RL is necessary but not sufficient for adaptive intelligent behavior. My model of human intelligence is something like this:
Large-scale unsupervised learning that takes as input a vast sensorimotor data stream, and produces a rich, complex suite of abstractions that describe and predict the data stream ;
A simplistic, error-prone, heuristic, quick and dirty RL algorithm that uses the advanced abstractions produced by the unsupervised layer to create adaptive behavior.
So yes, RL by itself is not strong, but RL+powerful unsupervised learning could be very strong.
This kind of combination seems obvious to me based on simple introspection. Observing my own brain’s capability in computational terms, I find that I am amazing at perception (vision/language/audition/etc), which ability is produced by the unsupervised learning component. At the same time I am terrible at planning, which is produced by the RL component.
By the way, Chomsky wrote a good takedown of “pure” behaviorist theory in 1967.
“RL is necessary but not sufficient for adaptive intelligent behavior.”
You state this without proof. In my essay I explain all the reasons why this is not in fact correct, but you haven’t addressed those yet.
“By the way, Chomsky wrote a good takedown of “pure” behaviorist theory in 1967.”
That would be 1957, not 1967. I read his paper (actually a review of Skinner’s book) quite some time back. It is valid, of course, but it was only the final nail in a coffin that was already smelling a bit like it had something decaying in it.
RL is necessary but not sufficient for adaptive intelligent behavior. My model of human intelligence is something like this:
Large-scale unsupervised learning that takes as input a vast sensorimotor data stream, and produces a rich, complex suite of abstractions that describe and predict the data stream ;
A simplistic, error-prone, heuristic, quick and dirty RL algorithm that uses the advanced abstractions produced by the unsupervised layer to create adaptive behavior.
So yes, RL by itself is not strong, but RL+powerful unsupervised learning could be very strong.
This kind of combination seems obvious to me based on simple introspection. Observing my own brain’s capability in computational terms, I find that I am amazing at perception (vision/language/audition/etc), which ability is produced by the unsupervised learning component. At the same time I am terrible at planning, which is produced by the RL component.
By the way, Chomsky wrote a good takedown of “pure” behaviorist theory in 1967.
“RL is necessary but not sufficient for adaptive intelligent behavior.”
You state this without proof. In my essay I explain all the reasons why this is not in fact correct, but you haven’t addressed those yet.
“By the way, Chomsky wrote a good takedown of “pure” behaviorist theory in 1967.”
That would be 1957, not 1967. I read his paper (actually a review of Skinner’s book) quite some time back. It is valid, of course, but it was only the final nail in a coffin that was already smelling a bit like it had something decaying in it.