Developing the Foundations of Reinforcement Learning

The examples are nothing if not relatable: preparing breakfast, or playing a game of chess or tic-tac-toe. Yet the idea of learning from the environment and taking steps that progress toward a goal apparently was under-studied when ACM A.M. Turing Award recipients Andrew G. Barto and Richard S. Sutton took on the topic in the late 1970s. Eventually, their research led to the creation of reinforcement learning algorithms that sought not to recognize patterns but maximize rewards. Barto and Sutton spoke about how it all unfolded, and what's next for the techniques that are so celebrated for their success in AlphaGo and AlphaZero. Let's start with the earliest days of your collaboration.