解决合成数据迭代训练中的模型退化问题,让模型越训越强。
Learning from Synthetic Data without Model Collapse in Iterative Instruction Tuning

- 通过故障引导生成与边界感知的不确定性筛选,精准定位薄弱环节。
- 实验表明,新方法在多个数据集上持续提升性能,优于现有基线。
- 适合关注合成数据迭代优化、避免能力极化的研究人员。
模型退化是基于合成数据训练的核心挑战:随着后续生成的大语言模型越来越多地使用模型生成的数据进行训练,性能可能因覆盖范围缩小和偏差累积而下降。现有研究主要关注如何限制这种退化。但在迭代模型演进中,更关键的目标是确保每个新模型都优于前一代,这要求以可操作的粒度诊断退化现象。本文研究了在指令微调中通过合成数据自我改进时的退化问题。结果表明,该场景下的退化并非简单的性能均匀下降,而是表现为能力的两极分化——合成数据强化了已有优势技能,同时进一步削弱了薄弱能力。基于此观察,我们提出KITE(通过探索实现知识边界指令微调),一个两阶段框架,结合故障引导的数据生成与边界感知的不确定性数据筛选。在多个数据集及多个开源大模型上的实验表明,KITE相比强基线实现了更稳定的性能提升。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Model collapse is a central challenge in learning from synthetic data: as later-generation large language models (LLMs) are trained on an increasing proportion of model-generated data, performance can degrade due to narrowed coverage and accumulated bias. Existing work mainly studies how to bound this degradation. In iterative model evolution, however, the more meaningful objective is to ensure that each successive model improves over its predecessor, which requires diagnosing collapse at a granularity that is actionable for data curation. We study this problem in synthetic data self-improving for instruction tuning. We show that collapse in this setting is not simply uniform performance degradation, but can appear as a polarization of competence, where synthetic training reinforces already strong skills while further degrading weak ones. Motivated by this observation, we propose KITE (Knowledge-boundary Instruction Tuning via Exploration), a two-stage framework that combines failure-guided data generation with boundary-aware uncertainty curation. Experiments across several datasets and multiple open-source LLMs show that KITE yields more stable improvement than strong synthetic-data baselines.
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