Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Beck, Jacob
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01062
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866912585194930176
author Beck, Jacob
author_facet Beck, Jacob
contents While internet-scale image and textual data have enabled strong generalization in Vision-Language Models (VLMs), the absence of internet-scale control data has impeded the development of similar generalization in standard reinforcement learning (RL) agents. Although VLMs are fundamentally limited in their ability to solve control tasks due to their lack of action-conditioned training data, their capacity for image understanding allows them to provide valuable feedback in RL tasks by recognizing successful outcomes. A key challenge in Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedback (RLAIF) is determining how best to integrate VLM-derived signals into the learning process. We explore this question in the context of offline RL and introduce a class of methods called Sub-Trajectory Filtered Optimization (SFO). We identify three key insights. First, trajectory length plays a crucial role in offline RL, as full-trajectory preference learning exacerbates the stitching problem, necessitating the use of sub-trajectories. Second, even in Markovian environments, a non-Markovian reward signal from a sequence of images is required to assess trajectory improvement, as VLMs do not interpret control actions and must rely on visual cues over time. Third, a simple yet effective approach--filtered and weighted behavior cloning--consistently outperforms more complex RLHF-based methods. We propose Sub-Trajectory Filtered Behavior Cloning (SFBC), a method that leverages VLM feedback on sub-trajectories while incorporating a retrospective filtering mechanism that removes sub-trajectories preceding failures to improve robustness and prevent turbulence. Please enjoy our airport puns.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_01062
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Offline RLAIF: Piloting VLM Feedback for RL via SFO
Beck, Jacob
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
While internet-scale image and textual data have enabled strong generalization in Vision-Language Models (VLMs), the absence of internet-scale control data has impeded the development of similar generalization in standard reinforcement learning (RL) agents. Although VLMs are fundamentally limited in their ability to solve control tasks due to their lack of action-conditioned training data, their capacity for image understanding allows them to provide valuable feedback in RL tasks by recognizing successful outcomes. A key challenge in Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedback (RLAIF) is determining how best to integrate VLM-derived signals into the learning process. We explore this question in the context of offline RL and introduce a class of methods called Sub-Trajectory Filtered Optimization (SFO). We identify three key insights. First, trajectory length plays a crucial role in offline RL, as full-trajectory preference learning exacerbates the stitching problem, necessitating the use of sub-trajectories. Second, even in Markovian environments, a non-Markovian reward signal from a sequence of images is required to assess trajectory improvement, as VLMs do not interpret control actions and must rely on visual cues over time. Third, a simple yet effective approach--filtered and weighted behavior cloning--consistently outperforms more complex RLHF-based methods. We propose Sub-Trajectory Filtered Behavior Cloning (SFBC), a method that leverages VLM feedback on sub-trajectories while incorporating a retrospective filtering mechanism that removes sub-trajectories preceding failures to improve robustness and prevent turbulence. Please enjoy our airport puns.
title Offline RLAIF: Piloting VLM Feedback for RL via SFO
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01062