Andrew G. Barto and Richard S. Sutton have been named because the recipients of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his or her contributions to the sphere of reinforcement studying starting within the Nineteen Eighties.
Reinforcement studying is a coaching methodology for AI programs that teaches them methods to take advantage of optimum choices by way of a sequence of alerts generally known as rewards. ChatGPT, as an illustration, was skilled utilizing a technique known as reinforcement studying from human suggestions (RLHF).
They wrote the textbook “Reinforcement Studying: An Introduction” in 1998, and it’s nonetheless an ordinary reference within the subject, having been cited over 75,000 instances.
Barto and Sutton have been chargeable for creating lots of the primary algorithmic approaches utilized in reinforcement studying, together with temporal distinction studying, policy-gradient strategies, and utilizing neural networks to signify realized capabilities.
Their work has additionally led to discoveries within the neuroscience subject, particularly that sure reinforcement studying algorithms can clarify the dopamine system within the mind.
“Barto and Sutton’s work demonstrates the immense potential of making use of a multidisciplinary method to longstanding challenges in our subject,” mentioned Yannis Ioannidis, president of ACM. “Analysis areas starting from cognitive science and psychology to neuroscience impressed the event of reinforcement studying, which has laid the foundations for among the most essential advances in AI and has given us larger perception into how the mind works. Barto and Sutton’s work is just not a stepping stone that now we have now moved on from. Reinforcement studying continues to develop and gives nice potential for additional advances in computing and lots of different disciplines. It’s becoming that we’re honoring them with essentially the most prestigious award in our subject.”
Barto is Professor Emeritus of Data and Laptop Sciences on the College of Massachusetts Amherst, and Sutton is a Professor of Laptop Science on the College of Alberta, a Analysis Scientist at Eager Applied sciences, and a Fellow at Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.