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Introduction to Reinforcement Learning

What is Reinforcement Learning?

Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning where the agent learns to behave in an environment by performing certain actions and receiving feedback in the form of rewards or punishments. The agent learns from experience by trying to maximize its cumulative reward over time. Similar to how humans learn from their mistakes, a reinforcement learning agent learns from its actions and the consequences of those actions.

Understanding Reinforcement Learning

To understand reinforcement learning, imagine a mouse in a maze trying to find cheese. The mouse starts at the beginning of the maze and has to navigate through it to find the cheese. The mouse's goal is to find the cheese as quickly as possible. In reinforcement learning, the mouse is the agent, the maze is the environment, and finding the cheese is the goal. The agent takes actions, such as moving left or right, and receives feedback in the form of a reward, such as a piece of cheese. The agent learns from its actions and tries to maximize its cumulative reward over time.

Reinforcement Learning vs. Other Types of Machine Learning

Reinforcement learning is different from supervised learning and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning, the agent learns from labeled examples, while in unsupervised learning, the agent learns from unlabeled data. In reinforcement learning, the agent learns from feedback, which is not necessarily labeled, but is in the form of rewards or punishments.

Applications of Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning has many applications, including game playing, robotics, and autonomous systems. For example, reinforcement learning can be used to teach a robot to navigate through a maze, or to teach a computer program to play a game like chess or Go. Reinforcement learning can also be used to optimize resource allocation in a data center or to optimize traffic flow in a city.

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The History of Reinforcement Learning

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