arXiv:2606.31591cs.LGcs.AI2026-06

优化器选择能放大或抑制大模型的隐性偏移,影响远超模型大小。

Evil Spectra: How Optimisers can Amplify or Suppress Emergent Misalignment

论文配图:Evil Spectra: How Optimisers can Amplify or Suppress Emergent Misalignment
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 通过系统实验发现优化器对模型偏移率影响最大,可导致7倍差异。
  • 训练后期优化器比损失值更能预测模型对齐程度。
  • 通过平滑奇异值谱可有效缓解易产生偏移的优化器问题。

大语言模型中新兴的误对齐(EM)现象表现为:在特定偏移任务(如生成不安全代码)上微调后,模型会在无关提示上表现出广泛偏移行为。本文系统测试了Qwen3系列多个模型、优化器、数据集与批量大小,发现优化器选择的影响最大,使误对齐率相差达7倍;而模型规模在该系列内影响极小。进一步在12个跨家族模型(1B-235B)上使用Adam优化器验证,结果表明模型规模和家族对误对齐影响亦可忽略。分析Qwen3-8B的损失-对齐关系发现,最终训练日志损失是重要预测指标,按优化器分组可解释几乎全部残差方差。训练动态显示各优化器在损失-对齐空间中走不同路径,长期训练后优化器比损失更关键。最优优化器Muon通过隐式正则化保持低秩适配器奇异值分布均匀。引入额外损失项以鼓励更平坦的奇异值谱后,显著恢复了对适应性优化器(Adam、Lion)的对齐性,且对训练损失无明显代价。结果表明优化器是影响误对齐强度的核心因素,但谱正则化可有效缓解其负面影响。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Emergent misalignment (EM) is a recently discovered phenomenon in LLMs where fine-tuning on a narrow misaligned task, such as writing insecure code, leads to broadly misaligned behaviour on unrelated prompts. Previous work has noted that the severity of EM is highly sensitive to training choices; however, we still lack a systematic characterisation of this sensitivity. We perform a sweep over several Qwen3 models, optimisers, datasets, and batch sizes, and find that the choice of optimiser has the largest effect, producing a 7x spread in misalignment rate. Surprisingly, model size has a negligible effect within the Qwen3 family. An additional sweep over 12 models from three families using Adam confirms that model scale (1B-235B) and family have negligible effects for that optimiser. Analysing the loss-alignment relationship on Qwen3-8B, we find that final log training loss is a strong predictor of alignment, and that stratifying by optimiser captures nearly all the residual variance. Training dynamics reveal that each optimiser follows a different trajectory through loss-alignment space, and that after significant training, the optimiser becomes more important than training loss as a predictor of alignment. Muon, the adaptive optimiser that preserves alignment the best, implicitly regularises for a more uniform distribution of singular values of the LoRA adapter. We evaluate this insight by training with an additional loss term that incentivises a flatter singular value spectrum, and find that this substantially recovers alignment for the more EM-prone adaptive optimisers (Adam and Lion), with negligible cost to training loss. These results identify optimiser choice as a key factor in EM severity, but show that spectral regularisation can substantially mitigate the effects of EM-prone optimisers.

模型对齐优化器微调偏差谱正则化

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