tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post2105329632843765368..comments2014-11-16T02:45:33.175-08:00Comments on Reinforcement Learning: General Results versus Illuminating ExamplesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post-38896042440348567172008-10-23T14:31:00.000-07:002008-10-23T14:31:00.000-07:00Although I am a believer in "big AI", sometimes it...Although I am a believer in "big AI", sometimes its generality can be overwhelming: too many possible domains, with too many different attributes. Focusing on a single domain (be it chess or robotics) provides a way to narrow our attention to concrete attributes that really matter in at least one real application.<BR/><BR/>However, there is always a delicate balance between "illuminating example"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post-31987793537923269042008-10-17T11:56:00.000-07:002008-10-17T11:56:00.000-07:00I can give a nice example of an 'illuminating exam...I can give a nice example of an 'illuminating example' from the field of robot control.<BR/>Marc Raibert did some pioneering work on fairly minimalist robotic machines, which are described in a book entitled Legged Robots that Balance. Of course, these robots represent way more effort than the economists' examples or physicists' thought experiments but they represented a powerful argument in Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post-89919934781416371932008-10-16T10:37:00.000-07:002008-10-16T10:37:00.000-07:00Michael, thanks for responding. It is very interes...Michael, thanks for responding. It is very interesting to hear how you think of your Poker research. [Aside: In a sense it is too bad that there is no place to discuss research strategies and methodologies of various researchers; it would be invaluable to students.]<BR/><BR/>The discussion here made me think harder about what might really be meant by an illuminating example. Perhaps it does not Satinder Singhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09882622554216731854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post-48984066018155504332008-10-15T10:08:00.000-07:002008-10-15T10:08:00.000-07:00Very interesting...When I first read Satinder's po...Very interesting...<BR/><BR/>When I first read Satinder's post, I thought I might fall into the "illuminating examples" camp. When I began working on poker, it wasn't with any techniques in mind. I was ready to do whatever it took to make progress and thought that something significant would come from that. In fact, what has come out of the last few years is entirely general (solving arbitraryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post-12687670759281198612008-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:002008-10-15T09:35:00.000-07:00Yael, chess is indeed an excellent way to continue...Yael, chess is indeed an excellent way to continue this discussion forward. <BR/><BR/>Is chess an illuminating example? Or is it more like an application domain that was held out to be a threshold-test for achieving interesting AI? I think chess was mostly the latter because the principles of search (a major contribution of AI to computer science) were developed as a general result and then laterSatinder Singhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09882622554216731854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3231233230519160453.post-32783479829236140852008-10-15T08:30:00.000-07:002008-10-15T08:30:00.000-07:00Thats interesing... as an outsider to AI, I someti...Thats interesing... as an outsider to AI, I sometimes think it is motivated from the opposite end. Isn't chess (or backgammon) an illuminating example? It is certainly not a general result, as we don't solve most problems in life as we do a game of chess..Yael Nivhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02179060177059504918noreply@blogger.com