ArXiv

AIR: Adaptive Interleaved Reasoning with Code in MLLMs

Authors
Cong Han, Xiaohan Lan, Haibo Qiu...
Categories
cs.CV, cs.AI
arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.23678v1
PDF
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23678v1

Brief

AIR (Adaptive Interleaved Reasoning with Code) equips MLLMs to interleave code execution and language reasoning for complex numerical tasks via extended reinforcement learning. The method combines a two-stage cold-start data pipeline, RL dataset filtering, and a group-constrained reward for adaptive tool invocation. Experiments report +6.1 pp average improvement, +9.9 pp on interleaved samples, and >95% tool-use success (Cong Han et al., 2026).

Why it matters

AIR (Adaptive Interleaved Reasoning with Code) proposes a three-component RL-based solution: a two-stage cold-start data construction pipeline, data-filtering strategies for RL dataset curation, and an adaptive tool-invocation strategy using a group-constrained reward function for code-augmented interleaved reasoning in MLLMs.

Key details

  • After reinforcement-learning training, AIR improves average evaluation performance by 6.1 percentage points, raises accuracy on interleaved reasoning samples by 9.9 pp, and achieves a tool-use success rate exceeding 95%.
  • Paper by Cong Han, Xiaohan Lan, Haibo Qiu, and Yujie Zhong (arXiv 2026-06-22) targets numerical computation beyond prior vision-focused tool-use work (following the OpenAI o3 paradigm); data and code released at https://github.com/CongHan0808/AIR.git.
Source evidence

Abstract

Following the paradigm shift initiated by OpenAI o3, interleaved reasoning with code to enhance multimodal large language models (MLLMs) has become a pivotal research frontier. The existing literature focuses primarily on tool-use within vision-perception tasks. However, such approaches typically rely on predefined heuristics for visual manipulation and are inherently incapable of addressing numerical computation problems due to their exclusive focus on visual operations. This paper empowers MLLMs with adaptive interleaved reasoning capabilities through extended reinforcement learning training on code-augmented complex numerical computation tasks. To this end, we propose a comprehensive three-component solution consisting of: a two-stage cold-start data construction pipeline, data filtering strategies for RL dataset curation, and an adaptive tool-invocation strategy leveraging a group-constrained reward function for interleaved reasoning trajectories. Extensive experiments demonstrate that after Reinforcement Learning training with the group-constrained reward function, performance improves by an average of 6.1 percentage points (pp) on evaluation benchmarks. Specifically, the accuracy for interleaved reasoning samples increases by 9.9 pp, and the overall success rate of tool-use exceeds 95%. Our data and code are available at: https://github.com/CongHan0808/AIR.git.

Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures