Skip to content
← Back to explorer

WikiSeeker: Rethinking the Role of Vision-Language Models in Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering

Yingjian Zhu, Xinming Wang, Kun Ding, Ying Wang, Bin Fan, Shiming Xiang · Apr 7, 2026 · Citations: 0

How to use this page

Low trust

Use this as background context only. Do not make protocol decisions from this page alone.

Best use

Background context only

What to verify

Validate the evaluation procedure and quality controls in the full paper before operational use.

Evidence quality

Low

Derived from extracted protocol signals and abstract evidence.

Abstract

Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA). Despite recent advancements, prevailing methods still primarily depend on images as the retrieval key, and often overlook or misplace the role of Vision-Language Models (VLMs), thereby failing to leverage their potential fully. In this paper, we introduce WikiSeeker, a novel multi-modal RAG framework that bridges these gaps by proposing a multi-modal retriever and redefining the role of VLMs. Rather than serving merely as answer generators, we assign VLMs two specialized agents: a Refiner and an Inspector. The Refiner utilizes the capability of VLMs to rewrite the textual query according to the input image, significantly improving the performance of the multimodal retriever. The Inspector facilitates a decoupled generation strategy by selectively routing reliable retrieved context to another LLM for answer generation, while relying on the VLM's internal knowledge when retrieval is unreliable. Extensive experiments on EVQA, InfoSeek, and M2KR demonstrate that WikiSeeker achieves state-of-the-art performance, with substantial improvements in both retrieval accuracy and answer quality. Our code will be released on https://github.com/zhuyjan/WikiSeeker.

Abstract-only analysis — low confidence

All signals on this page are inferred from the abstract only and may be inaccurate. Do not use this page as a primary protocol reference.

  • This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.
  • The available metadata is too thin to trust this as a primary source.

Should You Rely On This Paper?

This paper is adjacent to HFEPX scope and is best used for background context, not as a primary protocol reference.

Best use

Background context only

Use if you need

A secondary eval reference to pair with stronger protocol papers.

Main weakness

This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.

Trust level

Low

Usefulness score

0/100 • Low

Treat as adjacent context, not a core eval-method reference.

Human Feedback Signal

Not explicit in abstract metadata

Evaluation Signal

Detected

Usefulness for eval research

Adjacent candidate

Extraction confidence 35%

What We Could Verify

These are the protocol signals we could actually recover from the available paper metadata. Use them to decide whether this paper is worth deeper reading.

Human Feedback Types

missing

None explicit

No explicit feedback protocol extracted.

"Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA)."

Evaluation Modes

partial

Automatic Metrics

Includes extracted eval setup.

"Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA)."

Quality Controls

missing

Not reported

No explicit QC controls found.

"Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA)."

Benchmarks / Datasets

missing

Not extracted

No benchmark anchors detected.

"Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA)."

Reported Metrics

partial

Accuracy

Useful for evaluation criteria comparison.

"Extensive experiments on EVQA, InfoSeek, and M2KR demonstrate that WikiSeeker achieves state-of-the-art performance, with substantial improvements in both retrieval accuracy and answer quality."

Human Feedback Details

  • Uses human feedback: No
  • Feedback types: None
  • Rater population: Not reported
  • Expertise required: Coding

Evaluation Details

  • Evaluation modes: Automatic Metrics
  • Agentic eval: None
  • Quality controls: Not reported
  • Evidence quality: Low
  • Use this page as: Background context only

Protocol And Measurement Signals

Benchmarks / Datasets

No benchmark or dataset names were extracted from the available abstract.

Reported Metrics

accuracy

Research Brief

Metadata summary

Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA).

Based on abstract + metadata only. Check the source paper before making high-confidence protocol decisions.

Key Takeaways

  • Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a highly effective paradigm for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answering (KB-VQA).
  • Despite recent advancements, prevailing methods still primarily depend on images as the retrieval key, and often overlook or misplace the role of Vision-Language Models (VLMs), thereby failing to leverage their potential fully.
  • In this paper, we introduce WikiSeeker, a novel multi-modal RAG framework that bridges these gaps by proposing a multi-modal retriever and redefining the role of VLMs.

Researcher Actions

  • Compare this paper against nearby papers in the same arXiv category before using it for protocol decisions.
  • Validate inferred eval signals (Automatic metrics) against the full paper.
  • Use related-paper links to find stronger protocol-specific references.

Caveats

  • Generated from abstract + metadata only; no PDF parsing.
  • Signals below are heuristic and may miss details reported outside the abstract.

Recommended Queries

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

  • In this paper, we introduce WikiSeeker, a novel multi-modal RAG framework that bridges these gaps by proposing a multi-modal retriever and redefining the role of VLMs.
  • Rather than serving merely as answer generators, we assign VLMs two specialized agents: a Refiner and an Inspector.
  • Extensive experiments on EVQA, InfoSeek, and M2KR demonstrate that WikiSeeker achieves state-of-the-art performance, with substantial improvements in both retrieval accuracy and answer quality.

Why It Matters For Eval

  • Rather than serving merely as answer generators, we assign VLMs two specialized agents: a Refiner and an Inspector.

Researcher Checklist

  • Gap: Human feedback protocol is explicit

    No explicit human feedback protocol detected.

  • Pass: Evaluation mode is explicit

    Detected: Automatic Metrics

  • Gap: Quality control reporting appears

    No calibration/adjudication/IAA control explicitly detected.

  • Gap: Benchmark or dataset anchors are present

    No benchmark/dataset anchor extracted from abstract.

  • Pass: Metric reporting is present

    Detected: accuracy

Related Papers

Papers are ranked by protocol overlap, extraction signal alignment, and semantic proximity.

Get Started

Join the #1 Platform for AI Training Talent

Where top AI builders and expert AI Trainers connect to build the future of AI.
Self-Service
Post a Job
Post your project and get a shortlist of qualified AI Trainers and Data Labelers. Hire and manage your team in the tools you already use.
Managed Service
For Large Projects
Done-for-You
We recruit, onboard, and manage a dedicated team inside your tools. End-to-end operations for large or complex projects.
For Freelancers
Join as an AI Trainer
Find AI training and data labeling projects across platforms, all in one place. One profile, one application process, more opportunities.