Detailed explanation
A multimodal model accepts, for example, an image + text and produces a written answer, or text and produces a video. This unification unlocks richer use cases: screenshot analysis, vision-language for robotics, full voice assistants.
Examples
GPT-4o that sees and hears
Gemini multimodal
Claude 3.5 reading illustrated PDFs
Sora for video
Frequently asked questions
Are all LLMs multimodal?
No: some stay text-only. Multimodal models are gaining ground but cost more.
Related terms
Generative AI
A family of AI models that can create new content (text, image, audio, video, code) from a prompt.
Text-to-Speech
Technology that synthesizes a realistic voice from written text.
LLM (Large Language Model)
An LLM is a large language model trained on massive text corpora, capable of understanding and generating natural language across many tasks: writing, summarization, translation, code, reasoning.
AI Vision
The ability of an AI model to analyze, understand and generate images or videos.
Speech-to-Text
Technology that automatically transcribes spoken language into written text.
Last updated: 7/15/2026