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Glossary

Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)

Reinforcement learning from human feedback is a way to shape a model's behavior using people's judgments. People compare pairs of model outputs and pick the better one; a second model learns to predict those preferences; and the main model is then trained by reinforcement learning to produce outputs that score well. It is how raw language models were turned into helpful assistants.

Why it comes up

Amodei co-authored the 2017 paper that introduced the method, and OpenAI's use of it in InstructGPT and ChatGPT made it standard; critics note it teaches models to please raters, which is not the same as being truthful or safe.

People and milestones

Sources