AutoSynth: Automated Workflow Optimization for High-Quality Synthetic Dataset Generation via Monte Carlo Tree Search

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bi, Shuzhen, Song, Chang, Song, Siyu, Lv, Jinze, Chen, Jian, Wang, Xinyun, Zhou, Aimin, Hao, Hao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Bi, Shuzhen
Song, Chang
Song, Siyu
Lv, Jinze
Chen, Jian
Wang, Xinyun
Zhou, Aimin
Hao, Hao
author_facet Bi, Shuzhen
Song, Chang
Song, Siyu
Lv, Jinze
Chen, Jian
Wang, Xinyun
Zhou, Aimin
Hao, Hao
contents Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) of large language models (LLMs) for specialized tasks requires high-quality datasets, but manual curation is prohibitively expensive. Synthetic data generation offers scalability, but its effectiveness relies on complex, multi-stage workflows, integrating prompt engineering and model orchestration. Existing automated workflow methods face a cold start problem: they require labeled datasets for reward modeling, which is especially problematic for subjective, open-ended tasks with no objective ground truth. We introduce AutoSynth, a framework that automates workflow discovery and optimization without reference datasets by reframing the problem as a Monte Carlo Tree Search guided by a novel dataset-free hybrid reward. This reward enables meta-learning through two LLM-as-judge components: one evaluates sample quality using dynamically generated task-specific metrics, and another assesses workflow code and prompt quality. Experiments on subjective educational tasks show that while expert-designed workflows achieve higher human preference rates (96-99% win rates vs. AutoSynth's 40-51%), models trained on AutoSynth-generated data dramatically outperform baselines (40-51% vs. 2-5%) and match or surpass expert workflows on certain metrics, suggesting discovery of quality dimensions beyond human intuition. These results are achieved while reducing human effort from 5-7 hours to just 30 minutes (>90% reduction). AutoSynth tackles the cold start issue in data-centric AI, offering a scalable, cost-effective method for subjective LLM tasks. Code: https://github.com/bisz9918-maker/AutoSynth.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09488
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AutoSynth: Automated Workflow Optimization for High-Quality Synthetic Dataset Generation via Monte Carlo Tree Search
Bi, Shuzhen
Song, Chang
Song, Siyu
Lv, Jinze
Chen, Jian
Wang, Xinyun
Zhou, Aimin
Hao, Hao
Machine Learning
Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) of large language models (LLMs) for specialized tasks requires high-quality datasets, but manual curation is prohibitively expensive. Synthetic data generation offers scalability, but its effectiveness relies on complex, multi-stage workflows, integrating prompt engineering and model orchestration. Existing automated workflow methods face a cold start problem: they require labeled datasets for reward modeling, which is especially problematic for subjective, open-ended tasks with no objective ground truth. We introduce AutoSynth, a framework that automates workflow discovery and optimization without reference datasets by reframing the problem as a Monte Carlo Tree Search guided by a novel dataset-free hybrid reward. This reward enables meta-learning through two LLM-as-judge components: one evaluates sample quality using dynamically generated task-specific metrics, and another assesses workflow code and prompt quality. Experiments on subjective educational tasks show that while expert-designed workflows achieve higher human preference rates (96-99% win rates vs. AutoSynth's 40-51%), models trained on AutoSynth-generated data dramatically outperform baselines (40-51% vs. 2-5%) and match or surpass expert workflows on certain metrics, suggesting discovery of quality dimensions beyond human intuition. These results are achieved while reducing human effort from 5-7 hours to just 30 minutes (>90% reduction). AutoSynth tackles the cold start issue in data-centric AI, offering a scalable, cost-effective method for subjective LLM tasks. Code: https://github.com/bisz9918-maker/AutoSynth.
title AutoSynth: Automated Workflow Optimization for High-Quality Synthetic Dataset Generation via Monte Carlo Tree Search
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09488