Pay Less Attention to Function Words for Free Robustness of Vision-Language Models

arXiv — cs.LGWednesday, December 10, 2025 at 5:00:00 AM
  • A recent study introduces Function-word De-Attention (FDA) as a method to enhance the robustness of Vision-Language Models (VLMs) against cross-modal adversarial attacks by reducing the influence of function words. The FDA technique differentiates between original and function-word cross-attention, leading to improved alignment and robustness in VLMs. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate significant reductions in attack success rates with minimal performance drops across various models and tasks.
  • This development is crucial for advancing the reliability of VLMs, which are increasingly used in applications requiring accurate interpretation of visual and textual data. By mitigating vulnerabilities associated with function words, FDA enhances the overall performance of VLMs, making them more resilient to adversarial threats, which is vital for their deployment in real-world scenarios.
  • The introduction of FDA aligns with ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of VLMs, as seen in various innovative frameworks that address issues like token redundancy and attention mechanisms. These advancements reflect a broader trend in AI research focused on enhancing model performance while ensuring robustness, particularly in multimodal contexts where the interplay between language and vision is critical.
— via World Pulse Now AI Editorial System

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