To teach an AI agent a new task, like how to open a kitchen cabinet, researchers often use reinforcement learning — a trial-and-error process where the agent is rewarded for taking actions that get it closer to the goal.
It isn’t easy for a robot to find its way out of a maze. Picture these machines trying to traverse a kid’s playroom to reach the kitchen, with miscellaneous toys scattered across the floor and furniture blocking some potential paths. This messy labyrinth requires the robot to calculate the most optimal journey to its destination, without crashing into any obstacles. What is the bot to do?
For more than 60 years, MIT has been an undisputed pioneer in developing computing technologies that have transformed the world. The Institute’s largest research lab, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), has had a hand in everything from time-sharing and computer graphics to data encryption and early versions of the Internet.
