# Learning to Clean: Reinforcement Learning for Noisy Label Correction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19808 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19808/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL with diffusion and flow models, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 34 of its 50 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Nov 2025.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL with diffusion and flow models](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-with-diffusion-and-flow-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 34)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [Deep reinforcement learning from human preferences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03741/) (2017)
- [Learning to summarize from human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.01325/) (2020)
- [Fine-Tuning Language Models from Human Preferences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.08593/) (2019)
- [Co-teaching: Robust Training of Deep Neural Networks with Extremely Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.06872/) (2018)
- [Generalized Cross Entropy Loss for Training Deep Neural Networks with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.07836/) (2018)
- [DivideMix: Learning with Noisy Labels as Semi-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.07394/) (2020)
- [Making Deep Neural Networks Robust to Label Noise: a Loss Correction Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.03683/) (2016)
- [MentorNet: Learning Data-Driven Curriculum for Very Deep Neural Networks on Corrupted Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05055/) (2017)
- [DPOK: Reinforcement Learning for Fine-tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16381/) (2023)
- [How does Disagreement Help Generalization against Label Corruption?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.04215/) (2019)
- [Decoupling "when to update" from "how to update"](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02613/) (2017)
- [CleanNet: Transfer Learning for Scalable Image Classifier Training with Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.07131/) (2017)
- [Causality Inspired Representation Learning for Domain Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14237/) (2022)
- [Deep Self-Learning From Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.02160/) (2019)
- [Iterative Learning with Open-set Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.00092/) (2018)
- [Learning with Feature-Dependent Label Noise: A Progressive Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.07756/) (2021)
- [Error-Bounded Correction of Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.10077/) (2020)
- [A Survey of Exploration Methods in Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.00157/) (2021)
- [Confidence Scores Make Instance-dependent Label-noise Learning Possible](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.03772/) (2020)
- [Instance-dependent Label-noise Learning under a Structural Causal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.02986/) (2021)
- [Instance-Dependent Label-Noise Learning with Manifold-Regularized Transition Matrix Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.02791/) (2022)
- [LongReMix: Robust Learning with High Confidence Samples in a Noisy Label Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04173/) (2021)
- [Boosting Co-teaching with Compression Regularization for Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13766/) (2021)
- [Adaptive Sample Selection for Robust Learning under Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.15292/) (2021)
- [SURE: SUrvey REcipes for building reliable and robust deep networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00543/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The challenge of learning with noisy labels is significant in machine learning, as it can severely degrade the performance of prediction models if not addressed properly. This paper introduces a novel framework that conceptualizes noisy label correction as a reinforcement learning (RL) problem. The proposed approach, Reinforcement Learning for Noisy Label Correction (RLNLC), defines a comprehensive state space representing data and their associated labels, an action space that indicates possible label corrections, and a reward mechanism that evaluates the efficacy of label corrections. RLNLC learns a deep feature representation based policy network to perform label correction through reinforcement learning, utilizing an actor-critic method. The learned policy is subsequently deployed to iteratively correct noisy training labels and facilitate the training of the prediction model. The effectiveness of RLNLC is demonstrated through extensive experiments on multiple benchmark datasets, where it consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art techniques for learning with noisy labels.