Introduction to Diffusion Models for Generative AI
Chapter 1: Generative Modeling Fundamentals
Overview of Generative Models
Motivation for Diffusion Models
The Core Idea: Noise and Denoise
Probabilistic Framework Introduction
Quiz for Chapter 1
Chapter 2: The Forward Diffusion Process
Defining the Markov Chain
Gaussian Noise Schedule
Mathematical Formulation per Step
Sampling from Intermediate Steps
Properties of the Forward Process
Practice: Simulating Forward Diffusion
Quiz for Chapter 2
Chapter 3: The Reverse Diffusion Process
The Goal: Reversing the Markov Chain
Approximating the Reverse Transition
Parameterizing the Reverse Process with Neural Networks
Predicting the Noise Component
Mathematical Formulation of the Denoising Step
Quiz for Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Model Architecture and Training
The U-Net Architecture for Noise Prediction
Integrating Timestep Information
Defining the Training Objective
Simplified Training Loss Derivation
The Training Algorithm
Hands-on Practical: Setting up the U-Net
Quiz for Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Sampling and Generation Process
Generating Data from Noise
The DDPM Sampling Algorithm
Understanding Sampling Variance
Introduction to Faster Sampling: DDIM
The DDIM Sampling Algorithm
Trade-offs Between DDPM and DDIM
Practice: Implementing Sampling Loops
Quiz for Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Conditional Generation with Diffusion Models
Motivation for Conditional Generation
Classifier Guidance
Classifier-Free Guidance (CFG)
Implementing Classifier-Free Guidance
Text Conditioning Basics
Architecture Modifications for Conditioning
Hands-on Practical: Applying Guidance
Quiz for Chapter 6
Defining the Markov Chain
New · Open Source
Kerb - LLM Development Toolkit
Python toolkit for building production-ready LLM applications. Modular utilities for prompts, RAG, agents, structured outputs, and multi-provider support.
Was this section helpful?
- Markov Chains, James R. Norris, 1997 (Cambridge University Press) DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511810633 - This textbook provides a foundational introduction to the theory and applications of Markov chains, serving as a reliable reference for their mathematical properties and definitions.
- Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models, Jonathan Ho, Ajay Jain, and Pieter Abbeel, 2020 Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, Vol. 33 (Curran Associates, Inc.) DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2006.11239 - This paper introduced Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models, explicitly defining the forward diffusion process as a fixed Markov chain that progressively adds Gaussian noise.