Abstract: Approximating a probability distribution using a discrete set of points is a fundamental task in modern scientific computation, with applications in uncertainty quantification. We discuss recent advances in this area, including the use of Stein discrepancies and various optimization techniques. In particular, we introduce Stein-Message-Passing Monte Carlo (Stein-MPMC), an extension of the original Message-Passing Monte Carlo model and the first machine-learning algorithm for generating low-discrepancy (space-filling) point sets. Additionally, we present a generalized Subset Selection algorithm, a simpler yet highly effective optimization method.