直接预训练价值模型,让强化学习更稳定高效。
Pretrain Value, Not Reward: Decoupled Value Policy Optimization
- 先预训练全局价值模型,再冻结用于策略优化,避免在线学习价值函数。
- 在MT-Bench等三个评测上达到或超越当前最优RLHF方法。
- 适合希望简化流程、提升训练稳定性的大模型对齐研究者。
本文探讨了直接预训练价值模型如何简化并稳定基于人类反馈的强化学习(RLHF)。在强化学习中,价值估计是策略优化的核心,与奖励监督不同。价值函数预测部分回答的未来回报,即该部分若继续完成后的潜力。然而,在标准的RLHF流程中,先预训练奖励模型,再在线学习价值函数,尽管偏好数据收集后不再有新的奖励信号。这使价值函数学习变得冗余,因为训练奖励模型再推导价值模型,等价于直接预训练价值模型。该方法无需额外监督,且使用与奖励建模相同的全部数据。基于此,我们提出解耦价值策略优化(DVPO),离线预训练一个全局价值模型(GVM)并冻结,作为通用评估器。该模型提供稳定、精细的信用分配,避免价值函数漂移和轨迹采样。在MT-Bench、Alpaca-Eval和Arena-Hard上的实验表明,DVPO匹配或超越当前最先进的RLHF方法。结果表明,RLHF可重新理解为仅由单一预训练价值模型引导的策略优化。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
In this paper, we explore how directly pretraining a value model simplifies and stabilizes reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). In reinforcement learning, value estimation is the key to policy optimization, distinct from reward supervision. The value function predicts the \emph{return-to-go} of a partial answer, that is, how promising the partial answer is if it were continued to completion. In RLHF, however, the standard pipeline first pretrains a reward model and then learns a value function online, even though no new reward signals are available once preference data is collected. This makes critic learning redundant, as the process of training a reward model and then deriving a value model is informationally equivalent to directly pretraining a value model. Importantly, this requires no additional supervision, and our value model is trained on exactly the same data used for reward modeling. Building on this insight, we introduce \emph{Decoupled Value Policy Optimization} (DVPO), a framework that pretrains a \emph{Global Value Model} (GVM) offline and freezes it as a universal critic for policy learning. The GVM provides stable, fine-grained credit assignment without critic drift or trajectory sampling. Experiments across MT-Bench, Alpaca-Eval, and Arena-Hard demonstrate that DVPO matches or surpasses state-of-the-art RLHF methods. These results highlight RLHF can be reframed as policy-only optimization guided by a single pretrained value model.
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