Towards a Golden Classifier-Free Guidance Path via Foresight Fixed Point Iterations

Kaibo Wang, Jianda Mao, Tong Wu, Yang Xiang

Keywords: Classifier-free guidance, Diffusion models, Fixed point iteration

Abstract: Classifier-Free Guidance (CFG) is an essential component of text-to-image diffusion models, and understanding and advancing its operational mechanisms remains a central focus of research. Existing approaches stem from divergent theoretical interpretations, thereby limiting the design space and obscuring key design choices. To address this, we propose a unified perspective that reframes conditional guidance as fixed point iterations, seeking to identify a golden path where latents produce consistent outputs under both conditional and unconditional generation. We demonstrate that CFG and its variants constitute a special case of single-step short-interval iteration, which is theoretically proven to exhibit inefficiency. To this end, we introduce Foresight Guidance (FSG), which prioritizes solving longer-interval subproblems in early diffusion stages with increased iterations. Extensive experiments across diverse datasets and model architectures validate the superiority of FSG over state-of-the-art methods in both image quality and computational efficiency. Our work offers novel perspectives for conditional guidance and unlocks the potential of adaptive design.

Primary Area: Deep learning (e.g., architectures, generative models, optimization for deep networks, foundation models, LLMs)

Submission Number: 23177