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CMIE: Combining MLLM Insights with External Evidence for Explainable Out-of-Context Misinformation Detection (2505.23449v2)

Published 29 May 2025 in cs.MM, cs.CV, and cs.IR

Abstract: Multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in visual reasoning and text generation. While previous studies have explored the application of MLLM for detecting out-of-context (OOC) misinformation, our empirical analysis reveals two persisting challenges of this paradigm. Evaluating the representative GPT-4o model on direct reasoning and evidence augmented reasoning, results indicate that MLLM struggle to capture the deeper relationships-specifically, cases in which the image and text are not directly connected but are associated through underlying semantic links. Moreover, noise in the evidence further impairs detection accuracy. To address these challenges, we propose CMIE, a novel OOC misinformation detection framework that incorporates a Coexistence Relationship Generation (CRG) strategy and an Association Scoring (AS) mechanism. CMIE identifies the underlying coexistence relationships between images and text, and selectively utilizes relevant evidence to enhance misinformation detection. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing methods.

Summary

Exploring CMIE: A Novel Framework for OOC Misinformation Detection

The presented paper, "CMIE: Combining MLLM Insights with External Evidence for Explainable Out-of-Context Misinformation Detection," proposes a novel framework for detecting out-of-context (OOC) misinformation by effectively integrating insights from multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) and external evidence. The increasing prevalence of misinformation on social media platforms entails significant risks, motivating the research community to devise robust methodologies for its detection. This paper acknowledges the potential of MLLMs, such as GPT-4o, in addressing this challenge while highlighting their inherent limitations when working independently or with inadequately integrated external evidence.

Challenges in Current Multimodal Misinformation Detection

Multimodal misinformation, particularly OOC misinformation, is challenging to detect due to its reliance on seemingly authentic image-text pairs that leverage existing content to create misleading contexts. The paper identifies two primary challenges faced by MLLMs:

  1. Inability to Capture Deeper Semantic Relations: MLLMs often fail to identify subtle but crucial semantic links between images and text that do not exhibit direct correspondence.
  2. Influence of Noisy Evidence: The presence of irrelevant or misleading external evidence can degrade the accuracy of misinformation detection.

CMIE Framework: A Novel Approach

To navigate these challenges, the authors introduce CMIE, a framework designed to enhance the efficacy of OOC misinformation detection through:

  • Coexistence Relationship Generation (CRG): This strategy focuses on extracting underlying relationships between image-text pairs that justify their coexistence, thereby facilitating a more grounded approach to misinformation detection.
  • Association Scoring (AS) Mechanism: This mechanism evaluates the relevance of external evidence based on its semantic alignment with the identified image-text relationships, prioritizing quality over quantity in evidence consideration.

Methodology and Experimental Validation

The proposed CMIE framework emphasizes the importance of leveraging MLLM's intrinsic capabilities, questioning its reliance solely on external validation unless adequately incorporated. It incorporates techniques such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to rectify the conservative judgments typically made by MLLMs when relying solely on intrinsic knowledge.

The empirical evaluation of CMIE demonstrates its superiority over existing approaches. The framework was tested on the NewsCLIPpings dataset, a prominent benchmark for OOC misinformation detection, showing significant improvements in accuracy and explanatory outputs compared to contemporary methods like CCN and SNIFFER. Notably, the precision for both real and fake samples increased substantially, indicating the robustness of CMIE in a broad range of misinformation scenarios.

Implications and Future Directions

CMIE contributes a meaningful stride toward more reliable and interpretable OOC misinformation detection, emphasizing the practical benefit of structured reasoning over loose, possibly erroneous evidence interpretation. The framework's ability to exceed state-of-the-art methods without extensive fine-tuning argues for its adoption in broader applications.

Future research could focus on refining the CRG and AS components to further mitigate reliance on AI-generated hallucinations and enhance the interpretability of reasoning models. Moreover, exploring CMIE's adaptability to other multimodal tasks and its performance across different models could provide further insights into its versatility and applicability.

In conclusion, the development of CMIE underscores a critical direction in the pursuit of explainable AI, advocating for solutions that are not only effective but also transparent, laying the groundwork for more reliable AI interventions in combating misinformation.

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