ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Enhancing Refusal Capability in Large Vision-Language Models

ai-technology · 2026-04-30

Researchers have developed a framework to improve the ability of Large Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to refuse answering questions that exceed their parametric knowledge, reducing factual hallucinations. The method involves creating a model-specific 'Visual-Idk' dataset using multi-sample consistency probing to distinguish known from unknown facts. Models are then aligned via supervised fine-tuning and preference-aware optimization (DPO, ORPO). On the Visual-Idk dataset, the Truthful Rate improved from 57.9% to 67.3%. Internal probing indicates the model genuinely recognizes its knowledge boundaries.

Key facts

  • VLMs are prone to factual hallucinations, especially in long-tail or specialized domains.
  • Current models have weak refusal capability for queries exceeding their knowledge.
  • A systematic framework enhances refusal capability for unknown questions.
  • A model-specific 'Visual-Idk' dataset is curated using multi-sample consistency probing.
  • Supervised fine-tuning and preference-aware optimization (DPO, ORPO) are used for alignment.
  • Truthful Rate improved from 57.9% to 67.3% on the Visual-Idk dataset.
  • Internal probing shows the model genuinely recognizes its boundaries.
  • The research is published on arXiv with ID 2604.26419.

Entities

Sources