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Large Language Models (LLMs) often struggle with problems that require multi-step reasoning. For small-scale open-source models, Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR) fails when correct solutions are rarely sampled even…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-03-02 Yihe Deng , I-Hung Hsu , Jun Yan , Zifeng Wang , Rujun Han , Gufeng Zhang , Yanfei Chen , Wei Wang , Tomas Pfister , Chen-Yu Lee

Recent advances in large language model (LLM) reasoning have shown that sophisticated behaviors such as planning and self-reflection can emerge through reinforcement learning (RL). However, despite these successes, RL in its current form…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-03-12 Lu Ma , Hao Liang , Meiyi Qiang , Lexiang Tang , Xiaochen Ma , Zhen Hao Wong , Junbo Niu , Chengyu Shen , Runming He , Yanhao Li , Bin Cui , Wentao Zhang

This paper provides a statistical analysis of high-dimensional batch Reinforcement Learning (RL) using sparse linear function approximation. When there is a large number of candidate features, our result sheds light on the fact that…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-10 Botao Hao , Yaqi Duan , Tor Lattimore , Csaba Szepesvári , Mengdi Wang

Large Language Models (LLMs) display strikingly different generalization behaviors: supervised fine-tuning (SFT) often narrows capability, whereas reinforcement-learning (RL) tuning tends to preserve it. The reasons behind this divergence…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-01 Haoyue Bai , Yiyou Sun , Wenjie Hu , Shi Qiu , Maggie Ziyu Huan , Peiyang Song , Robert Nowak , Dawn Song

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (\textbf{RLHF}) has emerged as a dominant approach for aligning LLM outputs with human preferences. Inspired by the success of RLHF, we study the performance of multiple algorithms that learn from…

Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) followed by Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a standard post-training recipe for improving Large Language Models (LLM) reasoning, but why it works remains unclear. We revisit the common claim that ``SFT memorizes,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-12 Hangzhan Jin , Sitao Luan , Tianwei Ni , Sicheng Lyu , Guillaume Rabusseau , Reihaneh Rabbany , Doina Precup , Mohammad Hamdaqa

Recent advancements in reinforcement learning (RL) for large language models (LLMs), exemplified by DeepSeek R1, have shown that even a simple question-answering task can substantially improve an LLM's reasoning capabilities. In this work,…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-03-10 Stephen Chung , Wenyu Du , Jie Fu

Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) is a popular class of techniques that strive to adapt large models in a scalable and resource-efficient manner. Yet, the mechanisms underlying their training performance and generalization remain…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Zahra Rahimi Afzal , Tara Esmaeilbeig , Mojtaba Soltanalian , Mesrob I. Ohannessian

Pre-training Large Language Models (LLMs) on web-scale datasets becomes fundamental for advancing general-purpose AI. In contrast, enhancing their predictive performance on downstream tasks typically involves adapting their knowledge…

The prevailing approach to aligning Large Language Models (LLMs) typically relies on human or AI feedback and assumes access to specific types of preference datasets. In our work, we question the efficacy of such datasets and explore…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-03-19 Hao Sun

General reasoning represents a long-standing and formidable challenge in artificial intelligence. Recent breakthroughs, exemplified by large language models (LLMs) and chain-of-thought prompting, have achieved considerable success on…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2026-01-06 DeepSeek-AI , Daya Guo , Dejian Yang , Haowei Zhang , Junxiao Song , Peiyi Wang , Qihao Zhu , Runxin Xu , Ruoyu Zhang , Shirong Ma , Xiao Bi , Xiaokang Zhang , Xingkai Yu , Yu Wu , Z. F. Wu , Zhibin Gou , Zhihong Shao , Zhuoshu Li , Ziyi Gao , Aixin Liu , Bing Xue , Bingxuan Wang , Bochao Wu , Bei Feng , Chengda Lu , Chenggang Zhao , Chengqi Deng , Chenyu Zhang , Chong Ruan , Damai Dai , Deli Chen , Dongjie Ji , Erhang Li , Fangyun Lin , Fucong Dai , Fuli Luo , Guangbo Hao , Guanting Chen , Guowei Li , H. Zhang , Han Bao , Hanwei Xu , Haocheng Wang , Honghui Ding , Huajian Xin , Huazuo Gao , Hui Qu , Hui Li , Jianzhong Guo , Jiashi Li , Jiawei Wang , Jingchang Chen , Jingyang Yuan , Junjie Qiu , Junlong Li , J. L. Cai , Jiaqi Ni , Jian Liang , Jin Chen , Kai Dong , Kai Hu , Kaige Gao , Kang Guan , Kexin Huang , Kuai Yu , Lean Wang , Lecong Zhang , Liang Zhao , Litong Wang , Liyue Zhang , Lei Xu , Leyi Xia , Mingchuan Zhang , Minghua Zhang , Minghui Tang , Meng Li , Miaojun Wang , Mingming Li , Ning Tian , Panpan Huang , Peng Zhang , Qiancheng Wang , Qinyu Chen , Qiushi Du , Ruiqi Ge , Ruisong Zhang , Ruizhe Pan , Runji Wang , R. J. Chen , R. L. Jin , Ruyi Chen , Shanghao Lu , Shangyan Zhou , Shanhuang Chen , Shengfeng Ye , Shiyu Wang , Shuiping Yu , Shunfeng Zhou , Shuting Pan , S. S. Li , Shuang Zhou , Shaoqing Wu , Shengfeng Ye , Tao Yun , Tian Pei , Tianyu Sun , T. Wang , Wangding Zeng , Wanjia Zhao , Wen Liu , Wenfeng Liang , Wenjun Gao , Wenqin Yu , Wentao Zhang , W. L. Xiao , Wei An , Xiaodong Liu , Xiaohan Wang , Xiaokang Chen , Xiaotao Nie , Xin Cheng , Xin Liu , Xin Xie , Xingchao Liu , Xinyu Yang , Xinyuan Li , Xuecheng Su , Xuheng Lin , X. Q. Li , Xiangyue Jin , Xiaojin Shen , Xiaosha Chen , Xiaowen Sun , Xiaoxiang Wang , Xinnan Song , Xinyi Zhou , Xianzu Wang , Xinxia Shan , Y. K. Li , Y. Q. Wang , Y. X. Wei , Yang Zhang , Yanhong Xu , Yao Li , Yao Zhao , Yaofeng Sun , Yaohui Wang , Yi Yu , Yichao Zhang , Yifan Shi , Yiliang Xiong , Ying He , Yishi Piao , Yisong Wang , Yixuan Tan , Yiyang Ma , Yiyuan Liu , Yongqiang Guo , Yuan Ou , Yuduan Wang , Yue Gong , Yuheng Zou , Yujia He , Yunfan Xiong , Yuxiang Luo , Yuxiang You , Yuxuan Liu , Yuyang Zhou , Y. X. Zhu , Yanhong Xu , Yanping Huang , Yaohui Li , Yi Zheng , Yuchen Zhu , Yunxian Ma , Ying Tang , Yukun Zha , Yuting Yan , Z. Z. Ren , Zehui Ren , Zhangli Sha , Zhe Fu , Zhean Xu , Zhenda Xie , Zhengyan Zhang , Zhewen Hao , Zhicheng Ma , Zhigang Yan , Zhiyu Wu , Zihui Gu , Zijia Zhu , Zijun Liu , Zilin Li , Ziwei Xie , Ziyang Song , Zizheng Pan , Zhen Huang , Zhipeng Xu , Zhongyu Zhang , Zhen Zhang

Reinforcement learning (RL) has become a standard technique for post-training diffusion-based image synthesis models, as it enables learning from reward signals to explicitly improve desirable aspects such as image quality and prompt…

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · Computer Science 2026-03-16 David McAllister , Miika Aittala , Tero Karras , Janne Hellsten , Angjoo Kanazawa , Timo Aila , Samuli Laine

Fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) with limited data poses a practical challenge in low-resource languages, specialized domains, and constrained deployment settings. While pre-trained LLMs provide strong foundations, effective…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-10-29 Marton Szep , Daniel Rueckert , Rüdiger von Eisenhart-Rothe , Florian Hinterwimmer

Pre-trained language models (PLMs) are known to be overly parameterized and have significant redundancy, indicating a small degree of freedom of the PLMs. Motivated by the observation, in this paper, we study the problem of…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2023-08-02 Zhong Zhang , Bang Liu , Junming Shao

Data selection for finetuning Large Language Models (LLMs) can be framed as a budget-constrained optimization problem: maximizing a model's downstream performance under a strict training data budget. Solving this problem is generally…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-01 Animesh Jha , Harshit Gupta , Ananjan Nandi

Pre-trained large-scale language models (LLMs) excel at producing coherent articles, yet their outputs may be untruthful, toxic, or fail to align with user expectations. Current approaches focus on using reinforcement learning with human…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2024-06-06 Dehong Xu , Liang Qiu , Minseok Kim , Faisal Ladhak , Jaeyoung Do

Fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) on specific datasets is a common practice to improve performance on target tasks. However, this performance gain often leads to overfitting, where the model becomes too specialized in either the task…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2024-09-10 Sonam Gupta , Yatin Nandwani , Asaf Yehudai , Mayank Mishra , Gaurav Pandey , Dinesh Raghu , Sachindra Joshi

Distilling the tool-using capabilities of large language models (LLMs) into smaller, more efficient small language models (SLMs) is a key challenge for their practical application. The predominant approach, supervised fine-tuning (SFT),…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-10-29 ChangSu Choi , Hoyun Song , Dongyeon Kim , WooHyeon Jung , Minkyung Cho , Sunjin Park , NohHyeob Bae , Seona Yu , KyungTae Lim

Pretraining is a common technique in deep learning for increasing performance and reducing training time, with promising experimental results in deep reinforcement learning (RL). However, pretraining requires a relevant dataset for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-07 Saurav Kadavath , Samuel Paradis , Brian Yao

Reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a key paradigm for aligning and optimizing large language models (LLMs). Standard approaches treat the LLM as the policy and apply RL directly over the full vocabulary space. However, this…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-17 Jing-Cheng Pang , Liang Lu , Xian Tang , Kun Jiang , Sijie Wu , Kai Zhang , Xubin Li