Related papers: From Past to Future: Rethinking Eligibility Traces
Given a dataset on actions and resulting long-term rewards, a direct estimation approach fits value functions that minimize prediction error on the training data. Temporal difference learning (TD) methods instead fit value functions by…
We consider the problem of reward learning for temporally extended tasks. For reward learning, inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) is a widely used paradigm. Given a Markov decision process (MDP) and a set of demonstrations for a task, IRL…
We consider the problem of imitation learning from a finite set of expert trajectories, without access to reinforcement signals. The classical approach of extracting the expert's reward function via inverse reinforcement learning, followed…
Sample efficiency and risk-awareness are central to the development of practical reinforcement learning (RL) for complex decision-making. The former can be addressed by transfer learning and the latter by optimizing some utility function of…
We propose the predictive forward-forward (PFF) algorithm for conducting credit assignment in neural systems. Specifically, we design a novel, dynamic recurrent neural system that learns a directed generative circuit jointly and…
This work explores the novel idea of learning a submodular scoring function to improve the specificity/selectivity of existing feature attribution methods. Submodular scores are natural for attribution as they are known to accurately model…
This paper introduces a novel method for self-supervised video representation learning via feature prediction. In contrast to the previous methods that focus on future feature prediction, we argue that a supervisory signal arising from…
In many environments only a tiny subset of all states yield high reward. In these cases, few of the interactions with the environment provide a relevant learning signal. Hence, we may want to preferentially train on those high-reward states…
Language models trained on large-scale datasets have been shown to learn features that encode abstract concepts such as factuality or intent. Such features are traditionally used for test-time monitoring or steering. We present an…
Reinforcement Learning (RL) heavily relies on the careful design of the reward function. However, accurately assigning rewards to each state-action pair in Long-Term Reinforcement Learning (LTRL) tasks remains a significant challenge. As a…
This paper motivates and develops source traces for temporal difference (TD) learning in the tabular setting. Source traces are like eligibility traces, but model potential histories rather than immediate ones. This allows TD errors to be…
Preference based Reinforcement Learning (PbRL) removes the need to hand specify a reward function by learning a reward from preference feedback over policy behaviors. Current approaches to PbRL do not address the credit assignment problem…
Policy gradient methods are appealing in deep reinforcement learning but suffer from high variance of gradient estimate. To reduce the variance, the state value function is applied commonly. However, the effect of the state value function…
Animals often receive information about errors and rewards after a significant delay. For example, there is typically a delay of tens to hundreds of milliseconds between motor actions and visual feedback. The standard approach to handling…
While reinforcement learning algorithms provide automated acquisition of optimal policies, practical application of such methods requires a number of design decisions, such as manually designing reward functions that not only define the…
Off-policy reinforcement learning with eligibility traces is challenging because of the discrepancy between target policy and behavior policy. One common approach is to measure the difference between two policies in a probabilistic way,…
Empirical researchers and decision-makers spanning various domains frequently seek profound insights into the long-term impacts of interventions. While the significance of long-term outcomes is undeniable, an overemphasis on them may…
It is often very challenging to manually design reward functions for complex, real-world tasks. To solve this, one can instead use reward learning to infer a reward function from data. However, there are often multiple reward functions that…
Learning rewards from human behaviour or feedback is a promising approach to aligning AI systems with human values but fails to consistently extract correct reward functions. Interpretability tools could enable users to understand and…
Efficient credit assignment is essential for reinforcement learning algorithms in both prediction and control settings. We describe a unified view on temporal-difference algorithms for selective credit assignment. These selective algorithms…