# METER: Multi-modal Evidence-based Thinking and Explainable Reasoning -- Algorithm and Benchmark

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.16206 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16206/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 25 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03300/) (2024)
- [Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18290/) (2023)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06072/) (2024)
- [Neural Codec Language Models are Zero-Shot Text to Speech Synthesizers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02111/) (2023)
- [DIRE for Diffusion-Generated Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09295/) (2023)
- [GenImage: A Million-Scale Benchmark for Detecting AI-Generated Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08571/) (2023)
- [A Sanity Check for AI-generated Image Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.19435/) (2024)
- [FakeAVCeleb: A Novel Audio-Video Multimodal Deepfake Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05080/) (2021)
- [ForgeryNet: A Versatile Benchmark for Comprehensive Forgery Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.05630/) (2021)
- [ASVspoof 2021: Towards Spoofed and Deepfake Speech Detection in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02437/) (2022)
- [FakeShield: Explainable Image Forgery Detection and Localization via Multi-modal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02761/) (2024)
- [AV-Deepfake1M: A Large-Scale LLM-Driven Audio-Visual Deepfake Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15308/) (2023)
- [Spot the Fake: Large Multimodal Model-Based Synthetic Image Detection with Artifact Explanation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14905/) (2025)
- [Ivy-Fake: A Unified Explainable Framework and Benchmark for Image and Video AIGC Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00979/) (2025)
- [UMMAFormer: A Universal Multimodal-adaptive Transformer Framework for Temporal Forgery Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.14395/) (2023)
- [Toward Generalizable Forgery Detection and Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21210/) (2025)
- [Identity-Driven Multimedia Forgery Detection via Reference Assistance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.11764/) (2024)
- [Harnessing Chain-of-Thought Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models for Face Anti-Spoofing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.01783/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Video-LMM Post-Training: A Deep Dive into Video Reasoning with Large Multimodal Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05034/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

With the rapid advancement of generative AI, synthetic content across images, videos, and audio has become increasingly realistic, amplifying the risk of misinformation. Existing detection approaches predominantly focus on binary classification while lacking detailed and interpretable explanations of forgeries, which limits their applicability in safety-critical scenarios. Moreover, current methods often treat each modality separately, without a unified benchmark for cross-modal forgery detection and interpretation. To address these challenges, we introduce METER, a unified, multi-modal benchmark for interpretable forgery detection spanning images, videos, audio, and audio-visual content. Our dataset comprises four tracks, each requiring not only real-vs-fake classification but also evidence-chain-based explanations, including spatio-temporal localization, textual rationales, and forgery type tracing. Compared to prior benchmarks, METER offers broader modality coverage and richer interpretability metrics such as spatial/temporal IoU, multi-class tracing, and evidence consistency. We further propose a human-aligned, three-stage Chain-of-Thought (CoT) training strategy combining SFT, DPO, and a novel GRPO stage that integrates a human-aligned evaluator with CoT reasoning. We hope METER will serve as a standardized foundation for advancing generalizable and interpretable forgery detection in the era of generative media.