2026

Reward models play an essential role in aligning visual generative models, yet most existing visual reward models use a single scalar score or rely on fixed criteria that cannot adapt to different instructions. This limits both interpretability and task sensitivity, especially for text-to-image generation and instruction-based image editing, where different inputs require different evaluation dimensions. We propose RubricRM, a pairwise generative reward modeling framework that first produces an input-specific rubric with evaluation dimensions, weights, and scoring criteria, and then applies the rubric to score candidate images. We train dedicated RubricRM models for text-to-image generation and image editing using a two-stage training pipeline: supervised fine-tuning teaches the model the rubric-based scoring paradigm, while GRPO further improves scoring through fine-grained dimension-level rewards. Experiments on multiple generation and editing benchmarks show that RubricRM outperforms existing specialized reward models and remains competitive with strong proprietary MLLM judges despite using smaller backbones. Our models, data, and code are available at https://github.com/zijiankan/RubricRM.
Large Language Models (LLMs) have increasingly enhanced or replaced traditional Non-Player Characters (NPCs) in video games. However, these LLM-based NPCs inherit underlying social biases (e.g., race or class), posing fairness risks during in-game interactions. To address the limited exploration of this issue, we introduce FairGamer, the first benchmark to evaluate social biases across three interaction patterns: transaction, cooperation, and competition. FairGamer assesses four bias types, including class, race, age, and nationality, across 12 distinct evaluation tasks using a novel metric, FairMCV. Our evaluation of seven frontier LLMs reveals that: (1) models exhibit biased decision-making, with Grok-4-Fast demonstrating the highest bias (average FairMCV = 76.9%); and (2) larger LLMs display more severe social biases, suggesting that increased model capacity inadvertently amplifies these biases. We release FairGamer at https://github.com/BingkangShi/FairGamer to facilitate future research on NPC fairness.