Game of GANs: Game-Theoretical Models for Generative Adversarial Networks
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Abstract (arXiv)
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have recently attracted considerable attention in the AI community due to its ability to generate high-quality data of significant statistical resemblance to real data. Fundamentally, GAN is a game between two neural networks trained in an adversarial manner to reach a zero-sum Nash equilibrium profile. Despite the improvement accomplished in GANs in the last few years, several issues remain to be solved. This paper reviews the literature on the game theoretic aspects of GANs and addresses how game theory models can address specific challenges of generative model and improve the GAN's performance. We first present some preliminaries, including the basic GAN model and some game theory background. We then present taxonomy to classify state-of-the-art solutions into three main categories: modified game models, modified architectures, and modified learning methods. The classification is based on modifications made to the basic GAN model by proposed game-theoretic approaches in the literature. We then explore the objectives of each category and discuss recent works in each category. Finally, we discuss the remaining challenges in this field and present future research directions.
Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 50 of its 94 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 13 Jun 2021.
Builds on
50 of 94 references.
References · 50
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38 more
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2023: 2; 2024: 2; 2025: 2.
6 papers.
- 2023Reinforcement Learning for Generative AI: A Surveycited by 11
- 2024Rethinking Teacher-Student Curriculum Learning through the Cooperative Mechanics of Experiencecited by 1
- 2025QCA-MolGAN: Quantum Circuit Associative Molecular GAN with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
- 2023ApproxED: Approximate exploitability descent via learned best responsescited by 0
- 2024The Bid Picture: Auction-Inspired Multi-player Generative Adversarial Networks Trainingcited by 0
- 2025Nested Annealed Training Scheme for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 0
- 2025QCA-MolGAN: Quantum Circuit Associative Molecular GAN with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning5 Sep 2025
- 2025Nested Annealed Training Scheme for Generative Adversarial Networks20 Jan 2025
- 2024Rethinking Teacher-Student Curriculum Learning through the Cooperative Mechanics of Experience3 Apr 2024
- 2024The Bid Picture: Auction-Inspired Multi-player Generative Adversarial Networks Training20 Mar 2024
- 2023Reinforcement Learning for Generative AI: A Survey28 Aug 2023
- 2023ApproxED: Approximate exploitability descent via learned best responses20 Jan 2023