统一看待大模型后训练,区分离线与在线学习路径。
Large Language Model Post-Training: A Unified View of Off-Policy and On-Policy Learning
- 按轨迹来源分为离线与在线学习两大范式。
- 提出支持扩展、策略重塑、行为固化三重机制框架。
- 适合系统设计者理解多阶段训练协同逻辑。
后训练已成为将预训练大语言模型转化为对齐、高效且可部署系统的核心环节。近期进展涵盖监督微调(SFT)、偏好优化、强化学习(RL)、过程监督、验证器引导方法、知识蒸馏及多阶段流水线。然而这些方法常被零散讨论,按标签或目标划分而非针对行为瓶颈。本文主张将后训练视为对模型行为的结构化干预。首先按轨迹来源划分:外部提供轨迹的离线学习与学习者生成轨迹的在线学习。进而通过两类核心角色解释方法:有效支持扩展(使有用行为更可达)与策略重塑(优化已有可达区域内的行为),以及系统级角色行为固化(跨阶段保留、迁移和分摊有用行为)。在此视角下,SFT 可兼具支持扩展与策略重塑;偏好优化多为离线重塑,线上变体趋近学习者生成状态;在线强化学习通常提升学习者生成轨迹上的表现,但强引导亦可使难以到达的推理路径变得可行。知识蒸馏更多是行为固化而非仅压缩,混合流水线则是协调的多阶段组合。该框架有助于诊断后训练瓶颈并推理阶段组合,表明进展日益依赖协同系统设计而非单一主导目标。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Post-training has become central to turning pretrained large language models (LLMs) into aligned, capable, and deployable systems. Recent progress spans supervised fine-tuning (SFT), preference optimization, reinforcement learning (RL), process supervision, verifier-guided methods, distillation, and multi-stage pipelines. Yet these methods are often discussed in fragmented ways, organized by labels or objectives rather than by the behavioral bottlenecks they address. This survey argues that LLM post-training is best understood as structured intervention on model behavior. We organize the field first by trajectory provenance, which defines two primary regimes: off-policy learning on externally supplied trajectories and on-policy learning on learner-generated rollouts. We then interpret methods through two recurring roles -- effective support expansion, which makes useful behaviors more reachable, and policy reshaping, which improves behavior within already reachable regions -- together with a complementary systems-level role, behavioral consolidation, which preserves, transfers, and amortizes useful behavior across stages and model transitions. Under this view, SFT may serve either support expansion or policy reshaping; preference optimization is usually off-policy reshaping, though online variants move closer to learner-generated states. On-policy RL often improves behavior on learner-generated states, but stronger guidance can also make hard-to-reach reasoning paths reachable. Distillation is often better understood as consolidation rather than only compression, and hybrid pipelines emerge as coordinated multi-stage compositions. Overall, the framework helps diagnose post-training bottlenecks and reason about stage composition, suggesting that progress increasingly depends on coordinated systems design rather than any single dominant objective.
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