mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Conditioning Gaussian Processes on Almost Anything

arXiv 2605.21041 ↗First posted 20 May 2026stat.ML cs.LG stat.MEcited by 3

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

Gaussian processes (GPs) offer a principled probabilistic model over functions, but exact inference is restricted to the linear-Gaussian regime. We establish an explicit equivalence between GPs and a class of linear diffusion models, recasting predictive sampling as an ODE with closed-form Gaussian dynamics and a likelihood-dependent guidance term that admits a simple Monte Carlo approximation. In the linear-Gaussian setting, we recover standard GP conditioning exactly; beyond conjugacy, the same machinery handles any conditioning statement admitting point-wise likelihood evaluation -- including non-linear physics, and, for the first time, natural language via large language models. Whitening isolates the irreducible non-Gaussian dynamics, minimising Wasserstein-2 transport cost and eliminating numerical stiffness. The result is a general-purpose GP inference scheme requiring no bespoke derivations. Together, these results provide a general mechanism for incorporating the full richness of real-world knowledge as conditioning information, opening a new frontier for the probabilistic modelling of real-world problems.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 36 of its 60 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 May 2026.

Builds on

36 of 60 references.

References · 36

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  2. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 8,964
  3. 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,717
  4. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,426
  5. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,736
  6. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,550
  7. 2022DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Stepscited by 1,961
  8. 2022Diffusion Posterior Sampling for General Noisy Inverse Problemscited by 1,375
  9. 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 964
  10. 2013Gaussian Processes for Big Datacited by 377
  11. 2015Kernel Interpolation for Scalable Structured Gaussian Processes (KISS-GP)cited by 175
  12. 2024A Survey on Diffusion Models for Inverse Problemscited by 173
24 more
  1. 2023Manifold Preserving Guided Diffusioncited by 153
  2. 2026Qwen3.5-Omni Technical Reportcited by 146
  3. 2017Machine Learning of Linear Differential Equations using Gaussian Processescited by 139
  4. 2021Solving and Learning Nonlinear PDEs with Gaussian Processescited by 128
  5. 2020Efficiently Sampling Functions from Gaussian Process Posteriorscited by 125
  6. 2014Hilbert Space Methods for Reduced-Rank Gaussian Process Regressioncited by 88
  7. 2024Vanilla Bayesian Optimization Performs Great in High Dimensionscited by 87
  8. 2025The Principles of Diffusion Modelscited by 70
  9. 2017Linearly constrained Gaussian processescited by 41
  10. 2022Preference Exploration for Efficient Bayesian Optimization with Multiple Outcomescited by 41
  11. 2022Physics-Informed Gaussian Process Regression Generalizes Linear PDE Solverscited by 40
  12. 2016Preconditioning Kernel Matricescited by 32
  13. 2016A probabilistic model for the numerical solution of initial value problemscited by 32
  14. 2018Probabilistic Solutions To Ordinary Differential Equations As Non-Linear Bayesian Filtering: A New Perspectivecited by 31
  15. 2022AutoIP: A United Framework to Integrate Physics into Gaussian Processescited by 20
  16. 2019Gaussian processes with linear operator inequality constraintscited by 16
  17. 2022Constraining Gaussian Processes to Systems of Linear Ordinary Differential Equationscited by 14
  18. 2024Free Hunch: Denoiser Covariance Estimation for Diffusion Models Without Extra Costscited by 14
  19. 2024Computation-Aware Gaussian Processes: Model Selection And Linear-Time Inferencecited by 8
  20. 2013Bayesian Monotone Regression using Gaussian Process Projectioncited by 7
  21. 2024Physics-Informed Variational State-Space Gaussian Processescited by 7
  22. 2018Posterior Projection for Inference in Constrained Spacescited by 3
  23. 2025Bayesian Optimization with Preference Exploration using a Monotonic Neural Network Ensemblecited by 1
  24. 2026LLM Flow Processes for Text-Conditioned Regressioncited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Memory-Conditioned Diffusion Model for Generalized Langevin Dynamics
  2. 2024Conditioning non-linear and infinite-dimensional diffusion processes
  3. 2025Predictive posterior sampling from non-stationnary Gaussian process priors via Diffusion models with application to climate data
  4. 2026Why Gaussian Diffusion Models Fail on Discrete Data and How to Prevent It?
  5. 2026A Plug-in Interpretation of Conditioning in Score-Based Diffusion Models
  6. 2023Towards Efficient Modeling and Inference in Multi-Dimensional Gaussian Process State-Space Models
  7. 2025Information-Theoretic Proofs for Diffusion Sampling
  8. 2025Diffusion Models: A Mathematical Introduction