Most successful machine learning algorithms of today use either carefully curated, human-labeled datasets, or large amounts of experience aimed at achieving well-defined goals within specific environments. In contrast, people learn through their agency: they interact with their environments, exploring and building complex mental models of their world so as to be able to flexibly adapt to a wide variety of tasks. One crucial next direction in artificial intelligence is to create artificial agents that learn in this flexible and robust way. Students will read and take turns presenting current works, and they will produce a proposal of a feasible next research direction. Prerequisites: CS 229, CS 231N, CS 234 (or equivalent).
3 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
Most successful machine learning algorithms of today use either carefully curated, human-labeled datasets, or large amounts of experience aimed at achieving well-defined goals within specific environments. In contrast, people learn through their agency: they interact with their environments, exploring and building complex mental models of their world so as to be able to flexibly adapt to a wide variety of tasks. One crucial next direction in artificial intelligence is to create artificial agents that learn in this flexible and robust way. Students will read and take turns presenting current works, and they will produce a proposal of a feasible next research direction. Prerequisites: CS229, CS231N, CS234 (or equivalent).
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.