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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/scientists-imbue-robots-curiosity
Over the years, scientists have worked on algorithms for curiosity, but copying human inquisitiveness has been tricky. For example, most methods aren't capable of assessing artificial agents' gaps in knowledge to predict what will be interesting before they see it. (Humans can sometimes judge how interesting a book will be by its cover.)
Todd Hester, a computer scientist currently at Google DeepMind in London hoped to do better. "I was looking for ways to make computers learn more intelligently, and explore as a human would," he says. "Don't explore everything, and don't explore randomly, but try to do something a little smarter."
So Hester and Peter Stone, a computer scientist at the University of Texas in Austin, developed a new algorithm, Targeted Exploration with Variance-And-Novelty-Intrinsic-Rewards (TEXPLORE-VENIR), that relies on a technique called reinforcement learning. In reinforcement learning, a program tries something, and if the move brings it closer to some ultimate goal, such as the end of a maze, it receives a small reward and is more likely to try the maneuver again in the future. DeepMind has used reinforcement learning to allow programs to master Atari games and the board game Go through random experimentation. But TEXPLORE-VENIR, like other curiosity algorithms, also sets an internal goal for which the program rewards itself for comprehending something new, even if the knowledge doesn't get it closer to the ultimate goal.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 04 2017, @02:25PM (4 children)
How do you get from "Variance-And-Novelty-Intrinsic-Rewards" to "VENIR"? Even if the vocal doesn't come from the "And", you still get "VANIR" from "Variance-And-Novelty-Intrinsic-Rewards".
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday June 04 2017, @03:31PM
I'm guessing Variance-Et-Novelty-Intrinsic-Rewards.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Sunday June 04 2017, @03:41PM
I'm guessing that they changed it on purpose, so if there are any viruses that attack this particular chunk of code they can call it a Venireal Disease.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @06:35PM
It's a conspiracy by the Æsir [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Touché) by inertnet on Sunday June 04 2017, @11:07PM
They did this to make you curious. And it worked.