The publication ‘CantTalkAboutThis: Aligning Language Models to Stay on Topic in Dialogues’ addresses the critical need for AI conversation bots to remain focused during dialogues. The study contributes the following:

• The CantTalkAboutThis dataset, designed with synthetic dialogues across various topics, incorporates distractor turns to challenge topic adherence.
• Findings suggest improvements in the ability of language models fine-tuned on this dataset to stay on-point, compared to pre-existing models like GPT-4-turbo.
• Enhanced performance on detailed instruction-following tasks, indicating a broader impact beyond conversation focus.

Maintaining topical coherence is indispensable in creating beneficial user experiences. This research offers essential groundwork for making chatbots more reliable companions in both casual and professional environments. As AI enters more aspects of daily life, ensuring that these systems can communicate with relevance and clarity will be crucial for acceptance and integration.