mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

ViPO: Visual Preference Optimization at Scale

arXiv 2604.24953 ↗First posted 27 Apr 2026cs.CV cs.AIcited by 2

On the map: LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation → Diffusion and multimodal model alignment

Abstract (arXiv)

While preference optimization is crucial for improving visual generative models, how to effectively scale this paradigm remains largely unexplored. Current open-source preference datasets contain conflicting preference patterns, where winners excel in some dimensions but underperform in others. Naively optimizing on such noisy datasets fails to learn preferences, hindering effective scaling. To enhance robustness against noise, we propose Poly-DPO, which extends the DPO objective with an additional polynomial term that dynamically adjusts model confidence based on dataset characteristics, enabling effective learning across diverse data distributions. Beyond biased patterns, existing datasets suffer from low resolution, limited prompt diversity, and imbalanced distributions. To facilitate large-scale visual preference optimization by tackling data bottlenecks, we construct ViPO, a massive-scale preference dataset with 1M image pairs at 1024px across five categories and 300K video pairs at 720p+ across three categories. State-of-the-art generative models and diverse prompts ensure reliable preference signals with balanced distributions. Remarkably, when applying Poly-DPO to our high-quality dataset, the optimal configuration converges to standard DPO. This convergence validates dataset quality and Poly-DPO's adaptive nature: sophisticated optimization becomes unnecessary with sufficient data quality, yet remains valuable for imperfect datasets. We validate our approach across visual generation models. On noisy datasets like Pick-a-Pic V2, Poly-DPO achieves 6.87 and 2.32 gains over Diffusion-DPO on GenEval for SD1.5 and SDXL, respectively. For ViPO, models achieve performance far exceeding those trained on existing open-source preference datasets. These results confirm that addressing both algorithmic adaptability and data quality is essential for scaling visual preference optimization.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and multimodal model alignment, one of 10 directions in LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation. Builds on 61 of its 66 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 Apr 2026.

Builds on

61 of 66 references.

Closest ancestors · 15

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Seedance 1.5 pro: A Native Audio-Visual Joint Generation Foundation Model15 Dec
  2. 2025RewardDance: Reward Scaling in Visual Generation10 Sep
  3. 2025HPSv3: Towards Wide-Spectrum Human Preference Score5 Aug
  4. 2025DanceGRPO: Unleashing GRPO on Visual Generation12 May
  5. 2025Diffusion Model as a Noise-Aware Latent Reward Model for Step-Level Preference Optimization3 Feb
  6. 2024VideoDPO: Omni-Preference Alignment for Video Diffusion Generation18 Dec
  7. 2024Scalable Ranked Preference Optimization for Text-to-Image Generation23 Oct
  8. 2024Bridging SFT and DPO for Diffusion Model Alignment with Self-Sampling Preference Optimization7 Oct
  9. 2024Margin-aware Preference Optimization for Aligning Diffusion Models without Reference10 Jun
  10. 2024Aesthetic Post-Training Diffusion Models from Generic Preferences with Step-by-step Preference Optimization6 Jun
  11. 2024ControlNet++: Improving Conditional Controls with Efficient Consistency Feedback11 Apr
  12. 2024Aligning Diffusion Models by Optimizing Human Utility6 Apr
3 more
  1. 2023Using Human Feedback to Fine-tune Diffusion Models without Any Reward Model22 Nov
  2. 2023Diffusion Model Alignment Using Direct Preference Optimization21 Nov
  3. 2023Directly Fine-Tuning Diffusion Models on Differentiable Rewards29 Sep

Other references · 46

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
  3. 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,971
  4. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 15,215
  5. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 14,132
  6. 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 13,028
  7. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
  8. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,379
  9. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 9,122
  10. 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,255
  11. 2023Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Modelcited by 8,065
  12. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
34 more
  1. 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,847
  2. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,702
  3. 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,503
  4. 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,356
  5. 2024Qwen2-VL: Enhancing Vision-Language Model's Perception of the World at Any Resolutioncited by 4,234
  6. 2022LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text modelscited by 4,152
  7. 2023Qwen Technical Reportcited by 3,344
  8. 2022DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generationcited by 3,300
  9. 2025Qwen3-VL Technical Reportcited by 2,793
  10. 2025Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Modelscited by 2,708
  11. 2022InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructionscited by 2,611
  12. 2023VBench: Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Video Generative Modelscited by 1,822
  13. 2024HunyuanVideo: A Systematic Framework For Large Video Generative Modelscited by 1,660
  14. 2023IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 1,464
  15. 2023T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 1,351
  16. 2022Scaling Autoregressive Models for Content-Rich Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,295
  17. 2025Kimi k1.5: Scaling Reinforcement Learning with LLMscited by 1,210
  18. 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,045
  19. 2025Qwen-Image Technical Reportcited by 1,044
  20. 2023Training Diffusion Models with Reinforcement Learningcited by 982
  21. 2023Pick-a-Pic: An Open Dataset of User Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 977
  22. 2023GenEval: An Object-Focused Framework for Evaluating Text-to-Image Alignmentcited by 972
  23. 2023Human Preference Score v2: A Solid Benchmark for Evaluating Human Preferences of Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 890
  24. 2023RAFT: Reward rAnked FineTuning for Generative Foundation Model Alignmentcited by 686
  25. 2025Flow-GRPO: Training Flow Matching Models via Online RLcited by 661
  26. 2024ELLA: Equip Diffusion Models with LLM for Enhanced Semantic Alignmentcited by 475
  27. 2025VBench-2.0: Advancing Video Generation Benchmark Suite for Intrinsic Faithfulnesscited by 315
  28. 2025Teaching Large Language Models to Regress Accurate Image Quality Scores using Score Distributioncited by 141
  29. 2026Molmo2: Open Weights and Data for Vision-Language Models with Video Understanding and Groundingcited by 139
  30. 2022PolyLoss: A Polynomial Expansion Perspective of Classification Loss Functionscited by 63
  31. 2026Seed1.8 Model Card: Towards Generalized Real-World Agencycited by 50
  32. 2023X-IQE: eXplainable Image Quality Evaluation for Text-to-Image Generation with Visual Large Language Modelscited by 28
  33. 2024Filtered Direct Preference Optimizationcited by 24
  34. 2025SuperEdit: Rectifying and Facilitating Supervision for Instruction-Based Image Editingcited by 18

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Seeing What Matters: Visual Preference Policy Optimization for Visual Generation
  2. 2025When Preferences Diverge: Aligning Diffusion Models with Minority-Aware Adaptive DPO
  3. 2025RPO: Fine-Tuning Visual Generative Models via Rich Vision-Language Preferences
  4. 2026Mind the Generative Details: Direct Localized Detail Preference Optimization for Video Diffusion Models
  5. 2025DenseDPO: Fine-Grained Temporal Preference Optimization for Video Diffusion Models
  6. 2024MIA-DPO: Multi-Image Augmented Direct Preference Optimization For Large Vision-Language Models
  7. 2025Discriminator-Free Direct Preference Optimization for Video Diffusion
  8. 2026Learning from Noisy Preferences: A Semi-Supervised Learning Approach to Direct Preference Optimization