Hybrid

Florentin Guth, Postdoctoral Researcher in Science of Deep Learning, New York University and Flatiron Institute

Mon Oct 27, 2025 4:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m.
Florentin Guth, Postdoctoral Researcher in Science of Deep Learning, New York University and Flatiron Institute

Kline Tower, 13th Floor, Rm. 1327 

Title: Learning normalized probability models with dual score matching

Abstract: Learning probability models from data is at the heart of many learning tasks. We introduce a new framework for learning normalized energy (log probability) models inspired from diffusion generative models. The energy model is fitted to data by two “score matching” objectives: the first constrains the gradient of the energy (the “score”, as in diffusion models), while the second constrains its *time derivative* along the diffusion. We validate the approach on both synthetic and natural image data: in particular, we show that the estimated log probabilities do not depend on the specific images used during training. Finally, we demonstrate that both image probability and local dimensionality vary significantly with image content, challenging simple interpretations of the manifold hypothesis.

Bio: Florentin Guth is a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Data Science at NYU and a Research Fellow in the Center for Computational Neuroscience at the Flatiron Institute. He previously completed his PhD at École Normale Supérieure in Paris advised by Stéphane Mallat. He is interested in improving our scientific understanding of deep learning: answering why neural networks generalize, what are their inductive biases, and what properties of natural data underlies their success.

3:30pm - Pre-talk meet and greet teatime - 219 Prospect Street, 13 floor, there will be light snacks and beverages in the kitchen area.  For more details and upcoming events visit our website at https://statistics.yale.edu/calendar.