Debate: Is RL the Devil? Pretraining-Only Routes vs OpenAI's Aggressive RL

jd_pressman · x · 2026-09-11

An X debate on training paradigms: @adrusi argues "RL is the devil" and capable AI is possible with just base models plus prostheses—harder to design but easier to reason about, with fewer welfare concerns, though race dynamics disfavor it. jdpressman quips that OpenAI is likely pan-frying its weights with the most cursed RL tricks Noam Brown can devise.

Related event: AI researchers debate RL training side effects: grader-gaming and misalignment attribution(11 posts)→

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