Some theoretical properties of GANs

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Abstract: Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are a class of generative algorithms that have been shown to produce state-of-the art samples, especially in the domain of image creation. The fundamental principle of GANs is to approximate the unknown distribution of a given data set by optimizing an objective function through an adversarial game between a family of generators and a family of discriminators. In this paper, we offer a better theoretical understanding of GANs by analyzing some of their mathematical and statistical properties. We study the deep connection between the adversarial principle underlying GANs and the Jensen-Shannon divergence, together with some optimality characteristics of the problem. An analysis of the role of the discriminator family via approximation arguments is also provided. In addition, taking a statistical point of view, we study the large sample properties of the estimated distribution and prove in particular a central limit theorem. Some of our results are illustrated with simulated examples.


The Generative Adversarial Networks, GANs, are generative algorithms implemented by a system of two neural networks competing to each other in a zero-sum game framework. GANs have been introduced by \textit{I. Goodfellow} et al., [``Generative adversarial nets, Adv. Neural Inf. Proc. Sys. 27, 2672--2680 (2014)]. The aim of the present paper is to present a theoretical investigation of the original GANs algorithm. In the second section some optimality properties of the generative process in terms of Jensen-Shannon divergence are analyzed. The third section is devoted to approximation properties and one shows that the Jensen-Shannon divergence is a suitable criterion. Statistical properties are extensively discussed in the fourth section. Large sample properties of the parameter describing the empirically selected generator are studied. Conclusions and further research are presented in the fifth section and the proofs of results are contained in the section six.




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