LADD models improve discrete diffusion for faster language generation.
problem Practical discrete diffusion models ignore cross-token dependencies, degrading performance.
method Introduces a learnable auxiliary latent channel, diffusing over the joint (token, latent) space.
result LADD models yield improvements on unconditional generation metrics.
A new model for time series using discrete latent states.
problem Efficiently modeling time series data with discrete latent states.
method A Markov chain-based model for training high-dimensional discrete latent data.
result Improved performance on time series datasets.
Proposes a VAE with a discrete bottleneck for better text generation.
problem VAEs struggle with latent variable auto-regressive decoding in text generation.
method Introduces a discretized bottleneck to enforce latent feature matching in a compact space.
result Demonstrates improved text generation capabilities across various tasks.
GFlowNet-EM learns complex latent variable models with discrete structures.
problem Challenges in modeling posteriors over discrete compositional latents with expectation-maximization.
method Uses GFlowNets to learn stochastic policies for sampling from complex posterior distributions.
result GFlowNet-EM enables training expressive LVMs with discrete compositional latents.
A new method for generative modeling of discrete data using geometric latent subspaces.
problem Learning generative models for discrete data with statistical dependencies.
method Geometric latent-subspace framework in exponential parameter space of product manifolds of categorical distributions.
result Low-dimensional latent space encodes statistical dependencies and accurately models high-dimensional discrete data.
Generative models with both discrete and continuous latent variables are highly motivated by the structure of many real-world data sets. They present, however, subtleties in training often manifesting in the discrete latent being under leveraged. In this paper, we show that such models are more amenable to training whe…
Direct optimization of binary latent VAEs achieves competitive results without sampling.
problem Training VAEs with discrete latent variables using standard methods is challenging.
method Applied evolutionary algorithms to directly optimize discrete latent distributions.
result Direct optimization is efficient and competitive in zero-shot learning.
GLAD improves latent graph generation by quantizing discrete latent space.
problem Latent space graph generative models lack performance and make unnatural assumptions.
method Adapting diffusion bridges to a discrete latent space, avoiding data space decompositions.
result GLAD achieves competitive performance on graph benchmark datasets.
Improved hierarchical discrete VAEs for better stability and performance.
problem Training stable and efficient hierarchical discrete VAEs with numerous latent variables.
method Introducing Relaxed-Responsibility Vector-Quantisation to parameterise discrete latent variables in a hierarchical structure.
result Achieved state-of-the-art bits-per-dim results for various standard datasets.
CADD improves generative quality by augmenting discrete diffusion with continuous latent space.
problem Loss of semantic information between denoising steps in discrete diffusion models.
method Introduces a framework that augments discrete state space with a continuous latent space, allowing for graded, informative masked tokens.
result CADD improves generative quality across text generation, image synthesis, and code modeling.
This text explores strategies for learning discrete latent structures in neural networks.
problem Learning discrete latent structures in neural networks is challenging.
method Continuous relaxation, surrogate gradients, and probabilistic estimation.
result Many latent structure learning strategies use the same fundamental building blocks but apply them differently.
A new method reduces variance in training discrete latent variable models.
problem High variance in stochastic gradient estimators for discrete latent variable models.
method Double control variates for score function estimators using Taylor expansions.
result Our method can have lower variance compared to other estimators.
DCRL learns causal relationships from mixed-type discrete data.
problem Challenges in learning causal relationships from discrete, mixed-type data.
method Generative framework modeling directed acyclic graph and sparse bipartite graph, flexible measurement models for different types of data.
result Consistent recovery of latent causal structure from observed data distribution.
Deep Discrete Encoders (DDEs) tackle interpretable generative models for rich data with discrete latent layers.
problem Overparametrized, non-identifiable, and uninterpretable deep generative models in high-stakes applications.
method Directed graphical model with multiple binary latent layers, transparent identifiability conditions, scalable estimation pipeline.
result Transparent identifiability conditions and scalable estimation pipeline for interpretable DDEs.
New method for efficient marginalization of discrete latent variables in neural networks.
problem Computational challenges in training models with discrete latent variables.
method Parameterizing discrete distributions using sparse mappings (sparsemax and structured variants) to reduce support and enable efficient marginalization.
result Achieved good performance in various tasks with efficient and practical training.
NES optimizes discrete structured VAEs effectively without gradient propagation.
problem Learning high-dimensional discrete latent spaces in generative models.
method Natural Evolution Strategies (NES) for gradient-free optimization of discrete structures.
result NES effectively optimizes discrete structured VAEs, comparable to gradient-based methods.
Proposes a non-parametric method for deep discrete latent variable models.
problem Learning sparse discrete latent representations in deep models.
method Iterative algorithm with Beta-Bernoulli process prior and local data scaling.
result Improves sparsity and scalability of deep discrete latent variable models.
Probabilistic models with discrete latent variables naturally capture datasets composed of discrete classes. However, they are difficult to train efficiently, since backpropagation through discrete variables is generally not possible. We present a novel method to train a class of probabilistic models with discrete late…
New estimators reduce variance in training variational autoencoders with discrete latent variables.
problem Training variational autoencoders with discrete latent variables requires efficient gradient estimation.
method Introduce ReinMax-Rao and ReinMax-CV estimators using Rao-Blackwellisation and control variates.
result Demonstrate superior performance on training variational autoencoders with discrete latent spaces.
A new method for discrete data normalizing flows using latent transformations.
problem Challenges in parameterizing bijective transformations for discrete data.
method Predict a distribution over latent transformations to make the marginal likelihood differentiable.
result Discrete-data normalizing flows can be trained using gradient-based learning with unbiased score function estimation.
New spectral clustering method handles discrete covariates for better community detection.
problem Community detection in networks with discrete covariates.
method Spectral algorithm that separates latent network structure from observed covariates.
result Achieves perfect clustering with high probability in large, sparse networks.
New JSA autoencoders tackle discrete latent variable models for semi-supervised learning.
problem Handling discrete observations and latent codes in deep generative models.
method Joint-stochastic-approximation (JSA) autoencoders that directly maximize data log-likelihood and minimize KL divergence.
result JSA autoencoders achieve comparable performance to continuous latent space models in semi-supervised tasks.
Training of discrete latent variable models remains challenging because passing gradient information through discrete units is difficult. We propose a new class of smoothing transformations based on a mixture of two overlapping distributions, and show that the proposed transformation can be used for training binary lat…
In this work we present Discrete Attend Infer Repeat (Discrete-AIR), a Recurrent Auto-Encoder with structured latent distributions containing discrete categorical distributions, continuous attribute distributions, and factorised spatial attention. While inspired by the original AIR model andretaining AIR model's capabi…
Framework estimates multiple plausible solutions with uncertainty measures.
problem Machine learning models need to propose multiple plausible solutions with meaningful uncertainty.
method Discrete latent variables model one-to-many mappings, allowing effective conditional probability estimation.
result Framework outperforms state-of-the-art in uncertainty estimation and is practical.
New method learns disentangled discrete representations using categorical variational autoencoders.
problem Learning disentangled representations from discrete latent spaces.
method Replaced standard Gaussian VAE with a categorical VAE to mitigate rotational invariance.
result Categorical distributions improve learning of disentangled representations.
We present a framework for learning disentangled and interpretable jointly continuous and discrete representations in an unsupervised manner. By augmenting the continuous latent distribution of variational autoencoders with a relaxed discrete distribution and controlling the amount of information encoded in each latent…
Improved training for VQ-VAE models with robust codebook learning.
problem Challenges in training discrete latent variable models, especially VQ-VAEs.
method Increased learning rate and periodic re-initialization of codebook for robust training.
result More robust training and increased usage of latent codewords, even for large codebooks.
Discrete diffusion samplers improve sampling from unnormalised densities.
problem Sampling from discrete unnormalised densities efficiently.
method Introduce off-policy training techniques and data-to-energy Schrödinger bridge training for discrete diffusion samplers.
result Improved performance on synthetic and new benchmarks.
NegBio-VAE models neural spike counts with negative binomial distribution.
problem Limited biological plausibility of continuous latent variables in VAEs for neural spike modeling.
method Proposes a negative binomial latent-variable model with a dispersion parameter for overdispersed spike count modeling.
result NegBio-VAE outperforms competing models in reconstruction and generation tasks.
Each training step for a variational autoencoder (VAE) requires us to sample from the approximate posterior, so we usually choose simple (e.g. factorised) approximate posteriors in which sampling is an efficient computation that fully exploits GPU parallelism. However, such simple approximate posteriors are often insuf…
A new test for conditional independence in discretized data.
problem Testing conditional independence when only discretized observations are available.
method Proposes a conditional independence test designed for discretized observations, using bridge equations to recover latent variables' information.
result Demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed test through theoretical and empirical validation.
A new gradient estimator reduces variance near boundaries for binary latent variables.
problem Explosive gradient variance near boundaries in binary latent variable models.
method Introduces a new gradient estimator (bitflip-1) and an aggregated estimator (UGC) that uses either bitflip-1 or DisARM for each coordinate.
result UGC has uniformly lower variance than DisARM and achieves optimal optimization objectives.
Unsupervised framework captures acquisition variability in structural connectomes.
problem Acquisition differences across sites, scanners, and protocols complicate structural connectome analysis.
method An unsupervised framework using architectural annealing to balance discrete and continuous latent variables.
result Architectural annealing produces stronger site learning than baseline models.
New method uses joint stochastic approximation to improve learning of discrete latent models.
problem Challenges in learning discrete latent variable models, especially with inference model gradients and log-likelihood optimization.
method Proposes a new method based on stochastic approximation theory that directly maximizes the target log-likelihood and minimizes the posterior-inference model divergence.
result Consistently outperforms recent competitive algorithms in generative modeling and structured prediction tasks.
We present a mixed multinomial logit (MNL) model, which leverages the truncated stick-breaking process representation of the Dirichlet process as a flexible nonparametric mixing distribution. The proposed model is a Dirichlet process mixture model and accommodates discrete representations of heterogeneity, like a laten…
We present a semi-supervised learning algorithm for learning discrete factor analysis models with arbitrary structure on the latent variables. Our algorithm assumes that every latent variable has an "anchor", an observed variable with only that latent variable as its parent. Given such anchors, we show that it is possi…
A new model tackles language generation issues by using discrete variational attention.
problem Information under-representation and posterior collapse in variational autoencoders.
method Proposes a discrete variational attention model with categorical distribution over attention mechanism.
result Enhances latent space for language generation and avoids posterior collapse.
Formalizes concepts as latent variables in hierarchical models for high-dimensional data.
problem Lack of formalization and theoretical insights for learning discrete concepts from high-dimensional data.
method Formalizes concepts as latent causal variables in a hierarchical model, formulates conditions for concept identification.
result Conditions for identifying latent hierarchical models in unsupervised data, handling complex structures and high-dimensional data.
Flow based models such as Real NVP are an extremely powerful approach to density estimation. However, existing flow based models are restricted to transforming continuous densities over a continuous input space into similarly continuous distributions over continuous latent variables. This makes them poorly suited for m…
Unified framework for discrete diffusion modeling with flexible noising processes.
problem Efficient modeling of large discrete state spaces with arbitrary corruption dynamics.
method Generalized Discrete Diffusion from Snapshots (GDDS) framework that supports uniformization for fast noising and snapshot-based ELBO for reverse process.
result GDDS outperforms existing discrete diffusion methods in training efficiency and generation quality.
A new method for categorical variational inference using discrete normalizing flows.
problem Challenges in optimizing variational approximations for discrete latent variables.
method Differentiable reparameterization using a mixture of discrete normalizing flows.
result Improves optimization of evidence lower bound and reduces sensitivity to hyperparameters.
Reparameterization of variational auto-encoders with continuous random variables is an effective method for reducing the variance of their gradient estimates. In the discrete case, one can perform reparametrization using the Gumbel-Max trick, but the resulting objective relies on an argmax operation and is non-dif…
Deep neural networks with discrete latent variables offer the promise of better symbolic reasoning, and learning abstractions that are more useful to new tasks. There has been a surge in interest in discrete latent variable models, however, despite several recent improvements, the training of discrete latent variable m…
A new CI test avoids information loss in discretized data.
problem Incorrect CI conclusions from discretized data.
method Proposes a sample-efficient CI test using GMM and nodewise regression.
result Derives an accurate test statistic and establishes its asymptotic distribution.
This paper addresses the problem of unsupervised clustering which remains one of the most fundamental challenges in machine learning and artificial intelligence. We propose the clustered generator model for clustering which contains both continuous and discrete latent variables. Discrete latent variables model the clus…
Bayesian active learning reduces data needed for latent variable models.
problem Active learning for latent variable models, especially mixtures of linear regressions and HMMs with GLM observations.
method Maximum-mutual-information input selection for discrete latent variable regression models.
result Active learning can achieve large gains for mixtures of linear-Gaussian models and substantially reduces data needed for GLM-HMM.
Developing a dialogue agent that is capable of making autonomous decisions and communicating by natural language is one of the long-term goals of machine learning research. Traditional approaches either rely on hand-crafting a small state-action set for applying reinforcement learning that is not scalable or constructi…