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Learning efficiently a causal model of the environment is a key challenge of model-based RL agents operating in POMDPs. We consider here a scenario where the learning agent has the ability to collect online experiences through direct…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-06-29 Maxime Gasse , Damien Grasset , Guillaume Gaudron , Pierre-Yves Oudeyer

Language model alignment (or, reinforcement learning) techniques that leverage active exploration -- deliberately encouraging the model to produce diverse, informative responses -- offer the promise of super-human capabilities. However,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-17 Dylan J. Foster , Zakaria Mhammedi , Dhruv Rohatgi

Causal representation learning (CRL) models aim to transform high-dimensional data into a latent space, enabling interventions to generate counterfactual samples or modify existing data based on the causal relationships among latent…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-19 Alireza Sadeghi , Wael AbdAlmageed

Hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) effectively improves agents' exploration efficiency on tasks with sparse reward, with the guide of high-quality hierarchical structures (e.g., subgoals or options). However, how to automatically…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-14 Shaohui Peng , Xing Hu , Rui Zhang , Ke Tang , Jiaming Guo , Qi Yi , Ruizhi Chen , Xishan Zhang , Zidong Du , Ling Li , Qi Guo , Yunji Chen

Causal Representation Learning (CRL) aims at identifying high-level causal factors and their relationships from high-dimensional observations, e.g., images. While most CRL works focus on learning causal representations in a single…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-03-18 Davide Talon , Phillip Lippe , Stuart James , Alessio Del Bue , Sara Magliacane

Balancing exploration and exploitation remains a key challenge in reinforcement learning (RL). State-of-the-art RL algorithms suffer from high sample complexity, particularly in the sparse reward case, where they can do no better than to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-01-22 Philippe Morere , Gilad Francis , Tom Blau , Fabio Ramos

We consider the problem of exploration in meta reinforcement learning. Two new meta reinforcement learning algorithms are suggested: E-MAML and E-$\text{RL}^2$. Results are presented on a novel environment we call `Krazy World' and a set of…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2019-01-15 Bradly C. Stadie , Ge Yang , Rein Houthooft , Xi Chen , Yan Duan , Yuhuai Wu , Pieter Abbeel , Ilya Sutskever

We propose a new computational-level objective function for theoretical biology and theoretical neuroscience that combines: reinforcement learning, the study of learning with feedback via rewards; rate-distortion theory, a branch of…

Neurons and Cognition · Quantitative Biology 2025-03-21 Sarah Marzen

Reinforcement learning (RL) has demonstrated strong potential in training large language models (LLMs) capable of complex reasoning for real-world problem solving. More recently, RL has been leveraged to create sophisticated LLM-based…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-05-22 Bowen Jin , Jinsung Yoon , Priyanka Kargupta , Sercan O. Arik , Jiawei Han

Scaling laws have allowed Pre-trained Language Models (PLMs) into the field of causal reasoning. Causal reasoning of PLM relies solely on text-based descriptions, in contrast to causal discovery which aims to determine the causal…

Causal models provide rich descriptions of complex systems as sets of mechanisms by which each variable is influenced by its direct causes. They support reasoning about manipulating parts of the system and thus hold promise for addressing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-21 Julius von Kügelgen

Safe exploration presents a major challenge in reinforcement learning (RL): when active data collection requires deploying partially trained policies, we must ensure that these policies avoid catastrophically unsafe regions, while still…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-04-27 Homanga Bharadhwaj , Aviral Kumar , Nicholas Rhinehart , Sergey Levine , Florian Shkurti , Animesh Garg

The exploration-exploitation dilemma in reinforcement learning (RL) is a fundamental challenge to efficient RL algorithms. Existing algorithms for finite state and action discounted RL problems address this by assuming sufficient…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-09 Caleb Ju , Guanghui Lan

Why do reinforcement learning (RL) policies fail or succeed? This is a challenging question due to the complex, high-dimensional nature of agent-environment interactions. In this work, we take a causal perspective on explaining the behavior…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-07-22 Armin Kekić , Jan Schneider , Dieter Büchler , Bernhard Schölkopf , Michel Besserve

Efficiently tackling multiple tasks within complex environment, such as those found in robot manipulation, remains an ongoing challenge in robotics and an opportunity for data-driven solutions, such as reinforcement learning (RL).…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-04-03 Carlos Plou , Ana C. Murillo , Ruben Martinez-Cantin

Causal representation learning (CRL) has garnered increasing interest from the causal inference and artificial intelligence communities due to its potential to disentangle complex data-generating mechanism into causally interpretable latent…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-05-28 Hao Chen , Lin Liu , Yu Guang Wang

Reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a powerful method for improving the reasoning abilities of large language models (LLMs). Outcome-based RL, which rewards policies solely for the correctness of the final answer, yields substantial…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-09-09 Yuda Song , Julia Kempe , Remi Munos

A hallmark of life on Earth is the ability of agents to exert causal power and be drivers of subsequent events. This is key to cognition at all scales. Causal emergence, measuring the degree to which an agent exerts unique predictive power…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Federico Pigozzi , Michael Levin

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in learning high-level causal representations from low-level image pairs under interventions. Yet, existing efforts are largely limited to simple synthetic settings that are far away from…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-04-04 Yuejiang Liu , Alexandre Alahi , Chris Russell , Max Horn , Dominik Zietlow , Bernhard Schölkopf , Francesco Locatello

Exploration and credit assignment under sparse rewards are still challenging problems. We argue that these challenges arise in part due to the intrinsic rigidity of operating at the level of actions. Actions can precisely define how to…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-02-23 Oriol Corcoll , Raul Vicente