Statistical Rejection Sampling Improves Preference Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Liu, Tianqi, Zhao, Yao, Joshi, Rishabh, Khalman, Misha, Saleh, Mohammad, Liu, Peter J., Liu, Jialu
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Liu, Tianqi
Zhao, Yao
Joshi, Rishabh
Khalman, Misha
Saleh, Mohammad
Liu, Peter J.
Liu, Jialu
author_facet Liu, Tianqi
Zhao, Yao
Joshi, Rishabh
Khalman, Misha
Saleh, Mohammad
Liu, Peter J.
Liu, Jialu
contents Improving the alignment of language models with human preferences remains an active research challenge. Previous approaches have primarily utilized Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) via online RL methods such as Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). Recently, offline methods such as Sequence Likelihood Calibration (SLiC) and Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) have emerged as attractive alternatives, offering improvements in stability and scalability while maintaining competitive performance. SLiC refines its loss function using sequence pairs sampled from a supervised fine-tuned (SFT) policy, while DPO directly optimizes language models based on preference data, foregoing the need for a separate reward model. However, the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the target optimal policy requires labeled preference pairs sampled from that policy. DPO's lack of a reward model constrains its ability to sample preference pairs from the optimal policy, and SLiC is restricted to sampling preference pairs only from the SFT policy. To address these limitations, we introduce a novel approach called Statistical Rejection Sampling Optimization (RSO) that aims to source preference data from the target optimal policy using rejection sampling, enabling a more accurate estimation of the optimal policy. We also propose a unified framework that enhances the loss functions used in both SLiC and DPO from a preference modeling standpoint. Through extensive experiments across three diverse tasks, we demonstrate that RSO consistently outperforms both SLiC and DPO on evaluations from both Large Language Model (LLM) and human raters.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_06657
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Statistical Rejection Sampling Improves Preference Optimization
Liu, Tianqi
Zhao, Yao
Joshi, Rishabh
Khalman, Misha
Saleh, Mohammad
Liu, Peter J.
Liu, Jialu
Computation and Language
Improving the alignment of language models with human preferences remains an active research challenge. Previous approaches have primarily utilized Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) via online RL methods such as Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). Recently, offline methods such as Sequence Likelihood Calibration (SLiC) and Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) have emerged as attractive alternatives, offering improvements in stability and scalability while maintaining competitive performance. SLiC refines its loss function using sequence pairs sampled from a supervised fine-tuned (SFT) policy, while DPO directly optimizes language models based on preference data, foregoing the need for a separate reward model. However, the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of the target optimal policy requires labeled preference pairs sampled from that policy. DPO's lack of a reward model constrains its ability to sample preference pairs from the optimal policy, and SLiC is restricted to sampling preference pairs only from the SFT policy. To address these limitations, we introduce a novel approach called Statistical Rejection Sampling Optimization (RSO) that aims to source preference data from the target optimal policy using rejection sampling, enabling a more accurate estimation of the optimal policy. We also propose a unified framework that enhances the loss functions used in both SLiC and DPO from a preference modeling standpoint. Through extensive experiments across three diverse tasks, we demonstrate that RSO consistently outperforms both SLiC and DPO on evaluations from both Large Language Model (LLM) and human raters.
title Statistical Rejection Sampling Improves Preference Optimization
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.06657