针对大模型对齐中重尾奖励问题,提出新理论框架提升鲁棒性。
Tail-Aware Information-Theoretic Bounds for LLM Alignment under Heavy-Tailed Rewards

- 引入子韦伯尔分布建模重尾奖励,用移位对数fθ散度替代MGF
- 在重尾条件下实现有限奖励保证,避免标准KL正则的灾难性失效
- 适用于对抗攻击和非平稳奖励场景,适合大模型安全对齐研究者
经典信息论学习界通常依赖KL互信息和矩生成函数(MGF)分析,适用于有界或次高斯损失,但在重尾奖励下表现不佳。本文构建了面向子韦伯尔数据的尾部感知信息论框架,其中尾部参数θ控制尾部厚度:θ=2为次高斯,θ=1为次指数,0<θ<1为真正重尾。核心技术是去相关引理,通过移位对数fθ散度界定测度变换期望,无需依赖MGF即可与Rényi散度显式比较。在经验过程方面,建立了子韦伯尔过程的尖锐最大不等式和达德利型链式界,对数与熵项均提升至1/θ次方。这些工具导出尾部自适应选择界和基于移位对数与Rényi互信息的多尺度信息论达德利不等式。应用于强化学习中的人类反馈(RLHF)对齐任务,证明Rényi正则化对齐可提供有限奖励保障,确保最优-多选策略仍受控,从而缓解标准KL正则失败时的灾难性古德哈特效应。实验验证了该方法在可控重尾奖励及令牌空间奖励攻击下的有效性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Classical information-theoretic learning bounds typically rely on KL mutual information and moment-generating-function (MGF) arguments, which are well matched to bounded or sub-Gaussian losses but can be ineffective when losses or rewards are heavy-tailed. We develop a tail-aware information-theoretic framework for sub-Weibull data, where the tail parameter $θ$ controls the tail heaviness: $θ=2$ corresponds to sub-Gaussian, $θ=1$ to sub-exponential, and $0<θ<1$ to genuinely heavy tails. Our key technical ingredient is a decorrelation lemma that bounds change-of-measure expectations using a shifted-log $f_θ$-divergence, which admits explicit comparisons to Rényi divergence without MGF arguments. On the empirical-process side, we establish sharp maximal inequalities and a Dudley-type chaining bound for sub-Weibull processes, with logarithmic and entropy terms raised to the power $1/θ$. These tools yield tail-adaptive selection bounds and a multiscale information-theoretic Dudley inequality based on shifted-log and Rényi mutual information. We apply our theory to large language models (LLMs) in the context of reward hacking within reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). We show that Rényi-regularized alignment provides finite reward guarantees and ensures that best-of-N policies remain well-controlled, thereby mitigating the catastrophic Goodhart effects where standard KL-regularization fails. We illustrate Rényi-regularized RLHF by experiments, including controlled heavy-tailed rewards and token-space reward attacks.
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