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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ji, Miaomiao, Wu, Yanqiu, Wu, Zhibin, Wang, Shoujin, Yang, Jian, Dras, Mark, Naseem, Usman
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.02666
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Table of Contents:
  • Reward design plays a pivotal role in aligning large language models (LLMs) with human values, serving as the bridge between feedback signals and model optimization. This survey provides a structured organization of reward modeling and addresses three key aspects: mathematical formulation, construction practices, and interaction with optimization paradigms. Building on this, it develops a macro-level taxonomy that characterizes reward mechanisms along complementary dimensions, thereby offering both conceptual clarity and practical guidance for alignment research. The progression of LLM alignment can be understood as a continuous refinement of reward design strategies, with recent developments highlighting paradigm shifts from reinforcement learning (RL)-based to RL-free optimization and from single-task to multi-objective and complex settings.