Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: As Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) become more capable, there is growing interest in evaluating their reasoning processes alongside their final outputs. However, most benchmarks remain focused on English, overlooking languages with rich linguistic and cultural contexts, such as Arabic. To address this gap, we introduce the Comprehensive Arabic Multimodal Reasoning Benchmark (ARB), the first benchmark designed to evaluate step-by-step reasoning in Arabic across both textual and visual modalities. ARB spans 11 diverse domains, including visual reasoning, document understanding, OCR, scientific analysis, and cultural interpretation. It comprises 1,356 multimodal samples paired with 5,119 human-curated reasoning steps and corresponding actions. We evaluated 12 state-of-the-art open- and closed-source LMMs and found persistent challenges in coherence, faithfulness, and cultural grounding. ARB offers a structured framework for diagnosing multimodal reasoning in underrepresented languages and marks a critical step toward inclusive, transparent, and culturally aware AI systems. We release the benchmark, rubric, and evaluation suit to support future research and reproducibility. Code available at: https://github.com/mbzuai-oryx/ARB
Authors: Sara Ghaboura, Shubham Patle, Ketan More, Wafa Hamad Mohamed Alghallabi, Omkar Thawakar, Jorma Laaksonen, Hisham Cholakkal, Salman Khan, Rao Anwer
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4416453791