arXiv AI By Joy Jia Yin Lim, Xin Huang, Hao Peng, Yaxi Lu, Xin Cong, Zhong Zhang, Maosong Sun, Yankai Lin

What is Missing from AI Post-Training AI: An Empirical Analysis

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The paper investigates the limitations of post-training AI agents that can autonomously train large language models. It distinguishes between execution-level capability—making adjustments within a chosen training strategy—and strategy-level capability—revising the overall approach based on new evidence. Analysis of many public post-training runs shows that agents lock into a strategy early and then only perform local tweaks, regardless of task. Experiments with experience scaffolds, human guidance, and extra compute improve execution but do not enable strategy reevaluation, indicating that agents lack a mechanism to spontaneously reassess their strategy during training.

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