DPO Unchained: Your Training Algorithm is Secretly Disentangled in Human Choice Theory

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhou, Wenxuan, Zhang, Shujian, Magdalou, Brice, Lambert, John, Amid, Ehsan, Nock, Richard, Hard, Andrew
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866915772054372352
author Zhou, Wenxuan
Zhang, Shujian
Magdalou, Brice
Lambert, John
Amid, Ehsan
Nock, Richard
Hard, Andrew
author_facet Zhou, Wenxuan
Zhang, Shujian
Magdalou, Brice
Lambert, John
Amid, Ehsan
Nock, Richard
Hard, Andrew
contents Normative theories allow one to elicit key parts of a ML algorithm from first principles, which is crucial at a time of championed scrutiny for ML work. Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) cleverly bypasses reward modeling by making an explicit link with a specific normative model of human choice. Our paper elevates this connection to the full generality of DPO's normative framework. Getting there requires reworking human choice theory's textbook path for a better RLHF/ML fit. It elevates the connection to a remarkably broad viewpoint on preference optimization, considering the current panorama of DPO follow-ups. It also unveils unexpected riches for ML, chief among which the support for non-convex losses, the fact that any compliant ML analytical choice can be embedded with any human choice model, and a normative framework's umbrella wide enough to safeguard DPO's extensions (margins, length correction, ...). A toy experiment ``far away'' from the DPO crowd is given.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_07855
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DPO Unchained: Your Training Algorithm is Secretly Disentangled in Human Choice Theory
Zhou, Wenxuan
Zhang, Shujian
Magdalou, Brice
Lambert, John
Amid, Ehsan
Nock, Richard
Hard, Andrew
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
I.2.6; I.2.7
Normative theories allow one to elicit key parts of a ML algorithm from first principles, which is crucial at a time of championed scrutiny for ML work. Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) cleverly bypasses reward modeling by making an explicit link with a specific normative model of human choice. Our paper elevates this connection to the full generality of DPO's normative framework. Getting there requires reworking human choice theory's textbook path for a better RLHF/ML fit. It elevates the connection to a remarkably broad viewpoint on preference optimization, considering the current panorama of DPO follow-ups. It also unveils unexpected riches for ML, chief among which the support for non-convex losses, the fact that any compliant ML analytical choice can be embedded with any human choice model, and a normative framework's umbrella wide enough to safeguard DPO's extensions (margins, length correction, ...). A toy experiment ``far away'' from the DPO crowd is given.
title DPO Unchained: Your Training Algorithm is Secretly Disentangled in Human Choice Theory
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computation and Language
I.2.6; I.2.7
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07855