mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Skywork UniPic 2.0: Building Kontext Model with Online RL for Unified Multimodal Model

arXiv 2509.04548 ↗First posted 4 Sep 2025cs.CVcited by 38

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Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in multimodal models have demonstrated impressive capabilities in unified image generation and editing. However, many prominent open-source models prioritize scaling model parameters over optimizing training strategies, limiting their efficiency and performance. In this work, we present UniPic2-SD3.5M-Kontext, a 2B-parameter DiT model based on SD3.5-Medium, which achieves state-of-the-art image generation and editing while extending seamlessly into a unified multimodal framework. Our approach begins with architectural modifications to SD3.5-Medium and large-scale pre-training on high-quality data, enabling joint text-to-image generation and editing capabilities. To enhance instruction following and editing consistency, we propose a novel Progressive Dual-Task Reinforcement strategy (PDTR), which effectively strengthens both tasks in a staged manner. We empirically validate that the reinforcement phases for different tasks are mutually beneficial and do not induce negative interference. After pre-training and reinforcement strategies, UniPic2-SD3.5M-Kontext demonstrates stronger image generation and editing capabilities than models with significantly larger generation parameters-including BAGEL (7B) and Flux-Kontext (12B). Furthermore, following the MetaQuery, we connect the UniPic2-SD3.5M-Kontext and Qwen2.5-VL-7B via a connector and perform joint training to launch a unified multimodal model UniPic2-Metaquery. UniPic2-Metaquery integrates understanding, generation, and editing, achieving top-tier performance across diverse tasks with a simple and scalable training paradigm. This consistently validates the effectiveness and generalizability of our proposed training paradigm, which we formalize as Skywork UniPic 2.0.

Key facts. Cited by 38 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 69 of its 76 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Sep 2025.

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69 of 76 references.

References · 69

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 11; 2026: 27.

38 papers.

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  1. 2025Uniworld-V2: Reinforce Image Editing with Diffusion Negative-aware Finetuning and MLLM Implicit Feedbackcited by 78
  2. 2025EditScore: Unlocking Online RL for Image Editing via High-Fidelity Reward Modelingcited by 61
  3. 2025Reconstruction Alignment Improves Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 48
  4. 2025Uni-MMMU: A Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Unified Benchmarkcited by 28
  5. 2026SenseNova-U1: Unifying Multimodal Understanding and Generation with NEO-unify Architecturecited by 27
  6. 2025Skywork-R1V4: Toward Agentic Multimodal Intelligence through Interleaved Thinking with Images and DeepResearchcited by 25
  7. 2026Generation Enhances Understanding in Unified Multimodal Models via Multi-Representation Generationcited by 19
  8. 2026Tuna-2: Pixel Embeddings Beat Vision Encoders for Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 17
  9. 2025GIR-Bench: Versatile Benchmark for Generating Images with Reasoningcited by 15
  10. 2026DeepGen 1.0: A Lightweight Unified Multimodal Model for Advancing Image Generation and Editingcited by 14
  11. 2026Quantifying the Gap between Understanding and Generation within Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 11
  12. 2026UniGRPO: Unified Policy Optimization for Reasoning-Driven Visual Generationcited by 11
26 more
  1. 2026ThinkRL-Edit: Thinking in Reinforcement Learning for Reasoning-Centric Image Editingcited by 10
  2. 2025LightFusion: A Light-weighted, Double Fusion Framework for Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 9
  3. 2025VQRAE: Representation Quantization Autoencoders for Multimodal Understanding, Generation and Reconstructioncited by 9
  4. 2026Understanding Reward Hacking in Text-to-Image Reinforcement Learningcited by 9
  5. 2025UniGen-1.5: Enhancing Image Generation and Editing through Reward Unification in Reinforcement Learningcited by 8
  6. 2026Leveraging Verifier-Based Reinforcement Learning in Image Editingcited by 8
  7. 2025I2I-Bench: A Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Image-to-Image Editing Modelscited by 7
  8. 2026Skywork UniPic 3.0: Unified Multi-Image Composition via Sequence Modelingcited by 7
  9. 2026LaViDa-R1: Advancing Reasoning for Unified Multimodal Diffusion Language Modelscited by 6
  10. 2026SpatialReward: Bridging the Perception Gap in Online RL for Image Editing via Explicit Spatial Reasoningcited by 5
  11. 2026Beyond VLM-Based Rewards: Diffusion-Native Latent Reward Modelingcited by 5
  12. 2026Visual Generation in the New Era: An Evolution from Atomic Mapping to Agentic World Modelingcited by 5
  13. 2026PlanViz: Evaluating Planning-Oriented Image Generation and Editing for Computer-Use Taskscited by 3
  14. 2026Joint Reward Modeling: Internalizing Chain-of-Thought for Efficient Visual Reward Modelscited by 3
  15. 2026CoCoEdit: Content-Consistent Image Editing via Region Regularized Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  16. 2026CyCLeGen: Cycle-Consistent Layout Prediction and Image Generation in Vision Foundation Modelscited by 3
  17. 2026Wan-Weaver: Interleaved Multi-modal Generation via Decoupled Trainingcited by 3
  18. 2025UmniBench: Unified Understand and Generation Model Oriented Omni-dimensional Benchmarkcited by 2
  19. 2026UniRef-Image-Edit: Towards Scalable and Consistent Multi-Reference Image Editingcited by 2
  20. 2026Images in Sentences: Scaling Interleaved Instructions for Unified Visual Generationcited by 2
  21. 2026Advances in GRPO for Generation Models: A Surveycited by 1
  22. 2026FUMO: Prior-Modulated Diffusion for Single Image Reflection Removalcited by 1
  23. 2026FineEdit: Fine-Grained Image Edit with Bounding Box Guidancecited by 1
  24. 2026Seeing or Knowing? Visual Context Sensitivity in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 0
  25. 2026Representation Learning in Diffusion and Flow-based Model: An Application Aspectcited by 0
  26. 2026Reasoning-Informed Visual Editingcited by 0