Efficient RLVR Training via Weighted Mutual Information Data Selection

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Zhou, Xinyu, Zhu, Boyu, Zhang, Haotian, Wang, Huiming, Guo, Zhijiang
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Zhou, Xinyu
Zhu, Boyu
Zhang, Haotian
Wang, Huiming
Guo, Zhijiang
author_facet Zhou, Xinyu
Zhu, Boyu
Zhang, Haotian
Wang, Huiming
Guo, Zhijiang
contents Reinforcement learning (RL) plays a central role in improving the reasoning and alignment of large language models, yet its efficiency critically depends on how training data are selected. Existing online selection strategies predominantly rely on difficulty-based heuristics, favouring datapoints with intermediate success rates, implicitly equating difficulty with informativeness and neglecting epistemic uncertainty arising from limited evidence. We introduce InSight, an INformation-guided data SamplInG metHod for RL Training, grounded in a weighted mutual information objective. By modeling data outcomes with Bayesian latent success rates, we show that expected uncertainty reduction decomposes into complementary difficulty- and evidence-dependent components, revealing a fundamental limitation of difficulty-only selection. Leveraging this observation, InSight constructs a stable acquisition score based on the mean belief of datapoints' success rather than noisy sampled outcomes, and naturally extends to multi-rollout settings common in reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR). Extensive experiments demonstrate that InSight consistently achieves state-of-the-art performance and improves training efficiency, including a +1.41 average gain on Planning & Mathmatics benchmarks, +1.01 improvement on general reasoning, and up to ~2.2x acceleration, with negligible additional computational overhead.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_01907
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient RLVR Training via Weighted Mutual Information Data Selection
Zhou, Xinyu
Zhu, Boyu
Zhang, Haotian
Wang, Huiming
Guo, Zhijiang
Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Reinforcement learning (RL) plays a central role in improving the reasoning and alignment of large language models, yet its efficiency critically depends on how training data are selected. Existing online selection strategies predominantly rely on difficulty-based heuristics, favouring datapoints with intermediate success rates, implicitly equating difficulty with informativeness and neglecting epistemic uncertainty arising from limited evidence. We introduce InSight, an INformation-guided data SamplInG metHod for RL Training, grounded in a weighted mutual information objective. By modeling data outcomes with Bayesian latent success rates, we show that expected uncertainty reduction decomposes into complementary difficulty- and evidence-dependent components, revealing a fundamental limitation of difficulty-only selection. Leveraging this observation, InSight constructs a stable acquisition score based on the mean belief of datapoints' success rather than noisy sampled outcomes, and naturally extends to multi-rollout settings common in reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR). Extensive experiments demonstrate that InSight consistently achieves state-of-the-art performance and improves training efficiency, including a +1.41 average gain on Planning & Mathmatics benchmarks, +1.01 improvement on general reasoning, and up to ~2.2x acceleration, with negligible additional computational overhead.
title Efficient RLVR Training via Weighted Mutual Information Data Selection
topic Machine Learning
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.01907