with Asymmetric Learning~(DEUA), for detecting diffusion-generated images. We introduce Diffusion Epistemic Uncertainty~(DEU) estimation via the Laplace approximation to assess the proximity of data to the manifold of diffusion-generated samples. Additionally, an asymmetric loss function is introduced to train a balanced classifier with larger margins, further enhancing generalizability. Extensive experiments on large-scale benchmarks validate the state-of-the-art performance of our method.
title Diffusion Epistemic Uncertainty with Asymmetric Learning for Diffusion-Generated Image Detection
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14625