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RL and Transformer = a General-Purpose Problem Solver (arxiv.org)
3 points by keepit on Jan 27, 2025 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A pre-trained transformer is trained with trial-and-error feedback across many episodes until it learns from its own recent experience to tackle brand-new problems. Unlike systems retrained for each task, it solved unseen and even unfamiliar environments using very few attempts.

Abstract · RL + Transformer = A General-Purpose Problem Solver

What if artificial intelligence could not only solve problems for which it was trained but also learn to teach itself to solve new problems (i.e., meta-learn)? In this study, we demonstrate that a pre-trained transformer fine-tuned with reinforcement learning over multiple episodes develops the ability to solve problems that it has never encountered before - an emergent ability called In-Context Reinforcement Learning (ICRL). This powerful meta-learner not only excels in solving unseen in-distribution environments with remarkable sample efficiency, but also shows strong performance in out-of-distribution environments. In addition, we show that it exhibits robustness to the quality of its training data, seamlessly stitches together behaviors from its context, and adapts to non-stationary environments. These behaviors demonstrate that an RL-trained transformer can iteratively improve upon its own solutions, making it an excellent general-purpose problem solver.

Micah Rentschler, Jesse Roberts
arXiv:2501.14176 · cs.LG, cs.AI · submitted Jan 24, 2025
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