Related papers: Bidirectional Model-based Policy Optimization
Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) has become a popular approach for aligning language models using pairwise preferences. However, in practical post-training pipelines, on-policy generation typically yields multiple candidate responses…
Reinforcement Learning is divided in two main paradigms: model-free and model-based. Each of these two paradigms has strengths and limitations, and has been successfully applied to real world domains that are appropriate to its…
Model-based methods in reinforcement learning offer a promising approach to enhance data efficiency by facilitating policy exploration within a dynamics model. However, accurately predicting sequential steps in the dynamics model remains a…
Recent studies, including DeepSeek-R1 and Kimi-k1.5, have demonstrated that reinforcement learning with rule-based, binary-valued reward functions can significantly enhance the reasoning capabilities of large language models. These models…
Many machine learning (ML) models are integrated within the context of a larger system as part of a key component for decision making processes. Concretely, predictive models are often employed in estimating the parameters for the input…
In neural combinatorial optimization (CO), reinforcement learning (RL) can turn a deep neural net into a fast, powerful heuristic solver of NP-hard problems. This approach has a great potential in practical applications because it allows…
Direct preference optimization (DPO), a widely adopted offline preference optimization algorithm, aims to align large language models (LLMs) with human-desired behaviors using pairwise preference data. However, the generation of the winning…
Reinforcement learning (RL) has re-emerged as a natural approach for training interactive LLM agents in real-world environments. However, directly applying the widely used Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) algorithm to multi-turn…
Model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) is a promising route to sample-efficient policy optimization. However, a known vulnerability of reconstruction-based MBRL consists of scenarios in which detailed aspects of the world are highly…
Performative prediction aims to model scenarios where predictive outcomes subsequently influence the very systems they target. The pursuit of a performative optimum (PO) -- minimizing performative risk -- is generally reliant on modeling of…
We compare the model-free reinforcement learning with the model-based approaches through the lens of the expressive power of neural networks for policies, $Q$-functions, and dynamics. We show, theoretically and empirically, that even for…
Model-based meta-reinforcement learning (RL) methods have recently been shown to be a promising approach to improving the sample efficiency of RL in multi-task settings. However, the theoretical understanding of those methods is yet to be…
Reinforcement learning (RL) policies often fail under dynamics that differ from training, a gap not fully addressed by domain randomization or existing adversarial RL methods. Distributionally robust RL provides a formal remedy but still…
We provide a framework for incorporating robustness -- to perturbations in the transition dynamics which we refer to as model misspecification -- into continuous control Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms. We specifically focus on…
We study reinforcement learning for the optimal control of Branching Markov Decision Processes (BMDPs), a natural extension of (multitype) Branching Markov Chains (BMCs). The state of a (discrete-time) BMCs is a collection of entities of…
A fundamental challenge in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) is to learn the joint policy in an extremely large search space, which grows exponentially with the number of agents. Moreover, fully decentralized policy factorization…
Model-free reinforcement learning algorithms have seen remarkable progress, but key challenges remain. Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO) is known for ensuring monotonic policy improvement through conservative updates within a trust…
Model-based Reinforcement Learning (MBRL) is a promising framework for learning control in a data-efficient manner. MBRL algorithms can be fairly complex due to the separate dynamics modeling and the subsequent planning algorithm, and as a…
This paper introduces a new approach that leverages Multi-agent Bayesian Optimization (MABO) to design Distributed Model Predictive Control (DMPC) schemes for multi-agent systems. The primary objective is to learn optimal DMPC schemes even…
Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is a widely used reinforcement learning algorithm that heavily relies on accurate advantage estimates for stable and efficient training. However, raw advantage signals can exhibit significant variance,…