Post-training turns pretrained base models into instruction-following assistants

Dongxi NLP explains that a pretrained base model only predicts the next word, so it often continues a prompt rather than answering it.

Post-training retrains the same model on smaller, curated data to follow instructions, avoid harm, and reason step by step.

The post names three techniques: instruction tuning, which learns from example answers; preference alignment, which learns from comparisons between responses; and RLVR, which learns from automated checks of right and wrong answers.