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Reinforcement learning (RL) requires either manually specifying a reward function, which is often infeasible, or learning a reward model from a large amount of human feedback, which is often very expensive. We study a more sample-efficient…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-03-15 Juan Rocamonde , Victoriano Montesinos , Elvis Nava , Ethan Perez , David Lindner

We introduce learning and planning algorithms for average-reward MDPs, including 1) the first general proven-convergent off-policy model-free control algorithm without reference states, 2) the first proven-convergent off-policy model-free…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-06-29 Yi Wan , Abhishek Naik , Richard S. Sutton

Recently, there has been increasing interest in transparency and interpretability in Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) systems. Verbal explanations, as the most natural way of communication in our daily life, deserve more attention, since…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-12-25 Xinzhi Wang , Huao Li , Hui Zhang , Michael Lewis , Katia Sycara

In reinforcement learning (RL), there are two major settings for interacting with the environment: online and offline. Online methods explore the environment at significant time cost, and offline methods efficiently obtain reward signals by…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-06-19 Changyu Chen , Xiting Wang , Yiqiao Jin , Victor Ye Dong , Li Dong , Jie Cao , Yi Liu , Rui Yan

In the last decade, Deep Reinforcement Learning has evolved into a powerful tool for complex sequential decision-making problems. It combines deep learning's proficiency in processing rich input signals with reinforcement learning's…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-12-11 Julien Roy

The explore{exploit dilemma is one of the central challenges in Reinforcement Learning (RL). Bayesian RL solves the dilemma by providing the agent with information in the form of a prior distribution over environments; however, full…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2012-03-19 Jonathan Sorg , Satinder Singh , Richard L. Lewis

Reward models (RMs) have become essential for aligning large language models (LLMs), serving as scalable proxies for human evaluation in both training and inference. However, existing RMs struggle on knowledge-intensive and long-form tasks,…

Computation and Language · Computer Science 2025-10-30 Ziyou Hu , Zhengliang Shi , Minghang Zhu , Haitao Li , Teng Sun , Pengjie Ren , Suzan Verberne , Zhaochun Ren

Reinforcement learning usually assumes a given or sometimes even fixed environment in which an agent seeks an optimal policy to maximize its long-term discounted reward. In contrast, we consider agents that are not limited to passive…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-20 Ziqing Lu , Babak Hassibi , Lifeng Lai , Weiyu Xu

Recent research has revived and amplified interest in algorithms for undiscounted average reward reinforcement learning in infinite-horizon, non-episodic (continuing) tasks. Semi-Markov decision processes (SMDPs) are of particular interest.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-27 Erel Shtossel , Alicia Vidler , Uri Shaham , Gal A. Kaminka

Reinforcement learning has become the central approach for language models (LMs) to learn from environmental reward or feedback. In practice, the environmental feedback is usually sparse and delayed. Learning from such signals is…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-17 Taiwei Shi , Sihao Chen , Bowen Jiang , Linxin Song , Longqi Yang , Jieyu Zhao

Designing appropriate reward functions for Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches has been a significant problem, especially for complex environments such as Atari games. Utilizing natural language instructions to provide intermediate…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-02-09 Ziyuan Cao , Reshma Anugundanahalli Ramachandra , Kelin Yu

Model-free reinforcement learning (RL) is inherently a reactive method, operating under the assumption that it starts with no prior knowledge of the system and entirely depends on trial-and-error for learning. This approach faces several…

We study the model-based reward-free reinforcement learning with linear function approximation for episodic Markov decision processes (MDPs). In this setting, the agent works in two phases. In the exploration phase, the agent interacts with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-01-03 Weitong Zhang , Dongruo Zhou , Quanquan Gu

In reinforcement learning (RL), agents sequentially interact with changing environments while aiming to maximize the obtained rewards. Usually, rewards are observed only after acting, and so the goal is to maximize the expected cumulative…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-10-15 Nadav Merlis , Dorian Baudry , Vianney Perchet

Offline Reinforcement Learning (ORL) offers a robust solution to training agents in applications where interactions with the environment must be strictly limited due to cost, safety, or lack of accurate simulation environments. Despite its…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-07-16 Carlo Romeo , Andrew D. Bagdanov

Intrinsic motivation and reward shaping guide reinforcement learning (RL) agents by adding pseudo-rewards, which can lead to useful emergent behaviors. However, they can also encourage counterproductive exploits, e.g., fixation with noisy…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-03-25 Aly Lidayan , Michael Dennis , Stuart Russell

In practical applications, we can rarely assume full observability of a system's environment, despite such knowledge being important for determining a reactive control system's precise interaction with its environment. Therefore, we propose…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-24 Edi Muskardin , Martin Tappler , Bernhard K. Aichernig , Ingo Pill

Artificial intelligence progresses towards the "Era of Experience," where agents are expected to learn from continuous, grounded interaction. We argue that traditional Reinforcement Learning (RL), which typically represents value as a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-05-29 Xidong Feng , Bo Liu , Yan Song , Haotian Fu , Ziyu Wan , Girish A. Koushik , Zhiyuan Hu , Mengyue Yang , Ying Wen , Jun Wang

To achieve sample efficiency in reinforcement learning (RL), it necessitates efficiently exploring the underlying environment. Under the offline setting, addressing the exploration challenge lies in collecting an offline dataset with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-02-15 Shuang Qiu , Jieping Ye , Zhaoran Wang , Zhuoran Yang

Reinforcement learning (RL), particularly in sparse reward settings, often requires prohibitively large numbers of interactions with the environment, thereby limiting its applicability to complex problems. To address this, several prior…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-11-20 Prasoon Goyal , Scott Niekum , Raymond J. Mooney