Francis Bach – författare

The significantly expanded and updated new edition of a widely used text on reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence.Reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence, is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives while interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. In Reinforcement Learning, Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto provide a clear and simple account of the field's key ideas and algorithms. This second edition has been significantly expanded and updated, presenting new topics and updating coverage of other topics.Like the first edition, this second edition focuses on core, online learning algorithms, with the more mathematical material set off in shaded boxes. Part I covers as much of reinforcement learning as possible without going beyond the tabular case for which exact solutions can be found. Many algorithms presented in this part are new for the second edition, including UCB, Expected Sarsa, and Double Learning. Part II extends these ideas to function approximation, with new sections on such topics as artificial neural networks and the Fourier basis, and offers expanded treatment of off-policy learning and policy-gradient methods. Part III has new chapters on reinforcement learning's relationships to psychology and neuroscience, as well as an updated case-studies chapter including AlphaGo and AlphaGo Zero, Atari game playing, and IBM Watson's wagering strategy. The final chapter discusses the future societal impacts of reinforcement learning.

A comprehensive and cutting-edge introduction to the foundations and modern applications of learning theory.Research has exploded in the field of machine learning resulting in complex mathematical arguments that are hard to grasp for new comers. . In this accessible textbook, Francis Bach presents the foundations and latest advances of learning theory for graduate students as well as researchers who want to acquire a basic mathematical understanding of the most widely used machine learning architectures. Taking the position that learning theory does not exist outside of algorithms that can be run in practice, this book focuses on the theoretical analysis of learning algorithms as it relates to their practical performance. Bach provides the simplest formulations that can be derived from first principles, constructing mathematically rigorous results and proofs without overwhelming students. Provides a balanced and unified treatment of most prevalent machine learning methods Emphasizes practical application and features only commonly used algorithmic frameworks Covers modern topics not found in existing texts, such as overparameterized models and structured prediction Integrates coverage of statistical theory, optimization theory, and approximation theoryFocuses on adaptivity, allowing distinctions between various learning techniquesHands-on experiments, illustrative examples, and accompanying code link theoretical guarantees to practical behaviors