{"id":253087,"date":"2026-05-22T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/the-rise-of-the-multimodal-llm\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T04:20:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:20:49","slug":"the-rise-of-the-multimodal-llm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/the-rise-of-the-multimodal-llm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise Of The Multimodal LLM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rise Of The Multimodal LLM<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/johnwerner\/2026\/05\/22\/the-rise-of-the-multimodal-llm\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-22 15:53:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustration of abstract stream. Artificial intelligence. Big data, technology, AI, data transfer, data flow, large language model, generative AI, binary concept<\/span><\/p>\n

getty<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new bit of jargon in the AI world, but it\u2019s more than just a detail. It involves adding a familiar letter to a familiar acronym, and although that may sound glib, catching up might feel a little like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n

Do a quick conventional search for \u201cLLMM.\u201d You won\u2019t come up with much, unless you check out the AI overviews, where Gemini in Google or Copilot in Bing tells you what this is.<\/p>\n

\u201cMLLM\u201d does a bit better \u2013 you might find a result from IBM, and some academic papers, and a page from Github. But the idea of the Multimodal Large Language Model, or to some, the Large Language Multimodal Model, hasn\u2019t really made it into the mainstream, to places like CNBC or Newsweek. It\u2019s still sort of the province of the true tech geek \u2013 for now.<\/p>\n

What is a Multimodal Large Language Model?<\/h2>\n

The essential concept of a Multimodal Large Language Model is that it works on different kinds of data, although there\u2019s the implication that it does this through specific kinds of design. PhD researcher and engineer Sebastian Raschka defines the MLLM this way on a self-published platform:<\/p>\n

\u201cMultimodal LLMs are large language models capable of processing multiple types of inputs, where each \u2018modality\u2019 refers to a specific type of data\u2014such as text (like in traditional LLMs), sound, images, videos, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you assume that the machines do this by attaining something like a sophisticated form of distillation, you\u2019d be right. But there\u2019s another component to this, too. In some ways, it sounds like engineers are going back to the well of using classical ML techniques to enhance what an LLM, as a central \u201cbrain,\u201d can do.<\/p>\n

This starts with attaching sensor tools to the LLM itself, to bring that multimodal data in.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent research shows that Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) can…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rise Of The Multimodal LLM https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/johnwerner\/2026\/05\/22\/the-rise-of-the-multimodal-llm\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-22 15:53:00 Source Domain: www.forbes.com Illustration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imageio.forbes.com\/specials-images\/imageserve\/6a10b4274f636667fbba6fd0\/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&height=900&width=1600&fit=bounds","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20,19,18,17],"class_list":["post-253087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-generative-ai","tag-large-language-model","tag-llm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253089,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253087\/revisions\/253089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}