Neural architecture search, imitation learning and the optimized pipeline with Dr. Debadeepta Dey
Dr. Debadeepta Dey is a Principal Researcher in the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group at MSR and he’s currently exploring several lines of research that may help bridge the gap between perception and planning for autonomous agents, teaching them to…
In the news | Nature
AI takes on popular Minecraft game in machine-learning contest
To see the divide between the best artificial intelligence and the mental capabilities of a seven-year-old child, look no further than the popular video game Minecraft. A young human can learn how to find a rare diamond in the game…
Logarithmic mapping allows for low discount factors by creating action gaps similar in size
| Harm van Seijen, Mehdi Fatemi, and Arash Tavakoli
While reinforcement learning (RL) has seen significant successes over the past few years, modern deep RL methods are often criticized for how sensitive they are with respect to their hyper-parameters. One such hyper-parameter is the discount factor, which controls how…
Inside the Microsoft AI Residency Program with Dr. Brian Broll
In 2018, Microsoft launched the Microsoft AI Residency Program, a year-long, expanded research experience designed to give recent graduates in a variety of fields the opportunity to work alongside prominent researchers at MSR on cutting edge AI technologies to solve…
Provably efficient reinforcement learning with rich observations
| Akshay Krishnamurthy
Reinforcement learning, a machine learning paradigm for sequential decision making, has stormed into the limelight, receiving tremendous attention from both researchers and practitioners. When combined with deep learning, reinforcement learning (RL) has produced impressive empirical results, but the successes to…
Reinforcement learning for the real world with Dr. John Langford and Rafah Hosn
Episode 75, May 8, 2019- Dr. John Langford, a partner researcher in the Machine Learning group at Microsoft Research New York City, is a reinforcement learning expert who is working, in his own words, to solve machine learning. Rafah Hosn,…
In the news | VentureBeat
Microsoft’s Azure Cognitive Services adds reinforcement learning for recommendations and doodle recognition AI
Microsoft has released Decision, a suite of decision-making recommendations, automated transcription services, and AI that recognizes and digitizes drawings. The suite will include Personalizer, a reinforcement learning service for recommendations or personalization designed to improve user engagement.
In the news | TechCrunch
Microsoft extends its Cognitive Services with personalization service, handwriting recognition APIs and more
Microsoft's new pre-built machine learning models for its Cognitive Services platform include an API for building personalization features, a form recognizer for automating data entry, a handwriting recognition API, and an enhanced speech recognition service that focuses on transcribing conversations.
Talking with machines with Dr. Layla El Asri
Episode 64, February 20, 2019 - Dr. Layla El Asri talks about the particular challenges she and other scientists face in building sophisticated dialogue systems that lay the foundation for talking machines. She also explains how reinforcement learning, in the…