mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

The Infinite Index: Information Retrieval on Generative Text-To-Image Models

arXiv 2212.07476 ↗First posted 14 Dec 2022cs.IR cs.CL cs.CVcited by 6

On the map: Diffusion models → Image generation, text-to-image and editing

Abstract (arXiv)

Conditional generative models such as DALL-E and Stable Diffusion generate images based on a user-defined text, the prompt. Finding and refining prompts that produce a desired image has become the art of prompt engineering. Generative models do not provide a built-in retrieval model for a user's information need expressed through prompts. In light of an extensive literature review, we reframe prompt engineering for generative models as interactive text-based retrieval on a novel kind of "infinite index". We apply these insights for the first time in a case study on image generation for game design with an expert. Finally, we envision how active learning may help to guide the retrieval of generated images.

Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 37 of its 110 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Dec 2022.

Builds on

37 of 110 references.

Closest ancestors · 5

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2022Diffusion Art or Digital Forgery? Investigating Data Replication in Diffusion Models7 Dec
  2. 2022eDiff-I: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with an Ensemble of Expert Denoisers2 Nov
  3. 2022Imagic: Text-Based Real Image Editing with Diffusion Models17 Oct
  4. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding23 May
  5. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents13 Apr

Other references · 32

  1. 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,456
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
  3. 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,185
  4. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,005
  5. 2022Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,603
  6. 2021Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generationcited by 4,276
  7. 2022DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusioncited by 3,006
  8. 2018Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesiscited by 2,609
  9. 2022An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversioncited by 2,231
  10. 2022Imagen Video: High Definition Video Generation with Diffusion Modelscited by 1,765
  11. 2016MS MARCO: A Human Generated MAchine Reading COmprehension Datasetcited by 1,591
  12. 2021LAION-400M: Open Dataset of CLIP-Filtered 400 Million Image-Text Pairscited by 1,544
20 more
  1. 2019Generating Diverse High-Fidelity Images with VQ-VAE-2cited by 1,376
  2. 2021Prompt Programming for Large Language Models: Beyond the Few-Shot Paradigmcited by 599
  3. 2019Defending Against Neural Fake Newscited by 553
  4. 2021Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Facial Priorcited by 347
  5. 2022Transformer Memory as a Differentiable Search Indexcited by 242
  6. 2019Document Expansion by Query Predictioncited by 225
  7. 2021Design Guidelines for Prompt Engineering Text-to-Image Generative Modelscited by 216
  8. 2022Co-Writing Screenplays and Theatre Scripts with Language Models: An Evaluation by Industry Professionalscited by 191
  9. 2021Bias Out-of-the-Box: An Empirical Analysis of Intersectional Occupational Biases in Popular Generative Language Modelscited by 141
  10. 2022Autoregressive Search Engines: Generating Substrings as Document Identifierscited by 112
  11. 2022A Neural Corpus Indexer for Document Retrievalcited by 107
  12. 2022Do Language Models Plagiarize?cited by 72
  13. 2019The Limitations of Stylometry for Detecting Machine-Generated Fake Newscited by 63
  14. 2021Revisiting Uncertainty-based Query Strategies for Active Learning with Transformerscited by 59
  15. 2022Bridging the Gap Between Indexing and Retrieval for Differentiable Search Index with Query Generationcited by 47
  16. 2022Opal: Multimodal Image Generation for News Illustrationcited by 36
  17. 2021TripClick: The Log Files of a Large Health Web Search Enginecited by 18
  18. 2022ORCAS-I: Queries Annotated with Intent using Weak Supervisioncited by 7
  19. 2022Lecture Notes on Neural Information Retrievalcited by 7
  20. 2022Can Old TREC Collections Reliably Evaluate Modern Neural Retrieval Models?cited by 5

Built on by

Cited by year

Citing papers per year: 2023: 2; 2024: 3; 2025: 1.

6 papers.

  1. 2023Evaluating Generative Ad Hoc Information Retrievalcited by 11
  2. 2023Manipulating Embeddings of Stable Diffusion Promptscited by 8
  3. 2024Generative Information Retrieval Evaluationcited by 7
  4. 2024Harnessing Federated Generative Learning for Green and Sustainable Internet of Thingscited by 1
  5. 2024Offline Evaluation of Set-Based Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1
  6. 2025AutoICE: Automatically Synthesizing Verifiable C Code via LLM-driven Evolutioncited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025GenIR: Generative Visual Feedback for Mental Image Retrieval
  2. 2024PQPP: A Joint Benchmark for Text-to-Image Prompt and Query Performance Prediction
  3. 2025ImageRAG: Dynamic Image Retrieval for Reference-Guided Image Generation
  4. 2022Best Prompts for Text-to-Image Models and How to Find Them
  5. 2024PromptCharm: Text-to-Image Generation through Multi-modal Prompting and Refinement
  6. 2024TIGeR: Unifying Text-to-Image Generation and Retrieval with Large Multimodal Models
  7. 2025Reward-Agnostic Prompt Optimization for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models
  8. 2024Batch-Instructed Gradient for Prompt Evolution:Systematic Prompt Optimization for Enhanced Text-to-Image Synthesis