Autoregressive Generative Adversarial Networks
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) learn a generative model by playing an adversarial game between a generator and an auxiliary discriminator, which classifies data samples vs. generated ones. However, it does not explicitly model feature co-occurrences in samples. In this paper, we propose a novel Autoregressive Generative Adversarial Network (ARGAN), that models the latent distribution of data using an autoregressive model, rather than relying on binary classification of samples into data/generated categories. In this way, feature co-occurrences in samples can be more efficiently captured. Our model was evaluated on two widely used datasets: CIFAR-10 and STL-10. Its performance is competitive with respect to other GAN models both quantitatively and qualitatively.
 This paper proposes a new GAN model whereby the discriminator (rather than being a binary classifier) consists of an encoding network followed by an autoregressive model on the encoded features. The discriminator is trained to maximize the probability of the true data and minimize the probability of the generated samples. The authors also propose a version that combines this autoregressive discriminator with a patchGAN discriminator. The authors train this model on cifar10 and stl10 and show reasonable generations and inception scores, comparing the latter with existing approaches. Pros: This discriminator architecture is well motivated, intuitive and novel. the samples are good (though not better than existing approaches as far as I can tell). The paper is also well written and easy to read. Cons: As is commonly the case with GAN models, it is difficult to assess the advantage of this approach over exiting techniques. The samples generated form this model look fine, but not better than existing samples. The inception scores are ok, but seem to be outperformed by other models (though this shouldn*t necessarily be taken as a critique of the approach presented here as inception scores are an approximation to what we care about and we should not be trying to tune models for better inception scores). Detailed comments: - In terms of experiments, I think think paper is missing the following: (1) An additional dataset -- cifar and stl10 are very similar, a face dataset for example would be good to see and is commonly used in GAN papers. (2) the authors claim their method is stable, so it would be good to see quantitative results backing this claim, i.e. sweeps over hyper-parameters / encoding/generator architectures with evaluations for different settings. - the idea of having some form of recurrent (either over channels of spatially) processing in the discriminator seems more general that the specific proposal given here. Could the authors say a bit more about what they think the effects of adding recurrence in the discriminator vs optimizing the likelihood of the features under the autoregressive model? Ultimately, the approach is interesting but there is not enough empirical evaluations.
You are a member of the scientific community tasked with peer review. Review the following paper title and abstract.
### Title + Abstract
Autoregressive Generative Adversarial Networks
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) learn a generative model by playing an adversarial game between a generator and an auxiliary discriminator, which classifies data samples vs. generated ones. However, it does not explicitly model feature co-occurrences in samples. In this paper, we propose a novel Autoregressive Generative Adversarial Network (ARGAN), that models the latent distribution of data using an autoregressive model, rather than relying on binary classification of samples into data/generated categories. In this way, feature co-occurrences in samples can be more efficiently captured. Our model was evaluated on two widely used datasets: CIFAR-10 and STL-10. Its performance is competitive with respect to other GAN models both quantitatively and qualitatively.
user
<think>Okay, to do a decent peer review, I should start with summarizing what the work is about. This includes novelty, contributions, clarity, and impact. I might include suggestions to issues that I find critical to the usefulness of the work. Starting with novelty, there are different types of novelty. The first aspect of novelty is scope and scale. Is the work covering a broader perspective than previous works? The second aspect is methodology. Is the proposed methodology novel compared to previous methods? Do they provide any significant advantage over previous methodologies? The third aspect is results. Are the results different compared previous work? Does this lead to any novel theories or an extension of current theories? Next is clarity, I will be reading the work in depth and analyze if any sentences can be potentially ambiguous or misleading. If any sentences are ambiguous, I will state them and give a suggestion on how to rephrase such sentence or how to make more clear to the audience. Lastly, impact is important. I will attempt to predict how such work will impact the scientific community. This might include the applications of such work and how the work might transform the way we study a certain topic. Finally, I will might only mention issues that are critical. This is to keep the review as concise and helpful as possible.</think>



 This paper proposes a new GAN model whereby the discriminator (rather than being a binary classifier) consists of an encoding network followed by an autoregressive model on the encoded features. The discriminator is trained to maximize the probability of the true data and minimize the probability of the generated samples. The authors also propose a version that combines this autoregressive discriminator with a patchGAN discriminator. The authors train this model on cifar10 and stl10 and show reasonable generations and inception scores, comparing the latter with existing approaches. Pros: This discriminator architecture is well motivated, intuitive and novel. the samples are good (though not better than existing approaches as far as I can tell). The paper is also well written and easy to read. Cons: As is commonly the case with GAN models, it is difficult to assess the advantage of this approach over exiting techniques. The samples generated form this model look fine, but not better than existing samples. The inception scores are ok, but seem to be outperformed by other models (though this shouldn*t necessarily be taken as a critique of the approach presented here as inception scores are an approximation to what we care about and we should not be trying to tune models for better inception scores). Detailed comments: - In terms of experiments, I think think paper is missing the following: (1) An additional dataset -- cifar and stl10 are very similar, a face dataset for example would be good to see and is commonly used in GAN papers. (2) the authors claim their method is stable, so it would be good to see quantitative results backing this claim, i.e. sweeps over hyper-parameters / encoding/generator architectures with evaluations for different settings. - the idea of having some form of recurrent (either over channels of spatially) processing in the discriminator seems more general that the specific proposal given here. Could the authors say a bit more about what they think the effects of adding recurrence in the discriminator vs optimizing the likelihood of the features under the autoregressive model? Ultimately, the approach is interesting but there is not enough empirical evaluations.
assistant
 This paper proposes a new GAN model whereby the discriminator (rather than being a binary classifier) consists of an encoding network followed by an autoregressive model on the encoded features. The discriminator is trained to maximize the probability of the true data and minimize the probability of the generated samples. The authors also propose a version that combines this autoregressive discriminator with a patchGAN discriminator. The authors train this model on cifar10 and stl10 and show reasonable generations and inception scores, comparing the latter with existing approaches. Pros: This discriminator architecture is well motivated, intuitive and novel. the samples are good (though not better than existing approaches as far as I can tell). The paper is also well written and easy to read. Cons: As is commonly the case with GAN models, it is difficult to assess the advantage of this approach over exiting techniques. The samples generated form this model look fine, but not better than existing samples. The inception scores are ok, but seem to be outperformed by other models (though this shouldn*t necessarily be taken as a critique of the approach presented here as inception scores are an approximation to what we care about and we should not be trying to tune models for better inception scores). Detailed comments: - In terms of experiments, I think think paper is missing the following: (1) An additional dataset -- cifar and stl10 are very similar, a face dataset for example would be good to see and is commonly used in GAN papers. (2) the authors claim their method is stable, so it would be good to see quantitative results backing this claim, i.e. sweeps over hyper-parameters / encoding/generator architectures with evaluations for different settings. - the idea of having some form of recurrent (either over channels of spatially) processing in the discriminator seems more general that the specific proposal given here. Could the authors say a bit more about what they think the effects of adding recurrence in the discriminator vs optimizing the likelihood of the features under the autoregressive model? Ultimately, the approach is interesting but there is not enough empirical evaluations.