What if Tomorrow is the World Cup Final? Counterfactual Time Series Forecasting with Textual Conditions

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Gu, Shuqi, Zhao, Yongxiang, Jing, Baoyu, Ren, Kan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Gu, Shuqi
Zhao, Yongxiang
Jing, Baoyu
Ren, Kan
author_facet Gu, Shuqi
Zhao, Yongxiang
Jing, Baoyu
Ren, Kan
contents Time series forecasting has become increasingly critical in real-world scenarios, where future sequences are influenced not only by historical patterns but also by forthcoming events. In this context, forecasting must dynamically adapt to complex and stochastic future conditions, which introduces fundamental challenges in both forecasting and evaluation. Traditional methods typically rely on historical data or factual future conditions, while overlooking counterfactual scenarios. Furthermore, many existing approaches are restricted to simple structured conditions, limiting their ability to generalize to the real-world complexities. To address these gaps, we introduce the task of counterfactual time series forecasting with textual conditions, enabling more flexible and condition-aware forecasting. We propose a comprehensive evaluation framework that encompasses both factual and counterfactual settings, even in the absence of ground truth time series. Additionally, we present a novel text-attribution mechanism that distinguishes mutable from immutable factors, thereby improving forecast accuracy under sophisticated and stochastic textual conditions. The project page is at https://seqml.github.io/TADiff/
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_14422
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle What if Tomorrow is the World Cup Final? Counterfactual Time Series Forecasting with Textual Conditions
Gu, Shuqi
Zhao, Yongxiang
Jing, Baoyu
Ren, Kan
Machine Learning
Time series forecasting has become increasingly critical in real-world scenarios, where future sequences are influenced not only by historical patterns but also by forthcoming events. In this context, forecasting must dynamically adapt to complex and stochastic future conditions, which introduces fundamental challenges in both forecasting and evaluation. Traditional methods typically rely on historical data or factual future conditions, while overlooking counterfactual scenarios. Furthermore, many existing approaches are restricted to simple structured conditions, limiting their ability to generalize to the real-world complexities. To address these gaps, we introduce the task of counterfactual time series forecasting with textual conditions, enabling more flexible and condition-aware forecasting. We propose a comprehensive evaluation framework that encompasses both factual and counterfactual settings, even in the absence of ground truth time series. Additionally, we present a novel text-attribution mechanism that distinguishes mutable from immutable factors, thereby improving forecast accuracy under sophisticated and stochastic textual conditions. The project page is at https://seqml.github.io/TADiff/
title What if Tomorrow is the World Cup Final? Counterfactual Time Series Forecasting with Textual Conditions
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14422