A field guide to AI positions

Multimodal AI

Publication dates and source age

Sources counted: 1

Publication dates are unavailable.

Assessed at this edition's evidence cutoff: 2026-09-15. 18-month boundary: 2025-03-15.

Some publication dates are unknown; the newest dated source may not be the newest source overall.

Publication age does not tell us whether a claim is still valid. Reading an old source again does not make its publication date newer. An update date does not establish that the passage we used was updated.

Open in the glossary Reading notes · Structured record

In plain language

AI that works with more than one kind of material, such as text and images. [1]

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Limits & distinctions

Image input does not automatically imply image generation or video support. The supported combination depends on the model and application. [1]

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A fuller explanation

A modality is a type of input or output: text, image, audio or video, for example. A multimodal chat model might take a photo and a written question, then return a text answer. [1]

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How it relates to the map

Check which kinds of input and output a particular system supports. [1]

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https://theaiatlas.org/ideas/multimodal/

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Image previews are summaries. Keep the page link so readers can check the evidence.

Sources and what we read

  1. 1. Multimodal chat templates

    Publication dates and source age

    Sources counted: 1

    Publication dates are unavailable.

    Assessed at this edition's evidence cutoff: 2026-09-15. 18-month boundary: 2025-03-15.

    Some publication dates are unknown; the newest dated source may not be the newest source overall.

    Publication age does not tell us whether a claim is still valid. Reading an old source again does not make its publication date newer. An update date does not establish that the passage we used was updated.

    Read mixed text/image/audio/video inputs, preprocessing and model-specific video support. Used to explain input types; examples are not evidence of universal capabilities or accuracy. Live page publication date unspecified.

Edition and machine-readable evidence

Content version 0.20.0. Evidence cutoff 2026-09-15; this does not mean every source was read on that day.

Pinned complete dataset · Complete evidence page · Agent consumption guide