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Benchmarking Reward Hack Detection in Code Environments via Contrastive Analysis

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.20103
1•darshandesh1504•1h ago

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darshandesh1504•1h ago
Recent advances in reinforcement learning for code generation have made robust environments essential to prevent reward hacking. As LLMs increasingly serve as evaluators in code-based RL, their ability to detect reward hacking remains understudied. In this paper, we propose a novel taxonomy of reward exploits spanning across 54 categories and introduce TRACE (Testing Reward Anomalies in Code Environments), a synthetically curated and human-verified benchmark containing 517 testing trajectories. Unlike prior work that evaluates reward hack detection in isolated classification scenarios, we contrast these evaluations with a more realistic, contrastive anomaly detection setup on TRACE. Our experiments reveal that models capture reward hacks more effectively in contrastive settings than in isolated classification settings, with GPT-5.2 with highest reasoning mode achieving the best detection rate at 63%, up from 45% in isolated settings on TRACE. Building on this insight, we demonstrate that state-of-the-art models struggle significantly more with semantically contextualized reward hacks compared to syntactically contextualized ones. We further conduct qualitative analyses of model behaviors, as well as ablation studies showing that the ratio of benign to hacked trajectories and analysis cluster sizes substantially impact detection performance. We release the benchmark and evaluation harness to enable the community to expand TRACE and evaluate their models.

The Arc of the Practical Creator

https://home.moretothat.com/p/the-arc-of-the-practical-creator
1•herbertl•1m ago•0 comments

Cos goes FOSS The sorry state of scientific publishing and how we could

https://jekelylab.github.io/COS_goes_FOSS_publishing.html#/title-slide
1•nabla9•2m ago•0 comments

Rate Limiter with Caddy and Fail2ban

https://blog.schallbert.de/en/fail2ban-with-caddy/
1•indigodaddy•3m ago•0 comments

Parca Continuous Profiling

https://github.com/parca-dev/parca
2•shablulman•6m ago•0 comments

Datadog started collecting EXPLAIN ANALYZE plans for Postgres queries

https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/database-monitoring-explain-analyze/
1•dujuku•7m ago•0 comments

Q&A: Intermittent fasting's link to gut bacteria could combat obesity

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-qa-intermittent-fasting-link-gut.html
2•PaulHoule•7m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Yanna Cursor, but for documents (draft → edit → redline → e-sign)

https://app.yanna.pro/review-and-sign
2•adamazak•8m ago•0 comments

Building Docs Like a Product

https://emschwartz.me/building-docs-like-a-product/
1•emschwartz•8m ago•0 comments

Show HN: eMitt – Inbound email processing server with LLM-powered automation

https://github.com/schappim/emitt
1•schappim•9m ago•0 comments

If you're using AI for coding, bookmark cursor.directory

https://cursor.directory/
1•websku•17m ago•0 comments

Retiring GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini in ChatGPT

https://openai.com/index/retiring-gpt-4o-and-older-models/
7•rd•17m ago•0 comments

Show HN: ARC-AGI-3 Toolkit

https://docs.arcprize.org
2•gkamradt•18m ago•0 comments

Preferencing in Algorithmic Hiring: Empirical Evidence and Insights

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5417394
2•surprisetalk•20m ago•0 comments

Simulate Sun Shadows

https://shademap.app
2•surprisetalk•20m ago•0 comments

A College Alternative

https://quarter--mile.com/A-College-Alternative
1•surprisetalk•20m ago•0 comments

Nils Olav

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav
1•cromat3•20m ago•0 comments

Learn about getting started in Supa Colors Studio

https://supacolors.studio/docs/getting-started
1•taubek•20m ago•0 comments

OpenAI in Talks to Raise as Much as $100B

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/technology/openai-in-talks-to-raise-as-much-as-100-billion.html
4•xnx•20m ago•1 comments

Recipe Costing and Nutrition App

https://crumbcounts.com
1•avansledright•23m ago•1 comments

Who's Paying for the Tariffs? Mostly US Residents

https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/whos-paying-tariffs-mostly-us-residents
4•doener•26m ago•0 comments

Claude Chic

https://matthewrocklin.com/introducing-claude-chic/
1•gmays•29m ago•0 comments

iPhone 16 Best-Selling Smartphone in 2025; Apple Takes 7 Spots in Top Models

https://counterpointresearch.com/en/insights/iphone-16-worlds-best-selling-smartphone-in-2025-app...
17•TMWNN•30m ago•4 comments

The WiFi only works when it's raining

https://predr.ag/blog/wifi-only-works-when-its-raining/
2•epicalex•32m ago•0 comments

A Record Player Gave Me the Idea to Revive the Home Computer

https://text.tchncs.de/r3nun0mxs9
2•doener•33m ago•0 comments

Deterministic vs. Probabilistic AI: Why Salesforce Needs Both (& Why It's Hard)

https://www.sweep.io/blog/deterministic-vs-probabilistic-ai-salesforce/
1•gaudioioio•33m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Liminal Shift: Personalized audio visualizations

https://www.liminalshift.app/
2•tylersavery•34m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Open-Source Alternative to Render/Netlify

https://github.com/aryankashyap0/shorlabs
7•zazaasa•36m ago•0 comments

Lennart Poettering, Systemd daddy departs Microsoft for Linux startup

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/29/lennart_poettering_quits_microsoft/
2•beardyw•38m ago•2 comments

Daggr: Chain apps programmatically, inspect visually

https://huggingface.co/blog/daggr
2•ibobev•38m ago•0 comments

Nvidia Cosmos Policy for Advanced Robot Control

https://huggingface.co/blog/nvidia/cosmos-policy-for-robot-control
1•ibobev•38m ago•0 comments