Papers › Self-Augmented Preference Optimization: Off-Policy Paradigms for Language Model Alignment
Self-Augmented Preference Optimization: Off-Policy Paradigms for Language Model Alignment
Yueqin Yin, Zhendong Wang, Yujia Xie, Weizhu Chen, Mingyuan Zhou
Traditional language model alignment methods, such as Direct Preference Optimization (DPO), are limited by their dependence on static, pre-collected paired preference data, which hampers their adaptability and practical applicability. To overcome this limitation, we introduce Self-Augmented Preference Optimization (SAPO), an effective and scalable training paradigm that does not require existing paired data. Building on the self-play concept, which autonomously generates negative responses, we further incorporate an off-policy learning pipeline to enhance data exploration and exploitation. Specifically, we employ an Exponential Moving Average (EMA) model in conjunction with a replay buffer to enable dynamic updates of response segments, effectively integrating real-time feedback with insights from historical data. Our comprehensive evaluations of the LLaMA3-8B and Mistral-7B models across benchmarks, including the Open LLM Leaderboard, IFEval, AlpacaEval 2.0, and MT-Bench, demonstrate that SAPO matches or surpasses established offline contrastive baselines, such as DPO and Odds Ratio Preference Optimization, and outperforms offline self-play methods like SPIN. Our code is available at https://github.com/yinyueqin/SAPO
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