What is Multimodal?

Multimodal means an AI can work with more than one type of information, not just text. It might understand and combine text, images, audio, or video. For everyday users, this can help with tasks like describing a photo, answering questions about a chart, or turning spoken words into text. A downside is that it can misunderstand what it “sees” or “hears,” and sharing images or audio can raise privacy concerns if sensitive information is included.

Multimodal means the computer can use different kinds of stuff, like words and pictures, not only words. That can help it understand a question better. But it can still make mistakes, so we check important things.

Imagine you are learning about an animal using a book with both writing and pictures. The pictures help you understand details the words might not show. Multimodal AI is like learning from both the writing and the pictures together.