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RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback)

A training technique where human evaluators rank AI outputs, and the model learns to produce responses humans prefer. Used to align models like ChatGPT with human values, making them more helpful and less harmful.

Why it matters

RLHF is the step that turned raw language models into helpful assistants that follow instructions and stay polite. Before it, models could complete text but often ignored what you actually wanted or produced unsafe replies. By learning from human preferences, they became far more useful and better behaved. Understanding RLHF explains why assistants like ChatGPT feel cooperative, and also why they sometimes hedge or refuse in ways that reflect their trainers' choices.

In practice

During training, people are shown two AI answers to the same question and pick the better one, over and over. The model gradually learns to favor responses humans prefer, like clear, honest, and non-toxic ones. A practical result you feel: when you ask for help rewriting an email and get a genuinely useful draft rather than random text, that cooperativeness largely comes from RLHF.

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