Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF): Taming the Ghost in the Machine

by Nat Currier 17 min read
AIMachine LearningAlignmentEngineeringDeep Dive
Excerpt

The definitive guide to the engineering breakthrough that turned raw text predictors into helpful assistants. We dive deep into the math of PPO, the psychology of Reward Modeling, and why 'The Waluigi Effect' keeps alignment researchers awake at night.

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Nat Currier. "Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF): Taming the Ghost in the Machine." nat.io, 2026-02-05. https://nat.io/blog/rlhf-guide-human-feedback

RLHF refines base language models, which predict next tokens without intent, into aligned assistants by translating statistical patterns into human values via complex engineering involving PPO, Reward Modeling, and ad...

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Key stat: 17 minute read