Gradient Flow Drifting: Generative Modeling via Wasserstein Gradient Flows of KDE-Approximated Divergences
We reveal a precise mathematical framework about a new family of generative models which we call Gradient Flow Drifting. With this framework, we prove an equivalence between the recently proposed Drifting Model and the Wasserstein gradient flow of the forward KL divergence under kernel density estimation (KDE) approximation. Specifically, we prove that the drifting field of drifting model (arXiv:2602.04770) equals, up to a bandwidth-squared scaling factor, the difference of KDE log-density gradients $\nabla \log p_{\mathrm{kde}} - \nabla \log q_{\mathrm{kde}}$, which is exactly the particle velocity field of the Wasserstein-2 gradient flow of $KL(q\|p)$ with KDE-approximated densities. Be...
| Authors | Jiarui Cao, Zixuan Wei, Yuxin Liu |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.LG |
| Published | 11 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 11 March 2026 |
Silytics shows public metadata from arXiv and links to the original. Information may be incomplete or out of date. Last refreshed 17 October 2026. Licenses and terms of the original apply to the work itself. Not financial, legal or professional advice.