Dreaming in Flow: Generative Grounding Feedback for Self-Evolving Unified Multimodal Models
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Abstract (arXiv)
Unified multimodal models integrate visual understanding and generation within a single network, yet the two capabilities are commonly optimized as separate tasks. We introduce Generative Grounding Feedback(GGF), a self-evolving post-training framework that uses only text prompts and the model's own visual experience. Given a prompt, the model first generates a visual ``dream.'' Flow-level feedback compares text-, image-, and repair-conditioned predictions at the same noisy latent state, transferring image-grounded generation directions to the prompt condition. Dream replay grounding replays this dream through captioning and re-imagination, training claim-level evidence to remain consistent across the replay while separating unrelated visual experiences. Jointly optimized, these two directions let generation provide visual grounding for understanding and understanding refine subsequent generation without paired image--text supervision. Experiments across unified models with different understanding--generation integration designs show consistent improvements in text-to-image generation together with modest gains in visual understanding.
Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 27 of its 36 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 Sep 2026.
Builds on
27 of 36 references.
References · 27
- 2023GenEval: An Object-Focused Framework for Evaluating Text-to-Image Alignmentcited by 972
- 2024Chameleon: Mixed-Modal Early-Fusion Foundation Modelscited by 927
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- 2024Transfusion: Predict the Next Token and Diffuse Images with One Multi-Modal Modelcited by 483
- 2024ELLA: Equip Diffusion Models with LLM for Enhanced Semantic Alignmentcited by 475
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- 2023Unified-IO 2: Scaling Autoregressive Multimodal Models with Vision, Language, Audio, and Actioncited by 302
15 more
- 2025Show-o2: Improved Native Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 250
- 2024MetaMorph: Multimodal Understanding and Generation via Instruction Tuningcited by 206
- 2024ILLUME: Illuminating Your LLMs to See, Draw, and Self-Enhancecited by 64
- 2023Divide, Evaluate, and Refine: Evaluating and Improving Text-to-Image Alignment with Iterative VQA Feedbackcited by 32
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- 2025Unified Multimodal Models as Auto-Encoderscited by 13
- 2025Understanding-in-Generation: Reinforcing Generative Capability of Unified Model via Infusing Understanding into Generationcited by 11
- 2025Turning Internal Gap into Self-Improvement: Promoting the Generation-Understanding Unification in MLLMscited by 10
- 2026Endogenous Reprompting: Self-Evolving Cognitive Alignment for Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 7
- 2026Ask, Solve, Generate: Self-Evolving Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation via Self-Consistency Rewardscited by 7
- 2026Learning to Generate via Understanding: Understanding-Driven Intrinsic Rewarding for Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 6
- 2026Understanding vs. Generation: Navigating Optimization Dilemma in Multimodal Modelscited by 5
- 2026Steering Visual Generation in Unified Multimodal Models with Understanding Supervisioncited by 3
- 2026Generation as Auxiliary Supervision: Enhancing Visual Understanding at Zero Inference Overhead via Decoupled Embedding Predictioncited by 1
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.
3 papers.