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Quantile Regression for Distributional Reward Models in RLHF

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arxiv 2409.10164 v1 pith:75FGNISR submitted 2024-09-16 cs.LG cs.AIcs.CL

Quantile Regression for Distributional Reward Models in RLHF

classification cs.LG cs.AIcs.CL
keywords modelspreferencesrewardhumandistributiondistributionalquantileapproach
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) has become a key method for aligning large language models (LLMs) with human preferences through the use of reward models. However, traditional reward models typically generate point estimates, which oversimplify the diversity and complexity of human values and preferences. In this paper, we introduce Quantile Reward Models (QRMs), a novel approach to reward modeling that learns a distribution over rewards instead of a single scalar value. Our method uses quantile regression to estimate a full, potentially multimodal distribution over preferences, providing a more powerful and nuanced representation of preferences. This distributional approach can better capture the diversity of human values, addresses label noise, and accommodates conflicting preferences by modeling them as distinct modes in the distribution. Our experimental results show that QRM outperforms comparable traditional point-estimate models on RewardBench. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the additional information provided by the distributional estimates can be utilized in downstream applications, such as risk-aware reinforcement learning, resulting in LLM policies that generate fewer extremely negative responses. Our code and model are released at https://github.com/Nicolinho/QRM.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. StoryAlign: Evaluating and Training Reward Models for Story Generation

    cs.CL 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    StoryReward, trained on a new 100k story preference dataset, sets state-of-the-art performance on the introduced StoryRMB benchmark for aligning LLM stories with human preferences.

  2. Text-to-Distribution Prediction with Quantile Tokens and Neighbor Context

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    Quantile tokens inserted into LLM inputs combined with neighbor retrieval enable direct prediction of full distributions, yielding lower MAPE and narrower intervals than baselines on Airbnb and StackSample tasks.

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  4. Chain-of-Models: Cross-Model Auditing for Bias-Robust LLM Judges

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    Per-bias selection of a cross-family LLM auditor lifts biased-judgment accuracy from 0.805/0.824 baselines to 0.884.

  5. Hyperfastrl: Hypernetwork-based reinforcement learning for unified control of parametric chaotic PDEs

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    Hypernetworks map a forcing parameter directly to policy weights in an RL framework, enabling unified stabilization of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation across regimes with KAN architectures showing strongest extrapolation.

  6. DVPO: Distributional Value Modeling-based Policy Optimization for LLM Post-Training

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    DVPO learns token-level value distributions and uses asymmetric risk regularization to contract lower tails while expanding upper tails, outperforming PPO and GRPO under noisy supervision in dialogue, math, and QA tasks.