SFT vs. RL: What Changes Inside the Model?

📰 Medium · AI

Learn how SFT and RL affect model weights and singular values, and why it matters for fine-tuning and reinforcement learning

advanced Published 24 Sept 2026
Action Steps
  1. Read the article on Medium to understand the basics of SFT and RL
  2. Apply SFT to a pre-trained model to observe changes in singular values
  3. Use RL to fine-tune a model and analyze how it rotates the frames around the singular values
  4. Compare the performance of SFT and RL on a specific task or dataset
  5. Configure a model to use either SFT or RL based on the desired outcome
Who Needs to Know This

Machine learning engineers and researchers can benefit from understanding the differences between SFT and RL to improve model performance and efficiency

Key Insight

💡 SFT rewrites singular values, while RL keeps them and rotates the frames around

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🤖 SFT vs RL: what changes inside the model? 🤔

Full Article

An intuitive guide to SFT, RLVR, and weight spectra: fine-tuning rewrites the singular values, RL keeps them and rotates the frames around… Continue reading on Medium »
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