From Pixels to Words -- Towards Native Vision-Language Primitives at Scale

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Diao, Haiwen, Li, Mingxuan, Wu, Silei, Dai, Linjun, Wang, Xiaohua, Deng, Hanming, Lu, Lewei, Lin, Dahua, Liu, Ziwei
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866917285037342720
author Diao, Haiwen
Li, Mingxuan
Wu, Silei
Dai, Linjun
Wang, Xiaohua
Deng, Hanming
Lu, Lewei
Lin, Dahua
Liu, Ziwei
author_facet Diao, Haiwen
Li, Mingxuan
Wu, Silei
Dai, Linjun
Wang, Xiaohua
Deng, Hanming
Lu, Lewei
Lin, Dahua
Liu, Ziwei
contents The edifice of native Vision-Language Models (VLMs) has emerged as a rising contender to typical modular VLMs, shaped by evolving model architectures and training paradigms. Yet, two lingering clouds cast shadows over its widespread exploration and promotion: (-) What fundamental constraints set native VLMs apart from modular ones, and to what extent can these barriers be overcome? (-) How to make research in native VLMs more accessible and democratized, thereby accelerating progress in the field. In this paper, we clarify these challenges and outline guiding principles for constructing native VLMs. Specifically, one native VLM primitive should: (i) effectively align pixel and word representations within a shared semantic space; (ii) seamlessly integrate the strengths of formerly separate vision and language modules; (iii) inherently embody various cross-modal properties that support unified vision-language encoding, aligning, and reasoning. Hence, we launch NEO, a novel family of native VLMs built from first principles, greatly narrowing the gap with top-tier modular counterparts across diverse real-world scenarios. With 390M image-text examples, NEO efficiently develops visual perception from scratch while mitigating vision-language conflicts inside a dense and monolithic model crafted from our elaborate primitives. We position NEO as a cornerstone for scalable and powerful native VLM development, paired with a rich set of reusable components that foster a cost-effective and extensible ecosystem. Our code and models are publicly available at: https://github.com/EvolvingLMMs-Lab/NEO.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_14979
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle From Pixels to Words -- Towards Native Vision-Language Primitives at Scale
Diao, Haiwen
Li, Mingxuan
Wu, Silei
Dai, Linjun
Wang, Xiaohua
Deng, Hanming
Lu, Lewei
Lin, Dahua
Liu, Ziwei
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
The edifice of native Vision-Language Models (VLMs) has emerged as a rising contender to typical modular VLMs, shaped by evolving model architectures and training paradigms. Yet, two lingering clouds cast shadows over its widespread exploration and promotion: (-) What fundamental constraints set native VLMs apart from modular ones, and to what extent can these barriers be overcome? (-) How to make research in native VLMs more accessible and democratized, thereby accelerating progress in the field. In this paper, we clarify these challenges and outline guiding principles for constructing native VLMs. Specifically, one native VLM primitive should: (i) effectively align pixel and word representations within a shared semantic space; (ii) seamlessly integrate the strengths of formerly separate vision and language modules; (iii) inherently embody various cross-modal properties that support unified vision-language encoding, aligning, and reasoning. Hence, we launch NEO, a novel family of native VLMs built from first principles, greatly narrowing the gap with top-tier modular counterparts across diverse real-world scenarios. With 390M image-text examples, NEO efficiently develops visual perception from scratch while mitigating vision-language conflicts inside a dense and monolithic model crafted from our elaborate primitives. We position NEO as a cornerstone for scalable and powerful native VLM development, paired with a rich set of reusable components that foster a cost-effective and extensible ecosystem. Our code and models are publicly available at: https://github.com/EvolvingLMMs-Lab/NEO.
title From Pixels to Words -- Towards Native Vision-Language Primitives at Scale
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.14979