DeepMind now learns from human preferences – just like a toddler

AI systems continue to get increasingly powerful, but still need far too much hand-holding by their human masters. New research from DeepMind and OpenAI suggests a mere nudge here and there at the outset can be enough to help artificial intelligence accomplish tricky tasks. The team set up a series of experiments in which human participants were given two short clips of an AI's approach to a task. They were then asked to make a snap judgement about which clip appeared to show more promising progress – but without the AI being aware of the desired outcome of the task. One scenario involved the AI learning to play Space Invaders, another involved a virtual robot learning to do backflips.