OpenAI Blog · Mar 24, 2017
Evolution strategies as a scalable alternative to reinforcement learning
Reviewed by Errol Vogt, Site support technician & online learning analyst · original summary · editorial policy
Evolution strategies as a scalable alternative to reinforcement learning. We’ve discovered that evolution strategies (ES), an optimization technique that’s been known for decades, rivals the performance of standard reinforcement learning (RL) techniques on modern RL benchmarks (e.g. Atari/MuJoCo), while overcoming many of RL’s inconveniences. This update is relevant for small-office operators tracking changes in their tools.
Operator takeaway: For operators: review whether 'Evolution strategies as a scalable alternative to reinforcement learning' affects your current setup before relying on it in production.