diff --git a/examples/nlp/gpt/train_gpt_sft.py b/examples/nlp/gpt/train_gpt_sft.py
index f52445637..dd4c48ba4 100644
--- a/examples/nlp/gpt/train_gpt_sft.py
+++ b/examples/nlp/gpt/train_gpt_sft.py
@@ -102,6 +102,9 @@ def _modify_config(gpt_cfg, cfg, add_cfg_to_tree=False):
         if cfg.model.get("seq_len_interpolation_factor", None) is not None:
             gpt_cfg.seq_len_interpolation_factor = cfg.model.seq_len_interpolation_factor
 
+        if cfg.model.get("dist_ckpt_load_strictness", None) is not None:
+            gpt_cfg.dist_ckpt_load_strictness = cfg.model.dist_ckpt_load_strictness
+
         gpt_cfg.inference = cfg.model.get("inference", {})
 
         # This is needed when modifying a hparam file directly to load `.ckpt` files.
diff --git a/examples/nlp/gpt/train_steerlm2.py b/examples/nlp/gpt/train_steerlm2.py
index 305588c46..62a01b3f4 100644
--- a/examples/nlp/gpt/train_steerlm2.py
+++ b/examples/nlp/gpt/train_steerlm2.py
@@ -140,6 +140,9 @@ def _modify_config(gpt_cfg, cfg, add_cfg_to_tree=False):
         if cfg.model.get("seq_len_interpolation_factor", None) is not None:
             gpt_cfg.seq_len_interpolation_factor = cfg.model.seq_len_interpolation_factor
 
+        if cfg.model.get("dist_ckpt_load_strictness", None) is not None:
+            gpt_cfg.dist_ckpt_load_strictness = cfg.model.dist_ckpt_load_strictness
+
         gpt_cfg.inference = cfg.model.get("inference", {})
 
         # This is needed when modifying a hparam file directly to load `.ckpt` files.
diff --git a/nemo_aligner/utils/utils.py b/nemo_aligner/utils/utils.py
index d67d2e952..7701b5e78 100644
--- a/nemo_aligner/utils/utils.py
+++ b/nemo_aligner/utils/utils.py
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ def load_checkpoint_model_config(restore_path):
 
     with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir:
         # Extracts only model config
-        members = NLPSaveRestoreConnector._filtered_tar_info(restore_path, filter_fn=lambda name: '.yaml' in name)
+        members = NLPSaveRestoreConnector._filtered_tar_info(restore_path, filter_fn=lambda name: ".yaml" in name)
         NLPSaveRestoreConnector._unpack_nemo_file(restore_path, tmpdir, members=members)
         cfg = OmegaConf.load(os.path.join(tmpdir, config_name_in_ckpt))