Generative AI and stochastic thermodynamics : a tale of free energies / Max Welling, Sirui Lu, Lars Holdijk

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Welling, Max, author.

Lu, Sirui, author.

Holdijk, Lars, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Generative artificial intelligence.

Statistical thermodynamics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"Originating from lectures delivered at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, this book presents a unifying perspective on traditional and modern methods in generative AI and stochastic thermodynamics. By relating the core topics in machine learning to the notion of (variational) free-energy, a bridge is built between methods such as latent variable models, variational auto-encoders, optimal control, optimal transport, normalizing flows and diffusion models and concepts such as entropy production and fluctuation theorems in stochastic thermodynamics. Structured into three main parts, the book commences by setting up the required mathematical and statistical physics preliminaries needed to make it broadly accessible. The largest part of the book then focuses on building intuition of major advances in generative AI by considering discrete time processes and their relationship to topics in stochastic thermodynamics. Finally, the authors take a short excursion to the continuous time domain for the more advanced learner"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

Why stochastic thermodynamics of machine learning?

Mathematical preliminaries

Neural network preliminaries

Physics preliminaries

Latent variable models and graphical models

Thermodynamics of probabilistic machine learning

Belief propagation

The variational autoencoder

Normalizing flows

Markov processes and time reversal

Stochastic thermodynamics

Markov chain Monte Carlo

Sequential importance sampling

Variational diffusion models

Schrödinger bridges

Optimal control

Generative flow networks

Fluctuation theorems

Free energy estimation

Escorted free energy estimations and fluctuation theorems

Hybrid stochastic flows and surjective flows

Stochastic thermodynamics from the Fokker-Planck equation

Optimal transport and Schrödinger bridge

Continuous normalizing flows and flow matching

Unification : Free energy is all you need

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed August 3, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Welling, Max Generative AI and stochastic thermodynamics

ISBN:

9781009709071

1009709070

9781009709026

100970902X

OCLC:

1577210497

Publisher Number:

CIPO000392242

CIPO000406792

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license