Understanding vs. Generation: Navigating Optimization Dilemma in Multimodal Models

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15772v1
• Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 18:04:13 GMT
• Title: Understanding vs. Generation: Navigating Optimization Dilemma in Multimodal Models
• Authors: Sen Ye, Mengde Xu, Shuyang Gu, Di He, Liwei Wang, Han Hu,
• Abstract summary: We propose a framework to address the potential conflict between generation and understanding in a multimodal model.<n>By explicitly leveraging the model's understanding capability during generation, we successfully mitigate the optimization dilemma.<n>This offers valuable insights for designing next-generation unified multimodal models.
• Score: 21.9391057771634
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Current research in multimodal models faces a key challenge where enhancing generative capabilities often comes at the expense of understanding, and vice versa. We analyzed this trade-off and identify the primary cause might be the potential conflict between generation and understanding, which creates a competitive dynamic within the model. To address this, we propose the Reason-Reflect-Refine (R3) framework. This innovative algorithm re-frames the single-step generation task into a multi-step process of "generate-understand-regenerate". By explicitly leveraging the model's understanding capability during generation, we successfully mitigate the optimization dilemma, achieved stronger generation results and improved understanding ability which are related to the generation process. This offers valuable insights for designing next-generation unified multimodal models. Code is available at https://github.com/sen-ye/R3.

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