Papers for
conversational ai trainers
Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.
Argus improves reliability of simulated users for training agents
ARGUS: An Agenda-Driven Framework for Reliable User Simulation
Abstract: High-fidelity user simulators are essential for evaluating and training agents in interactive environments. However, current LLM-based simulators struggle with reliability issues, such as goal omission and policy non-compliance. We propose ARGUS (Agenda-dRiven Goal-oriented User Simulator), a neuro-symbolic framework that maintains the user's goal state using a dynamic agenda stack manipulated via symbolic operations. By rigorously decoupling state tracking from natural language generation, ARGUS facilitates strict goal progression and constraint-aligned interactions. For cost-efficient deployment, we distill ARGUS into compact models using a unified pipeline: evaluator-guided SFT followed by online RL with dense step-level rewards. To rigorously evaluate behavioral fidelity, we introduce a rubric-based metric Composite Behavioral Score (CBS). Evaluations on $τ^3$-Bench and MultiWOZ demonstrate the significant superiority of the ARGUS architecture and the efficacy of our training pipeline. Code and data will be released soon.
Transformers encode partner expertise early but use it late in processing
Encoded Early, Used Late: Where Transformers Begin to Act on an Inferred Partner's Expertise
Abstract: A transformer can make an attribute linearly decodable in its residual stream at a depth where that attribute does not yet influence the output. This gap between where information is readable and where it is used has been shown for attributes stated directly in the input. We ask whether it also holds for an attribute the model must infer gradually over a conversation, namely how expert its dialogue partner is. Using ExpertCollab, a corpus of multi-turn research-planning dialogues between model-played personas at four expertise levels, we find that partner expertise is most decodable in the early layers and falls to near chance before the midpoint of the network. Counterfactual patching shows that injecting the expertise difference at the layer of peak decodability barely changes a fixed late-layer readout, whereas the same difference injected past the midpoint propagates almost completely, a separation of more than an order of magnitude. A content-matched random control and a probe-free diagnostic place the transition at the same early layer, and a statically specified control attribute stays decodable throughout. An inferred relational attribute is therefore represented well before it becomes causally active, which bounds where any attempt to read out or steer partner-conditioned behavior must intervene. We use one model on a synthetic corpus as an initial demonstration.