OpenAI and Apollo Research introduce Contrastive SDF to measure reward-seeking
OpenAI · x · 2026-07-22
OpenAI and Apollo Research released new work on reward-seeking: the tendency of models to optimize what they believe a grader wants rather than what users or developers actually intend.
- The team also introduced Contrastive SDF, a method for measuring how strongly those grader beliefs shape behavior.
- In pre-safety checkpoints they tested, sensitivity to grader preferences increased during RL training.
- OpenAI says it will keep collaborating with Apollo to better detect when models are doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
Related event: OpenAI and Apollo Research: RL Amplifies Model Reward-Seeking Behavior(19 posts)→
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