mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Prompt Tuning with Diffusion for Few-Shot Pre-trained Policy Generalization

arXiv 2411.01168 ↗First posted 2 Nov 2024cs.LG cs.AIcited by 6

On the map: Offline RL and imitation learning from data → Diffusion and flow policies for offline RL

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) methods harness previous experiences to derive an optimal policy, forming the foundation for pre-trained large-scale models (PLMs). When encountering tasks not seen before, PLMs often utilize several expert trajectories as prompts to expedite their adaptation to new requirements. Though a range of prompt-tuning methods have been proposed to enhance the quality of prompts, these methods often face optimization restrictions due to prompt initialization, which can significantly constrain the exploration domain and potentially lead to suboptimal solutions. To eliminate the reliance on the initial prompt, we shift our perspective towards the generative model, framing the prompt-tuning process as a form of conditional generative modeling, where prompts are generated from random noise. Our innovation, the Prompt Diffuser, leverages a conditional diffusion model to produce prompts of exceptional quality. Central to our framework is the approach to trajectory reconstruction and the meticulous integration of downstream task guidance during the training phase. Further experimental results underscore the potency of the Prompt Diffuser as a robust and effective tool for the prompt-tuning process, demonstrating strong performance in the meta-RL tasks.

Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and flow policies for offline RL, one of 13 directions in Offline RL and imitation learning from data. Builds on 43 of its 45 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 2 Nov 2024.

Builds on

43 of 45 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023MetaDiffuser: Diffusion Model as Conditional Planner for Offline Meta-RL31 May
  2. 2023Goal-Conditioned Imitation Learning using Score-based Diffusion Policies5 Apr
  3. 2022Is Conditional Generative Modeling all you need for Decision-Making?28 Nov
  4. 2022Diffusion Policies as an Expressive Policy Class for Offline Reinforcement Learning12 Aug

Other references · 39

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
  2. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  4. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
  5. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,355
  6. 2018Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actorcited by 4,885
  7. 2021Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generationcited by 4,288
  8. 2021Prefix-Tuning: Optimizing Continuous Prompts for Generationcited by 3,915
  9. 2021The Power of Scale for Parameter-Efficient Prompt Tuningcited by 3,795
  10. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,761
  11. 2018Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methodscited by 2,417
  12. 2017FiLM: Visual Reasoning with a General Conditioning Layercited by 2,333
27 more
  1. 2021Learning to Prompt for Vision-Language Modelscited by 2,281
  2. 2021Pre-train, Prompt, and Predict: A Systematic Survey of Prompting Methods in Natural Language Processingcited by 2,234
  3. 2019Similarity of Neural Network Representations Revisitedcited by 1,755
  4. 2021Decision Transformer: Reinforcement Learning via Sequence Modelingcited by 1,546
  5. 2022Conditional Prompt Learning for Vision-Language Modelscited by 1,433
  6. 2020Gradient Surgery for Multi-Task Learningcited by 1,256
  7. 2019Meta-World: A Benchmark and Evaluation for Multi-Task and Meta Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,204
  8. 2022Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesiscited by 1,061
  9. 2022Diffusion-LM Improves Controllable Text Generationcited by 1,027
  10. 2022A Generalist Agentcited by 808
  11. 2023Imitating Human Behaviour with Diffusion Modelscited by 263
  12. 2021PPT: Pre-trained Prompt Tuning for Few-shot Learningcited by 232
  13. 2022Multi-Game Decision Transformerscited by 214
  14. 2023Diverse Data Augmentation with Diffusions for Effective Test-time Prompt Tuningcited by 154
  15. 2022Prompting Decision Transformer for Few-Shot Policy Generalizationcited by 146
  16. 2023Diffusion Model is an Effective Planner and Data Synthesizer for Multi-Task Reinforcement Learningcited by 115
  17. 2020Offline Meta-Reinforcement Learning with Advantage Weightingcited by 93
  18. 2023Hierarchical Integration Diffusion Model for Realistic Image Deblurringcited by 88
  19. 2023Towards Faster Non-Asymptotic Convergence for Diffusion-Based Generative Modelscited by 85
  20. 2023Intelligent Grimm -- Open-ended Visual Storytelling via Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 77
  21. 2024Learning Multi-Agent Communication from Graph Modeling Perspectivecited by 48
  22. 2022On Transforming Reinforcement Learning by Transformer: The Development Trajectorycited by 36
  23. 2023Hyper-Decision Transformer for Efficient Online Policy Adaptationcited by 33
  24. 2024Q-value Regularized Transformer for Offline Reinforcement Learningcited by 29
  25. 2023Graph Decision Transformercited by 20
  26. 2023Prompt-Tuning Decision Transformer with Preference Rankingcited by 19
  27. 2024HarmoDT: Harmony Multi-Task Decision Transformer for Offline Reinforcement Learningcited by 14

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 4; 2026: 1.

6 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025LLM-Driven Policy Diffusion: Enhancing Generalization in Offline Reinforcement Learning
  2. 2025Prior-Guided Diffusion Planning for Offline Reinforcement Learning
  3. 2025PromptLoop: Plug-and-Play Prompt Refinement via Latent Feedback for Diffusion Model Alignment
  4. 2024Simple Hierarchical Planning with Diffusion
  5. 2024Diffusion Models as Optimizers for Efficient Planning in Offline RL
  6. 2024Pre-trained Language Models Improve the Few-shot Prompt Ability of Decision Transformer
  7. 2024Learning from Random Demonstrations: Offline Reinforcement Learning with Importance-Sampled Diffusion Models
  8. 2022Offline Reinforcement Learning via High-Fidelity Generative Behavior Modeling