mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

RLVR-World: Training World Models with Reinforcement Learning

arXiv 2505.13934 ↗First posted 20 May 2025cs.LG cs.AIcited by 40

On the map: World models → Latent dynamics models and model-based RL

Abstract (arXiv)

World models predict state transitions in response to actions and are increasingly developed across diverse modalities. However, standard training objectives such as maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) often misalign with task-specific goals of world models, i.e., transition prediction metrics like accuracy or perceptual quality. In this paper, we present RLVR-World, a unified framework that leverages reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) to directly optimize world models for such metrics. Despite formulating world modeling as autoregressive prediction of tokenized sequences, RLVR-World evaluates metrics of decoded predictions as verifiable rewards. We demonstrate substantial performance gains on both language- and video-based world models across domains, including text games, web navigation, and robot manipulation. Our work indicates that, beyond recent advances in reasoning language models, RLVR offers a promising post-training paradigm for enhancing the utility of generative models more broadly. Code, datasets, models, and video samples are available at the project website: https://thuml.github.io/RLVR-World.

Key facts. Cited by 40 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Latent dynamics models and model-based RL, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 67 of its 81 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 May 2025.

Builds on

67 of 81 references.

Closest ancestors · 8

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Diffusion for World Modeling: Visual Details Matter in Atari20 May
  2. 2023TD-MPC2: Scalable, Robust World Models for Continuous Control25 Oct
  3. 2023Pre-training Contextualized World Models with In-the-wild Videos for Reinforcement Learning29 May
  4. 2023A Generalist Dynamics Model for Control18 May
  5. 2022Transformers are Sample-Efficient World Models1 Sep
  6. 2019Dream to Control: Learning Behaviors by Latent Imagination3 Dec
  7. 2018Recurrent World Models Facilitate Policy Evolution4 Sep
  8. 2018Deep Reinforcement Learning in a Handful of Trials using Probabilistic Dynamics Models30 May

Other references · 59

  1. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 52,096
  2. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  3. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
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  8. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,177
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  10. 2023DINOv2: Learning Robust Visual Features without Supervisioncited by 7,974
  11. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,330
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38 more
  1. 2017Neural Discrete Representation Learningcited by 4,712
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  3. 2021On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Modelscited by 4,033
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  9. 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,061
  10. 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 2,057
  11. 2023WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agentscited by 2,006
  12. 2019Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by Planning with a Learned Modelcited by 1,353
  13. 2018Learning Latent Dynamics for Planning from Pixelscited by 1,264
  14. 2022Scaling Laws for Reward Model Overoptimizationcited by 1,095
  15. 2024Tulu 3: Pushing Frontiers in Open Language Model Post-Trainingcited by 1,053
  16. 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,045
  17. 2023Training Diffusion Models with Reinforcement Learningcited by 982
  18. 2025Does Reinforcement Learning Really Incentivize Reasoning Capacity in LLMs Beyond the Base Model?cited by 982
  19. 2025Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AIcited by 864
  20. 2024Genie: Generative Interactive Environmentscited by 747
  21. 2022R3M: A Universal Visual Representation for Robot Manipulationcited by 694
  22. 2025Flow-GRPO: Training Flow Matching Models via Online RLcited by 661
  23. 2023GAIA-1: A Generative World Model for Autonomous Drivingcited by 637
  24. 2019Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Ataricited by 502
  25. 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 495
  26. 2023VideoPoet: A Large Language Model for Zero-Shot Video Generationcited by 492
  27. 2023Learning Interactive Real-World Simulatorscited by 458
  28. 2023DPOK: Reinforcement Learning for Fine-tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 450
  29. 2023Finite Scalar Quantization: VQ-VAE Made Simplecited by 440
  30. 2025DanceGRPO: Unleashing GRPO on Visual Generationcited by 413
  31. 2024DINO-WM: World Models on Pre-trained Visual Features enable Zero-shot Planningcited by 386
  32. 2015Deep multi-scale video prediction beyond mean square errorcited by 300
  33. 2025Inference-Time Scaling for Diffusion Models beyond Scaling Denoising Stepscited by 234
  34. 2025Unified Video Action Modelcited by 205
  35. 2024World Model on Million-Length Video And Language With Blockwise RingAttentioncited by 198
  36. 2025GAIA-2: A Controllable Multi-View Generative World Model for Autonomous Drivingcited by 185
  37. 2023Learning to Act from Actionless Videos through Dense Correspondencescited by 164
  38. 2024Is Your LLM Secretly a World Model of the Internet? Model-Based Planning for Web Agentscited by 154

50 most cited of 59 All 59 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 12; 2026: 28.

40 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2025A Comprehensive Survey on World Models for Embodied AIcited by 68
  2. 2025From Word to World: Can Large Language Models be Implicit Text-based World Models?cited by 42
  3. 2025Planning with Reasoning using Vision Language World Modelcited by 36
  4. 2026Qwen-AgentWorld: Language World Models for General Agentscited by 28
  5. 2025What about gravity in video generation? Post-Training Newton's Laws with Verifiable Rewardscited by 25
  6. 2026Visual Generation Unlocks Human-Like Reasoning through Multimodal World Modelscited by 19
  7. 2025Can One Domain Help Others? A Data-Centric Study on Multi-Domain Reasoning via Reinforcement Learningcited by 17
  8. 2025MobileVLA-R1: Reinforcing Vision-Language-Action for Mobile Robotscited by 15
  9. 2026EVA: Aligning Video World Models with Executable Robot Actions via Inverse Dynamics Rewardscited by 14
  10. 2025Reinforcement Learning with Inverse Rewards for World Model Post-trainingcited by 13
  11. 2025Integrating Reinforcement Learning with Visual Generative Models: Foundations and Advancescited by 12
  12. 2026Persistent Robot World Models: Stabilizing Multi-Step Rollouts via Reinforcement Learningcited by 12
28 more
  1. 2026Is the Future Compatible? Diagnosing Dynamic Consistency in World Action Modelscited by 11
  2. 2026RoboAlign-R1: Distilled Multimodal Reward Alignment for Robot Video World Modelscited by 8
  3. 2026RAVEN: Real-time Autoregressive Video Extrapolation with Consistency-model GRPOcited by 7
  4. 2025Towards High-Consistency Embodied World Model with Multi-View Trajectory Videoscited by 6
  5. 2026AgentWatcher: A Rule-based Prompt Injection Monitorcited by 6
  6. 2026Overcoming Statistical Bias in Action-Controllable World Modelscited by 6
  7. 2026Beyond State Consistency: Behavior Consistency in Text-Based World Modelscited by 5
  8. 2026Low-rank Optimization Trajectories Modeling for LLM RLVR Accelerationcited by 4
  9. 2026TRAP: Tail-aware Ranking Attack for World-Model Planningcited by 4
  10. 2026Learning Visual Feature-Based World Models via Residual Latent Actioncited by 4
  11. 2026Twin Rollouts: Noise-Coupled Counterfactual Branching in Interactive Video World Modelscited by 4
  12. 2026OpenWorldLib: A Unified Codebase and Definition of Advanced World Modelscited by 3
  13. 2026World Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Architectures, Methodologies, Reasoning Paradigms, and Applicationscited by 3
  14. 2026WorldCycle: Self-Verifiable Reinforcement Learning for Long-Horizon Video World Modelscited by 3
  15. 2026Agentic Game Development as a Verifiable Trajectory Data Engine for Scaling World Modelscited by 3
  16. 2026ARTIS: Agentic Risk-Aware Test-Time Scaling via Iterative Simulationcited by 2
  17. 2025LaViPlan : Language-Guided Visual Path Planning with RLVRcited by 1
  18. 2025ScRPO: From Errors to Insightscited by 1
  19. 2025Audio-Visual World Models: Learning Physically Grounded Multisensory Dynamicscited by 1
  20. 2026MCP-Cosmos: World Model-Augmented Agents for Complex Task Execution in MCP Environmentscited by 1
  21. 2026Masked Diffusion Language Models are Strong and Steerable Text-Based World Models for Agentic RLcited by 1
  22. 2026RENEW: Towards Learning World Models and Repairing Model Exploitation from Preferencescited by 0
  23. 2026ADAPT: Physics-Aware Diffusion-based World Models for Adaptive Predictive Transferable HVAC Controlcited by 0
  24. 2026WALL-SS: Scaling Long-horizon World Models via Next-Scale Autoregressioncited by 0
  25. 2026World Model-Guided Reinforcement Learning via Counterfactual User Engagement Simulationcited by 0
  26. 2026NowcastDiT: Diffusion Transformers are Effective Precipitation Nowcasterscited by 0
  27. 2026FutureWorlds: Learning Robotic World Models from Alternative Futurescited by 0
  28. 2026Remembering What Matters for Long-Horizon Robotic World Modelscited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Q-Learning With World Models
  2. 2026WoVR: World Models as Reliable Simulators for Post-Training VLA Policies with RL
  3. 2025Reinforcement Learning Meets Large Language Models: A Survey of Advancements and Applications Across the LLM Lifecycle
  4. 2025RLVE: Scaling Up Reinforcement Learning for Language Models with Adaptive Verifiable Environments
  5. 2026World-VLA-Loop: Closed-Loop Learning of Video World Model and VLA Policy
  6. 2026Linear Dynamics in the RLVR Training of Large Language Models
  7. 2026Reinforcing VLAs in Task-Agnostic World Models
  8. 2026WorldCompass: Reinforcement Learning for Long-Horizon World Models