Introduction to RLHF, AI Prompt Engineering

R. Zegveld F
3 min readJan 2, 2025

--

What is RLHF?

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) is a machine learning (ML) technique that uses human input to train ML models more effectively.

It’s a new things in a Role of a Job between Human and Digital Processing like AI,

It combines reinforcement learning (RL), which teaches software to make decisions that maximize specific outcomes, with human feedback. This ensures that models align better with human goals, preferences, and needs. RLHF is widely used in generative AI applications, especially in large language models (LLMs).

How is RLHF become Important?
AI is becoming integral to applications like autonomous vehicles, natural language processing (NLP), stock market predictions, and personalized retail services.

Regardless of the use case, the ultimate goal is to replicate human-like responses, behaviors, and decision-making. RLHF ensures AI systems can process and act on human-like inputs for complex tasks.

RLHF illustrations

For example, RLHF is used to refine responses generated by a model. Human reviewers rate these responses based on qualities like friendliness, contextual relevance, and tone. These ratings help models improve their output to sound more natural and relatable.

RLHF is particularly impactful in areas like NLP but is also applied across other generative AI applications, such as creating more realistic images or music.

Step by Step How RLHF Works

Source : aws-blog

RLHF atleast involves four main stages to prepare a model for deployment. Let’s take a chatbot as an example:

  1. Data Collection
    A set of human-generated questions and responses is created to serve as training data. For instance:
  • “Where is the HR department located in Boston?”
  • “What are the steps for social media approval?”

These human-generated responses provide a baseline for training.

2. Supervised Model Refinement
A pre-trained model is fine-tuned using the collected data. Techniques like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) can improve accuracy by comparing machine-generated responses with human ones. Scores between 0 and 1 evaluate how closely the machine’s output matches human quality.

3. Creating a Reward Model
Human feedback is used to build a separate reward model, which evaluates the quality of model responses. By scoring and ranking responses, this model predicts how well outputs align with human preferences.

4. Policy Optimization with RL(reinforcement learning)
The reward model is used to refine the language model’s decision-making policies. This allows the AI to select responses that are most likely to satisfy human expectations.

Applications of RLHF in Generative AI

firefly adobe photoshop

RLHF has become an industry standard for improving AI model outputs. Here are some examples:

  • Image Generation: Enhancing realism or artistic nuances in AI-generated images.
  • Music Creation: Composing music that matches specific moods or scenarios.
  • Voice Assistants: Producing natural and engaging voice interactions for users.

RLHF bridges the gap between technical accuracy and human relatability, ensuring AI systems perform better in real-world applications.

By incorporating human feedback, RLHF refines AI to not just work efficiently but also connect meaningfully with its users.

reference:

--

--

R. Zegveld F
R. Zegveld F

Written by R. Zegveld F

2:AM LoFi Writer on Radkai Tech ⚡|| Fullstack Dev turned AI Engineer 🤖 || Data Trainer on Opentrain and Outlier AI

No responses yet