Advancements In Image Synthesis And Efficiency Through DDPM And Latent Diffusion Models

Ruichen Zhao, Yanzheng Wu, Longtian Ye

April 2024

Abstract

In essence, the story of generative models is one of balance—between tractability(computation) and flexibility (complexity). They are two conflicting objectives because tractable models, while easy to evaluate and efficient at fitting data, often struggle to capture complex structures in rich datasets. Conversely, flexible models excel at modeling intricate data patterns but come with high cost for evaluating, training or sampling. Diffusion model represents an advancement as it manages to combine these qualities, providing both analytical tractability with ability to handle complex data structures. However, despite of the attempts proposed to make the process much faster and more efficient, including LDM and other methods such as Improved DDPM by Nichol et al. in 2021, diffusion model still face challenges with efficiency and speed. This is primarily attributed to their reliance on long Markov Chain of diffusion steps or multiple forward passes for sample generation. This lag compared to its alternatives like GANs, highlights a critical area for future improvements.

Bibtex

@inproceedings{article1,
  author    = {"Ruichen Zhao, Yanzheng Wu, Longtian Ye"},
  title     = {Advancements In Image Synthesis And Efficiency Through DDPM And Latent Diffusion Models},
  abstract  = {In essence, the story of generative models is one of balance—between tractability(computation)
               and flexibility (complexity). They are two conflicting objectives because tractable models,
               while easy to evaluate and efficient at fitting data, often struggle to capture complex structures
               in rich datasets. Conversely, flexible models excel at modeling intricate data patterns
               but come with high cost for evaluating, training or sampling. Diffusion model represents an
               advancement as it manages to combine these qualities, providing both analytical tractability
               with ability to handle complex data structures. However, despite of the attempts proposed
               to make the process much faster and more efficient, including LDM and other methods
               such as Improved DDPM by Nichol et al. in 2021, diffusion model still face challenges with
               efficiency and speed. This is primarily attributed to their reliance on long Markov Chain of
               diffusion steps or multiple forward passes for sample generation. This lag compared to its
               alternatives like GANs, highlights a critical area for future improvements.},
  year      = {2024}
}