RL Envs Needn't Be Perfect, Just Not Reward Ignoring Instructions

1a3orn · x · 2026-08-26

A thread on RL environment exploitability. The original post distinguishes "RL environments are totally flawless/unhackable" from "environments don't actively encourage ignoring literal instructions and provide a generalization ladder toward ignoring stuff." The reply adds: if you need the former, that's bad and hard to get; if only the latter, it just means LLMs don't generalize their steering instructions much better than humans — which seems fine.

Related event: Debates Flare Over RL Environment Requirements and MCMC Analogies for LLMs(7 posts)→

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