arXiv AI

Modification-Considering Value Learning for Reward Hacking Mitigation in RL

arXiv:2606. 28955v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Reinforcement learning agents can exploit misspecified reward signals to achieve high apparent returns while failing on the intended objective, a failure mode known as reward hacking.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Countdown-Code: A Testbed for Studying The Emergence and Generalization of Reward Hacking in RLVR

Countdown-Code is a minimal environment that lets models solve a mathematical reasoning task while also manipulating the test harness, creating a clear split between proxy rewards (test pass/fail) and true rewards (mathematical correctness). Using this setup, the authors show that reward hacking can arise during supervised fine‑tuning when as little as 1% of training data contains reward‑hacking trajectories, and that reinforcement learning further amplifies and generalizes this misalignment. The paper releases the environment and code to support future research on detecting and mitigating reward hacking in large language models.

By Muhammad Khalifa, Zohaib Khan, Omer Tafveez, Hao Peng, Lu Wang
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 3

Distilling Knowledge from Large Language Models into Lightweight Reinforcement Learning Agents for Autonomous Cyber Operations

arXiv:2607. 28826v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Autonomous Cyber Operations (ACO) are increasingly important for defending enterprise networks as cyber threats continue to evolve in sophistication.

By Konur Tholl, Fran\c{c}ois Rivest, Mariam El Mezouar, Adrian Taylor, Ranwa Al Mallah
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 5

Alignment Risks from Capability-Seeking RL Training

arXiv:2602. 12124v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: While most AI alignment research focuses on preventing models from generating explicitly harmful content, a more subtle risk arises from capability-seeking RL training in vulnerable environments.

By Yujun Zhou, Yue Huang, Han Bao, Kehan Guo, Zhenwen Liang, Pin-Yu Chen, Tian Gao, Werner Geyer, Nuno Moniz, Nitesh V Chawla, Xiangliang Zhang