2025.emnlp-main.1138@ACL

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#1 Massive Supervised Fine-tuning Experiments Reveal How Data, Layer, and Training Factors Shape LLM Alignment Quality [PDF] [Copy] [Kimi] [REL]

Authors: Yuto Harada, Yusuke Yamauchi, Yusuke Oda, Yohei Oseki, Yusuke Miyao, Yu Takagi

Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) is a critical step in aligning large language models (LLMs) with human instructions and values, yet many aspects of SFT remain poorly understood. We trained a wide range of base models on a variety of datasets including code generation, mathematical reasoning, and general-domain tasks, resulting in 1,000+ SFT models under controlled conditions. We then identified the dataset properties that matter most and examined the layer-wise modifications introduced by SFT.Our findings reveal that some training–task synergies persist across all models while others vary substantially, emphasizing the importance of model-specific strategies. Moreover, we demonstrate that perplexity consistently predicts SFT effectiveness, often surpassing superficial similarity between the training data and the benchmark, and that mid-layer weight changes correlate most strongly with performance gains. We release these 1,000+ SFT models and benchmark results to accelerate further research. All resources are available at https://github.com/llm-jp/massive-sft.

Subject: EMNLP.2025 - Main