CSE researchers present 9 papers at leading AI conference

The authors present a method for an autonomous agent to learn intrinsic reward functions that drive that agent to continue learning even during practice sessions that don't present an external reward. They propose a setup of alternating periods of practice and evaluation, where the agent's environment may differ but it must use the practice as a means to better perform during the evaluation (called a match). They evaluated their method in two games in which the practice environment differs from match: Pong, with practice against a wall without an opponent, and PacMan, with practice in a maze without ghosts. The results showed gains from learning in practice and match periods over learning in just matches.