Abstract

Current generative models like generative adversarial networks (GANs) and variational autoencoders (VAEs) have attracted huge attention due to its capability to generate visual realistic images. However, most of the existing models suffer from the mode collapse or mode mixture problems. In this work, we give a theoretic explanation of the both problems by Figalli’s regularity theory of optimal transportation maps. Basically, the generator compute the transportation maps between the white noise distributions and the data distributions, which are in general discontinuous. However, deep neural networks (DNNs) can only represent continuous maps. This intrinsic conflict induces mode collapse and mode mixture. In order to tackle the both problems, we explicitly separate the manifold embedding and the optimal transportation; the first part is carried out using an autoencoder (AE) to map the images onto the latent space; the second part is accomplished using a GPU-based convex optimization to find the discontinuous transportation maps. Composing the extended optimal transport (OT) map and the decoder, we can finally generate new images from the white noise. This AE-OT model avoids representing discontinuous maps by DNNs, therefore effectively prevents mode collapse and mode mixture.