Diffusion Models: From Foundations to a Working Application
A Tokyo AI technical session exploring diffusion models, from flow matching and core design choices to diffusion language models and applications in discrete domains.
Programme in preparation. November 18, 2026 is the preferred date, with November 20 as a fallback depending on speaker availability. The schedule, venue and speaker lineup are provisional.
What we will explore
Foundations of diffusion and flow matching.
Diffusion language models and their design choices.
Concrete applications in text and other discrete domains.
Who should attend
ML practitioners, AI engineers, researchers and research students interested in understanding diffusion models through technical explanations and concrete examples.
Proposed programme
Welcome and introduction.
Three complementary technical talks, with Q&A.
Discussion and networking.
Detailed timings will be added once the speakers and venue are confirmed.
Confirmed speaker and talk
Understanding Diffusion and Flow Matching
Xuan Zhang, Machine Learning Engineer, SmartNews
This talk will introduce the core ideas behind diffusion models and flow matching, with an emphasis on intuition rather than mathematical derivation. I’ll focus on the physical intuition behind the generative process, how the main ideas connect, and use a few demos to make the concepts more concrete. I may also include some recent developments as I prepare the final talk.
About the speaker
Xuan Zhang is a machine learning engineer at SmartNews in Tokyo, working on recommendation systems and large-scale ML systems. He previously worked on computer vision and deep learning research at Megvii, and later on computer vision applications at Ant Financial. His current interests include generative modeling, representation learning, and practical ML systems.
The talk title and abstract are provisional and may be refined before the event.
Additional topics under consideration
Diffusion LLMs
Text diffusion
Additional speakers and talk details will be announced once confirmed.
Location
Tokyo. Venue to be confirmed.