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Reward models are pivotal for aligning Large Language Models (LLMs) with human preferences. Existing approaches face two key limitations: Discriminative reward models require large-scale annotated data, as they cannot exploit the preference…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Yongfu Xue

One of the challenges of aligning large models with human preferences lies in both the data requirements and the technical complexities of current approaches. Predominant methods, such as RLHF, involve multiple steps, each demanding…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-19 Siliang Zeng , Yao Liu , Huzefa Rangwala , George Karypis , Mingyi Hong , Rasool Fakoor

In reinforcement learning from human feedback, preference-based reward models play a central role in aligning large language models to human-aligned behavior. However, recent studies show that these models are prone to reward hacking and…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2025-10-23 Wenqian Ye , Guangtao Zheng , Aidong Zhang

Offline preference-based reinforcement learning (PbRL) provides an effective way to overcome the challenges of designing reward and the high costs of online interaction. However, since labeling preference needs real-time human feedback,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Xiao-Yin Liu , Guotao Li , Xiao-Hu Zhou , Zeng-Guang Hou

We propose a new online learning model for learning with preference feedback. The model is especially suited for applications like web search and recommender systems, where preference data is readily available from implicit user feedback…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2011-11-04 Pannagadatta K. Shivaswamy , Thorsten Joachims

Preference-based reward learning is a popular technique for teaching robots and autonomous systems how a human user wants them to perform a task. Previous works have shown that actively synthesizing preference queries to maximize…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-03-12 Evan Ellis , Gaurav R. Ghosal , Stuart J. Russell , Anca Dragan , Erdem Bıyık

Aligning large language models (LLMs) to human preferences typically relies on aggregating pooled feedback into a single reward model. However, this standard approach assumes that all labelers share the same underlying preferences, ignoring…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Federico Echenique , Alireza Fallah , Baihe Huang , Michael I. Jordan

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) facilitates the alignment of large language models (LLMs) with human preferences, thereby enhancing the quality of responses generated. A critical component of RLHF is the reward model,…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-06-25 Yulan Hu , Qingyang Li , Sheng Ouyang , Ge Chen , Kaihui Chen , Lijun Mei , Xucheng Ye , Fuzheng Zhang , Yong Liu

Learning a reward function from human preferences is challenging as it typically requires having a high-fidelity simulator or using expensive and potentially unsafe actual physical rollouts in the environment. However, in many tasks the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-05 Daniel Shin , Anca D. Dragan , Daniel S. Brown

We consider the problem of preference based reinforcement learning (PbRL), where, unlike traditional reinforcement learning, an agent receives feedback only in terms of a 1 bit (0/1) preference over a trajectory pair instead of absolute…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-02-07 Aldo Pacchiano , Aadirupa Saha , Jonathan Lee

Large language models~(LLMs) are expected to be helpful, harmless, and honest. In different alignment scenarios, such as safety, confidence, and general preference alignment, binary preference data collection and reward modeling are…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-10-14 Shuai Zhao , Yunqiu Xu , Linchao Zhu , Yi Yang

Reward models are central to aligning language models with human preferences via reinforcement learning (RL). As RL is increasingly applied to settings such as verifiable rewards and multi-objective alignment, RMs are expected to encode…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-21 Jiwoo Hong , Shao Tang , Zhipeng Wang

Learning a reward function from human preferences is challenging as it typically requires having a high-fidelity simulator or using expensive and potentially unsafe actual physical rollouts in the environment. However, in many tasks the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-02-18 Daniel Shin , Daniel S. Brown , Anca D. Dragan

The utility of reinforcement learning is limited by the alignment of reward functions with the interests of human stakeholders. One promising method for alignment is to learn the reward function from human-generated preferences between…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-09-08 W. Bradley Knox , Stephane Hatgis-Kessell , Serena Booth , Scott Niekum , Peter Stone , Alessandro Allievi

Preference Based Reinforcement Learning has shown much promise for utilizing human binary feedback on queried trajectory pairs to recover the underlying reward model of the Human in the Loop (HiL). While works have attempted to better…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-02-20 Mudit Verma , Siddhant Bhambri , Subbarao Kambhampati

In this paper, we investigate preference-based reinforcement learning (PbRL), which enables reinforcement learning (RL) agents to learn from human feedback. This is particularly valuable when defining a fine-grain reward function is not…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-11 Guojian Wang , Jianxiang Liu , Xinyuan Li , Faguo Wu , Xiao Zhang , Tianyuan Chen , Xuyang Chen

Reward modeling represents a long-standing challenge in reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) for aligning language models. Current reward modeling is heavily contingent upon experimental feedback data with high collection…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-03-25 Hao Wang , Haocheng Yang , Licheng Pan , Lei Shen , Xiaoxi Li , Yinuo Wang , Zhichao Chen , Yuan Lu , Haoxuan Li , Zhouchen Lin

Designing reward functions is a challenging problem in AI and robotics. Humans usually have a difficult time directly specifying all the desirable behaviors that a robot needs to optimize. One common approach is to learn reward functions…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-06-05 Erdem Bıyık , Nicolas Huynh , Mykel J. Kochenderfer , Dorsa Sadigh

Machine learning systems embed preferences either in training losses or through post-processing of calibrated predictions. Applying information design methods from Strack and Yang (2024), this paper provides decision problem agnostic…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-01-27 Joshua S. Gans

Learning human preferences in language models remains fundamentally challenging, as reward modeling relies on subtle, subjective comparisons or shades of gray rather than clear-cut labels. This study investigates the limits of current…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-04-03 Simona-Vasilica Oprea , Adela Bâra