Adaptive Mix Preference Optimization for Generative Recommendation
Abstract
Recommender systems aim to leverage user interaction signals to recommend items that users are likely to be interested in. Motivated by the success of Large Language Model (LLMs), generative recommendation (GR) has recently gained increasing attention, typically following a two-stage paradigm: supervised fine-tuning followed by preference alignment. However, aligning generative recommenders with users' personalized preferences remains challenging, as user feedback is inherently heterogeneous and uncertain. Different types of user interaction signals reflect varying levels of intent and should therefore be modeled differently. In this work, we propose Adaptive Mix Preference Optimization (AMPO), an adaptive alignment framework that mixes likelihood and preference objectives with self-calibrated, sample-wise confidence adjustment. AMPO introduces an adaptive target margin that leverages the model's own probability ratio to modulate optimization strength: confident pairs receive full margins that reinforce correct rankings, while uncertain pairs receive reduced margins that prevent overfitting to ambiguous signals. Additionally, AMPO incorporates negative log-likelihood regularization on preferred items to counteract likelihood displacement, a phenomenon where contrastive objectives cause preferred and non-preferred probabilities to collapse simultaneously. Such a design eliminates the need for a reference model, yielding up to 2.5x speedup and 35% memory reduction. Extensive experiments on public benchmarks and a large-scale industrial dataset demonstrate consistent improvements in ranking metrics. Online A/B tests on a major e-commerce platform further confirm statistically significant gains in click-through and conversion rates. The code is available at https://github.com/jumbo-q/ampo.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jizhi Zhang | 61 | 64 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 62 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 61 TALLRec: An Effective and Efficient Tuning Framework to Align Large Language Model with Recommendation (2023) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 2 | Jiancan Wu | 58 | 61 Towards Robust Alignment of Language Models: Distributionally Robustifying Direct Preference Optimization (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 61 Larger or Smaller Reward Margins to Select Preferences for LLM Alignment? (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 61 AlphaDPO: Adaptive Reward Margin for Direct Preference Optimization (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 3 | Keqin Bao | 51 | 64 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 TALLRec: An Effective and Efficient Tuning Framework to Align Large Language Model with Recommendation (2023) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Kun Gai | 49 |
Area-chair candidates (4)
| Kun Gai assigned | 49 | 5 papers | |
| Xiaoyi Zeng | 49 | 11 papers | |
| Maolin Wang 0001 | 48 | 15 papers | |
| Pengyue Jia | 48 | 10 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 | 66 | 3 | 64 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 On Softmax Direct Preference Optimization for Recommendation (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 2 | Jizhi Zhang assigned | 61 | 3 | 64 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 62 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 3 | Yang Zhang 0072 | 61 | 3 | 64 IGD: Token Decisiveness Modeling via Information Gain in LLMs for Personalized Recommendation (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 4 | Chongming Gao COI: co-author | 60 | 3 | 75 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 75 MGFRec: Towards Reinforced Reasoning Recommendation with Multiple Groundings and Feedback (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 5 | Bo Chen 0023 | 59 | 3 | 66 Large language models make sample-efficient recommender systems (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 66 How Can Recommender Systems Benefit from Large Language Models: A Survey (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 6 | Xuanhua Yang COI: author | 58 | 3 | 79 Breaking the Relevance-Diversity Seesaw: Hierarchical LLM Reasoning with RL for Industrial Novelty Recommendation (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization 74 GenRec: A Preference-Oriented Generative Framework for Large-Scale Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 7 | Jiancan Wu assigned | 58 | 3 | 61 Towards Robust Alignment of Language Models: Distributionally Robustifying Direct Preference Optimization (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 61 Larger or Smaller Reward Margins to Select Preferences for LLM Alignment? (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 8 | Jieming Zhu | 57 | 3 | 75 EAGER-LLM: Enhancing Large Language Models as Recommenders through Exogenous Behavior-Semantic Integration (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 66 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 9 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 56 | 3 | 61 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 60 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 10 | Qijiong Liu | 54 | 3 | 75 RecBase: Generative Foundation Model Pretraining for Zero-Shot Recommendation (2025) Generative Retrieval and Recommendation Architectures 66 ONCE: Boosting Content-based Recommendation with Both Open- and Closed-source Large Language Models (2024) LLM-Derived Knowledge Infusion |
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| 11 | Yupeng Hou | 54 | 3 | 68 Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Rankers for Recommender Systems (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 64 Inductive Generative Recommendation via Retrieval-based Speculation (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 12 | Shuchang Liu 0001 | 53 | 3 | 86 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 74 Recommendation as Language Processing (RLP): A Unified Pretrain, Personalized Prompt & Predict Paradigm (P5) (2022) Knowledge Infusion and Open-World Augmentation |
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| 13 | Keqin Bao assigned | 51 | 3 | 64 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 64 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 14 | Yongqi Li 0001 | 51 | 3 | 75 Bridging Items and Language: A Transition Paradigm for Large Language Model-Based Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 63 Data-efficient Fine-tuning for LLM-based Recommendation (2024) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 15 | Junwei Pan | 51 | 3 | 77 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 63 Empowering Large Language Model for Sequential Recommendation via Multimodal Embeddings and Semantic IDs (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 16 | Han Li 0005 | 51 | 3 | 63 OneSug: The Unified End-to-End Generative Framework for E-commerce Query Suggestion (2026) Recommendation with Search and Ranking 56 Towards Context-aware Reasoning-enhanced Generative Searching in E-commerce (2026) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 17 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 51 | 3 | 62 DiffGRM: Diffusion-based Generative Recommendation Model (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 56 OneLoc: Geo-Aware Generative Recommender Systems for Local Life Service (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 18 | Hao Deng 0011 | 50 | 3 | 61 RCLRec: Reverse Curriculum Learning for Modeling Sparse Conversions in Generative Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 58 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 19 | Huifeng Guo | 50 | 3 | 66 LLMTreeRec: Unleashing the Power of Large Language Models for Cold-Start Recommendations (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 63 Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Unifying Retrieval and Ranking with a Single Generative Recommendation Model (2025) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 20 | Wei Guo 0006 | 50 | 3 | 66 Can LLMs Outshine Conventional Recommenders? A Comparative Evaluation (2025) Efficiency and Deployment 63 Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Unifying Retrieval and Ranking with a Single Generative Recommendation Model (2025) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 21 | Ed H. Chi | 50 | 3 | 65 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 59 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 22 | Lichan Hong | 50 | 3 | 64 PLUM: Adapting Pre-trained Language Models for Industrial-scale Generative Recommendations (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 Recommender Systems with Generative Retrieval (2023) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 23 | Xiao Zhang 0034 | 49 | 3 | 63 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization 59 GenSAR: Unifying Balanced Search and Recommendation with Generative Retrieval (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 26 | Jianling Wang | 49 | 3 | 67 Fresh Content Recommendation at Scale: A Multi-funnel Solution and the Potential of LLMs (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 54 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 27 | Hao Liu 0078 | 49 | 3 | 55 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 47 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 28 | Yang Song 0008 | 48 | 3 | 59 GenSAR: Unifying Balanced Search and Recommendation with Generative Retrieval (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking 51 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) LLM-Enhanced Collaborative Filtering |
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| 30 | Yu Zhang 0206 | 48 | 3 | 62 MMQ: Multimodal Mixture-of-Quantization Tokenization for Semantic ID Generation and User Behavioral Adaptation (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 61 RCLRec: Reverse Curriculum Learning for Modeling Sparse Conversions in Generative Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 31 | Bo Peng 0009 | 48 | 3 | 53 eCeLLM: Generalizing Large Language Models for E-commerce from Large-scale, High-quality Instruction Data (2024) Efficiency and Deployment 51 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation |
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| 32 | Lantao Hu | 48 | 3 | 51 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 51 Comprehensive List Generation for Multi-Generator Reranking (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 33 | Jinxin Hu | 48 | 3 | 64 REG4Rec: Reasoning-Enhanced Generative Model for Large-Scale Recommendation Systems (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 61 RCLRec: Reverse Curriculum Learning for Modeling Sparse Conversions in Generative Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |