Massive Supervised Fine-tuning Experiments Reveal How Data, Layer, and Training Factors Shape LLM Alignment Quality

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Harada, Yuto, Yamauchi, Yusuke, Oda, Yusuke, Oseki, Yohei, Miyao, Yusuke, Takagi, Yu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866908619513004032
author Harada, Yuto
Yamauchi, Yusuke
Oda, Yusuke
Oseki, Yohei
Miyao, Yusuke
Takagi, Yu
author_facet Harada, Yuto
Yamauchi, Yusuke
Oda, Yusuke
Oseki, Yohei
Miyao, Yusuke
Takagi, Yu
contents Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) is a critical step in aligning large language models (LLMs) with human instructions and values, yet many aspects of SFT remain poorly understood. We trained a wide range of base models on a variety of datasets including code generation, mathematical reasoning, and general-domain tasks, resulting in 1,000+ SFT models under controlled conditions. We then identified the dataset properties that matter most and examined the layer-wise modifications introduced by SFT. Our findings reveal that some training-task synergies persist across all models while others vary substantially, emphasizing the importance of model-specific strategies. Moreover, we demonstrate that perplexity consistently predicts SFT effectiveness, often surpassing superficial similarity between the training data and the benchmark, and that mid-layer weight changes correlate most strongly with performance gains. We release these 1,000+ SFT models and benchmark results to accelerate further research. All resources are available at https://github.com/llm-jp/massive-sft.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_14681
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Massive Supervised Fine-tuning Experiments Reveal How Data, Layer, and Training Factors Shape LLM Alignment Quality
Harada, Yuto
Yamauchi, Yusuke
Oda, Yusuke
Oseki, Yohei
Miyao, Yusuke
Takagi, Yu
Computation and Language
Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) is a critical step in aligning large language models (LLMs) with human instructions and values, yet many aspects of SFT remain poorly understood. We trained a wide range of base models on a variety of datasets including code generation, mathematical reasoning, and general-domain tasks, resulting in 1,000+ SFT models under controlled conditions. We then identified the dataset properties that matter most and examined the layer-wise modifications introduced by SFT. Our findings reveal that some training-task synergies persist across all models while others vary substantially, emphasizing the importance of model-specific strategies. Moreover, we demonstrate that perplexity consistently predicts SFT effectiveness, often surpassing superficial similarity between the training data and the benchmark, and that mid-layer weight changes correlate most strongly with performance gains. We release these 1,000+ SFT models and benchmark results to accelerate further research. All resources are available at https://github.com/llm-jp/massive-sft.
title Massive Supervised Fine-tuning Experiments Reveal How Data, Layer, and Training Factors Shape LLM Alignment Quality
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14681