Reinforcement Learning: Coming to a Home Called Yours!

I loved playing StarCraft, though I seldom played against other humans (my sons in particular, because they absolutely kick my butt). But ah, there is finally revenge for "Dad the Data Nerd", and it's known as AlphaStar. AlphaStar was developed by Google's DeepMind AI group to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to master the game of StarCraft. StarCraft is much trickier for AI to master than games like Go and Mario Bros because of its unbounded complexity, continuously-changing gameplay (rather than the distinct events which occur when players take turns), evolving battlefield situations and dependency on constantly tweaking one's in-game strategy. I want to spend the rest of this blog doing a deep dive on Reinforcement Learning, because to me it is the trial-and-error nature of learning that places Reinforcement Learning squarely in the heart of future Artificial Intelligence aspirations.