Deep Reinforcement Learning in Action

Preface

Deep reinforcement learning was launched into the spotlight in 2015, when DeepMind produced an algorithm capable of playing a suite of Atari 2600 games at superhuman performance. Artificial intelligence seemed to be finally making some real progress, and we wanted to be a part of it.

Both of us have software engineering backgrounds and an interest in neuroscience, and we’ve been interested in the broader field of artificial intelligence for a long time (in fact, one of us actually wrote his first neural network before high school in C#). These early experiences did not lead to any sustained interest, since this was before the deep learning revolution circa 2012, when the superlative performance of deep learning was clear. But after seeing ...