arXiv Machine Learning

The Diffusion-Attention Connection

arXiv:2604. 09560v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Softmax attention is the row-normalized operator of a diffusion map: both normalize a learned score into a Markov operator, and differ only in what the score is allowed to contain.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 5

Masks Can Be Distracting: On Context Comprehension in Diffusion Language Models

arXiv:2511. 21338v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Masked Diffusion Language Models (MDLMs) have recently emerged as a promising alternative to Autoregressive Language Models (ARLMs), leveraging a denoising objective that, in principle, should enable more uniform context utilisation.

By Julianna Piskorz, Cristina Pinneri, Alvaro Correia, Motasem Alfarra, Risheek Garrepalli, Christos Louizos
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jun 10

Beyond Fully Random Masking: Attention-Guided Denoising and Optimization for Diffusion Language Models

Diffusion large language models (dLLMs) offer an efficient alternative to autoregressive models through parallel decoding, yet existing post-training methods largely rely on random masking strategies that overlook intrinsic token dependencies. In this work, we present an empirical analysis of attention in dLLMs and show that tokens attending more strongly to unmasked context exhibit greater generation stability and play a critical role in reasoning.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 11

Self-Attention as Transport: Limits of Symmetric Spectral Diagnostics

arXiv:2605. 04893v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: When a language model processes a hallucinated response, its attention routing tends to fail in one of two shapes: over-concentrating on a narrow set of positions, or spreading so diffusely that relevance is diluted, and the shape of the failure carries diagnostic signal.

By Dominik Dahlem, Diego Maniloff, Mac Misiura
arXiv AI
Jul 23

Geometric Attention: A Regime-Explicit Operator Semantics for Transformer Attention

arXiv:2601. 11618v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Geometric Attention (GA) specifies an attention layer by four independent inputs: a finite carrier (what indices are addressable), an evidence-kernel rule (how masked proto-scores and a link induce nonnegative weights), a probe family (which observables are treated as admissible), and an anchor/update rule (which representative kernel is selected and how it is applied).

By Luis Rosario Freytes
arXiv AI
Jul 29

PreDiff-LM: Pretrained Discrete Masked Diffusion Language Modeling with Hybrid Attention

arXiv:2607. 25157v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Discrete masked diffusion language models support bidirectional generation and infilling, but adapting pretrained autoregressive (AR) transformers requires reconciling causal pretraining with bidirectional denoising.

By Zhengtao Yao, Runhao Li, Xupeng Chen, Jiayi Cheng, Chenqian Le, Michael Yue, Jesson Wang, Siheng Wang, Guang Yang, Haoyan Xu, Chenhao Wei, Zhengqing Yuan, Youran Shen, Yanfang Ye, Junhao Dong