AI Safety & Alignment

Steering LLMs via Scalable Interactive Oversight

EEnyu ZhouZZhiheng XiLLong MaZZhihao ZhangSShihan DouZZhikai LeiGGuoteng WangRRui ZhengHHang YanTTao GuiQQi ZhangXXuanjing Huang
Published
February 4, 2026
Authors
12
Word Count
12,301
Code
Includes code

Empowering non-experts to steer advanced AI systems.

Abstract

As Large Language Models increasingly automate complex, long-horizon tasks such as vibe coding, a supervision gap has emerged. While models excel at execution, users often struggle to guide them effectively due to insufficient domain expertise, the difficulty of articulating precise intent, and the inability to reliably validate complex outputs. It presents a critical challenge in scalable oversight: enabling humans to responsibly steer AI systems on tasks that surpass their own ability to specify or verify. To tackle this, we propose Scalable Interactive Oversight, a framework that decomposes complex intent into a recursive tree of manageable decisions to amplify human supervision. Rather than relying on open-ended prompting, our system elicits low-burden feedback at each node and recursively aggregates these signals into precise global guidance. Validated in web development task, our framework enables non-experts to produce expert-level Product Requirement Documents, achieving a 54\% improvement in alignment. Crucially, we demonstrate that this framework can be optimized via Reinforcement Learning using only online user feedback, offering a practical pathway for maintaining human control as AI scales.

Key Takeaways

  • 1

    Framework enables non-experts to guide LLMs effectively.

  • 2

    Decomposes complex intent into manageable decisions.

  • 3

    Bridges supervision and verification gaps in AI tasks.

Limitations

  • Requires structured interaction, may not suit all tasks.

  • Dependence on user feedback for accuracy.

Keywords

Large Language Modelsvibe codingsupervision gapscalable oversightrecursive treeinteractive oversightreinforcement learningonline user feedbackalignment

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