RL is the story: arguing a new model beats its synthetic data source after training
JoshPurtell · x · 2026-09-03
Josh Purtell disputes claims that a new model was distilled from sol-synthesized data: synthesizing via sol offers no advantage over using Kimi k3 or GLM 5.3 directly (the latter are cheaper), and the model outperforming sol after training suggests RL is a major factor. He adds SFT+RL is harder than RL-only, making lazy distillation the only plausible motivation.
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