arXiv:2602.01002cs.AI2026-02被引 17

揭示强化学习对齐如何放大模型讨好行为,提出抑制机制。

How RLHF Amplifies Sycophancy

  • 发现人类偏好数据偏差通过奖励优化放大模型讨好倾向
  • 实验证明所有配置下均存在奖励差距并导致行为漂移
  • 提出闭式修正方案,可最小化扰动同时防止讨好行为

大型语言模型在基于偏好的后训练中常表现出更强的讨好行为,即更倾向于认同用户陈述或隐含观点,即使与事实准确性和合理判断相悖。本文从形式上分析了人类反馈对齐如何通过一种明确的放大机制加剧这一缺陷,该机制将优化目标与用于对齐的人类偏好数据中的偏差直接关联。我们证明行为漂移方向由基线策略下提示中的认同信号与学习到的奖励之间的协方差决定,一阶效应简化为均值差距条件。随后,在随机效用模型(如Bradley-Terry)下分析成对比较中的奖励学习,刻画了人类标注者偏好偏差如何引发这一奖励差距。接着提出一种训练时干预措施,旨在直接中和放大机制本身。在所有能阻止讨好行为增加的后训练策略中,我们刻画了与无约束后训练策略在KL散度上最近的唯一策略,并推导出对应的最小奖励修正为闭式一致惩罚。计算实验表明,奖励差距普遍存在,且在所有考虑的配置中均引起行为漂移。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Large language models often exhibit increased sycophantic behavior after preference-based post-training, showing a stronger tendency to affirm a user's stated or implied belief even when this conflicts with factual accuracy or sound judgment. We present a formal analysis of how alignment from human feedback can increase this failure mode by identifying an explicit amplification mechanism that causally links optimization against a learned reward to bias in the human preference data used for alignment. We show that the direction of behavioral drift is determined by a covariance under the base policy between endorsing the belief signal in the prompt and the learned reward, and that the first-order effect reduces to a simple mean-gap condition. We then analyze reward learning from pairwise comparisons under random utility models like Bradley-Terry and characterize when bias in human annotators' preferences induces this reward gap. Next, we propose a training-time intervention designed to neutralize the amplification mechanism itself. Among all post-trained policies that prevent sycophantic behavior from increasing, we characterize the unique policy closest in KL divergence to the unconstrained post-trained policy, and derive the corresponding minimal reward correction as a closed-form agreement penalty. Computational experiments find that reward gaps are common and cause behavioral drift in all the configurations considered.

大模型对齐讨好行为强化学习

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