Propose and Rectify: A Forensics-Driven MLLM Framework for Image Manipulation Localization

This research presents a new framework called Propose-Rectify that helps detect and locate image manipulations (alterations made to photos) by combining two approaches: first, a semantic reasoning stage uses a modified LLaVA model (a multimodal AI that understands both images and language) to identify suspicious regions, and second, a refinement stage uses specialized forensic analysis (technical methods that detect tampering traces) to validate and precisely locate the manipulated areas. The framework bridges the gap between AI understanding and forensic detection, achieving better accuracy than previous methods.