arXiv · 2512.23568
ThinkGen: Generalized Thinking for Visual Generation
Abstract
Recent progress in Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) demonstrates that Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning enables systematic solutions to complex understanding tasks. However, its extension to generation tasks remains nascent and limited by scenario-specific mechanisms that hinder generalization and adaptation. In this work, we present ThinkGen, the first think-driven visual generation framework that explicitly leverages MLLM's CoT reasoning in various generation scenarios. ThinkGen employs a decoupled architecture comprising a pretrained MLLM and a Diffusion Transformer (DiT), wherein the MLLM generates tailored instructions based on user intent, and DiT produces high-quality images guided by these instructions. We further propose a separable GRPO-based training paradigm (SepGRPO), alternating reinforcement learning between the MLLM and DiT modules. This flexible design enables joint training across diverse datasets, facilitating effective CoT reasoning for a wide range of generative scenarios. Extensive experiments demonstrate that ThinkGen achieves robust, state-of-the-art performance across multiple generation benchmarks. Code is available: https://github.com/jiaosiyuu/ThinkGen
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Siyu Jiao, Yiheng Lin, Yujie Zhong, Qi She, Wei Zhou, Xiaohan Lan, Zilong Huang, Fei Yu, Yingchen Yu, Yunqing Zhao, Yao Zhao, Yunchao Wei. 2025-12-29. ThinkGen: Generalized Thinking for Visual Generation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.23568
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