# What is AI?

Warren B Powell – Princeton University

There are a lot of articles appearing about “What is AI” (along with “What is machine learning” and “What is reinforcement learning”) that talk about these terms using vague language. This web page discusses these topics in more concrete terms, but with minimal mathematics.

There are three approaches computers can use to exhibit intelligence:

1) Rule-based logic – This was the original form of “artificial intelligence” in the 1960’s and 70’s, but it is still used today. “If furniture has four legs and a seat, it is a chair” or “if the credit score is over 600, grant the loan” are simple examples. In a health context, the attributes of a patient are more complicated (“if patient is male, and if a smoker, and if over 50, and if … and if … then order treatment X”). If the input data (for the “if” statements) has more than three or four dimensions, the rule becomes quickly intractable. This is the reason that “rule-based AI” failed, but we note that simple business rules remain widely used today in virtually all systems.

2) Making estimates using data from the environment – This is the domain of machine learning, also known as statistics, statistical learning and, more broadly, data sciences. It helps to divide this into two broad classes:

• Supervised learning – This is the domain of “big data” where a large training dataset consisting of input-response (such as, faces with names – the machine learning community refers to the “response” as labels) is used to train a machine learning model.
• Unsupervised learning – Here we cluster input data (such as attributes of patients or customers) but without access to labels/responses.

3) Making decisions that interact with the environment – Decisions involve a controllable quantity, and a metric that evaluates the performance of the decision. These arise in both static and sequential settings. Algorithmic strategies for making decisions are quite rich, but for this discussion it is useful to identify the following classes of methods:

• Rule-based logic – We can use rules to make decisions, such as “if a patient has these symptoms, then apply this treatment.”
• Deterministic optimization – Powerful solvers for high-dimensional problems known as linear programs (where quantities can be continuous) emerged in the 1990s, followed by breakthroughs for integer programs ~2000. These are widely used in static planning problems such as airline scheduling.
• Reinforcement learning – These methods emerged in the 1980’s in the context of describing how a mouse finds its way out of a maze, and was ultimately applied to the Chinese game of Go. It has been primarily applied to “single entity” problems such as controlling robots, playing games, or guiding a physician, as opposed to more complex resource allocation problems.
• Stochastic optimization – This is an umbrella term for a wide range of modeling and algorithmic strategies for solving decision problems in the presence of uncertainty. The problem domain is so rich it has been studied by over 15 distinct research communities, spanning problems from optimal stopping to high-dimensional resource allocation problems. Recently, we have pulled these together into a single, unified framework that draws on the tools of deterministic optimization, machine learning and simulation (see the jungle of stochastic optimization).

Making estimates using data from the environment

Estimation come in three flavors:

a) Classification – e.g. identifying the name of a person from an image, words being spoken, or the identity of a song from a recording. This tends to have right vs. wrong answers.

b) Inference – For example, estimating the deterioration of a piece of machinery, or inferring the number of people infected by a disease. Inferences typically imply some error in our estimation of an unknown truth, where we wish to minimize some measure of the errors.

c) Prediction – These are estimates about the future, such as the amount of snowfall or the movement of a stock price.

In all three cases, we have observable (input) data x (such as an image, the characteristics of a patient, or a history of stock prices) from which we wish to make inferences about something that is not known (or observable) to us right now (the identity of the image, diagnosing a disease, or future stock prices).

While these are different settings, they all require the same machinery of statistical modeling (all forms, not just neural nets).  Central to making inferences is that you have some model $f(x|\theta)$ where “x” is a set of known inputs (for example, prices), and $f(x|\theta)$ is a function that predicts a response y (such as the observed sales at price x).  Imagine that you have a set of inputs (prices) $x^1, ..., x^N$, and the corresponding responses (observed sales) $y^1,...,y^N$ . For our sales problem, we might use the function

$Sales = f(x|\theta) = \theta_0 - \theta_1 x$

which captures the behavior that higher prices produce lower sales. This is an example of a parametric function. For more complicated functions, we might use any of a family of models, including neural networks, but these require very large datasets of inputs $x^1,...,x^n$ and observations $y^n$ to fit the model. If we use a neural network to model demand as a function of price, it is entirely possible (in fact, likely) that the estimated demand will rise and fall even as prices are increased.

We then want to find the function $f(x|\theta)$, and the parameters $\theta$, that solves the model fitting problem

$\min_\theta \sum_{n=1}^N [y^n-f(x^n|\theta)]^2$.

But to determine the best function $f(x|\theta)$, and to find the best $\theta$, you need a set of these responses $y^n$. This is known as supervised learning.

Statistical models can be classified under three headings:

1. Lookup table – Here “x” is discrete (e.g. the gender of a patient) or discretized (e.g. the blood sugar of a patient). A lookup table requires a different estimate (or classification) for each value of “x.”x” may have multiple dimensions (age, gender, ethnicity) in which case the number of possible values of “x” can grow dramatically – this is the classic “curse of dimensionality.”
2. Parametric models – A simple linear parametric model might write demand as a function of price using $D(p|\theta) = \theta_0 - \theta_1 p + \theta_2 p^2$. More complex functions might be nonlinear in the parameters such as $D(p|\theta) = \theta_0 e^{-\theta_1 p}$. Neural networks are a type of nonlinear model, but typically with a lot of parameters, which means they need a lot of data.
3. Nonparametric/locally parametric – This is a class of advanced models that includes deep neural networks, but could also include models that use simple approximations (perhaps constants or linear models) that only apply to specific regions. These models require more data (and sometimes a lot of data).

The rest of the discussion explores these ideas in more depth.

Making decisions that interact with the environment

In the context of this discussion, we identify two broad classes of decisions:

o Decisions that change the environment. These decisions might change the physical device (such as moving from one location to another, acquiring/using inventory, taking a drug, or investing in stocks) or setting parameters such as the price of a product. Choosing website designs or restaurant menus fall in this category.

o Decisions to exchange information. It helps to identify two classes of “information decisions”:

1. Decisions to acquire information – We might run a laboratory or field experiment, take a medical image, or simulate an operational problem in the computer to collect information that changes what we know about the environment. This information is then used to make better decisions that directly change the environment.
2. Decisions to communicate/disseminate information. We might send a signal, email a coupon or broadcast an ad to inform other decision makers.

Some decisions may change the physical environment while also producing information, such as traversing a network (or making a move in a game) that also allows us to learn about the network (or the response of an opponent).

It helps to have the notion of the “state” of our system which contains all the information needed to make a decision. The state, which we denote $S_t$, can be a physical state $R_t$ (the location of a vehicle, how much water is in a reservoir), other information $I_t$ (weather, forecasts, prices), and possibly beliefs $B_t$ about quantities we cannot observe directly.

For example, in our demand model $D(p|\theta) = \theta_0 - \theta_1 p$, we may not know $(\theta_0,\theta_1)$, but we might have estimates along with information about the accuracy of the estimates (such as a mean and variance). We might also have beliefs about the deterioration of a piece of machinery, or the presence of disease in a population.

Pure information collection decisions only change the belief state $B_t$, which does not directly affect the environment, but will have an impact on decisions that do affect the environment. Problems with just a belief state are pure learning problems, known in some communities as “multiarmed bandit” problems, but there are many problems with physical and/or information states that also have belief states. When decisions may change the belief state, they become active learning problems.

We evaluate decisions using a cost or contribution function $C(S,x)$ that, given a “state” S (which contains all the information we need to make a decision) and a decision x (that you control), $C(S,x)$ is a metric of how well we have done.  If we have a deterministic problem, we might be looking for an optimal decision $x*$.

For sequential problems (and especially sequential problems where there is some form of uncertainty), we are looking for a decision function, or policy, for making decisions that we like to write $x_t = X^\pi(S_t)$. Rather than finding optimal decisions, we aspire to find optimal policies, although in practice this is quite rare. The challenge of finding policies is an essential feature of problems where decisions have to be made over time.

There are many communities that address the challenges of making decisions under uncertainty. We refer to these communities as the “jungle of stochastic optimization” using names such as dynamic programming (or Markov decision processes), optimal control (or stochastic control), simulation-optimization, stochastic programming, decision analysis, and stochastic search, along with communities that use names such as multiarmed bandit problems and active learning. However, in recent years one name has caught the attention of the broader public, and that is “reinforcement learning” which emerged from the work in the 1980’s of Rich Sutton and Andy Barto in computer science.

What is reinforcement learning?

Recently, the study of sequential decisions have been grouped under a growing umbrella of research called “reinforcement learning.” In the 1990’s, reinforcement learning emerged as a method for solving (approximately) sequential decision problems using the framework of “Markov decision processes.” The idea proceeded by estimating the value $Q(s,a)$ of being in a state “s” and taking an action “a” using two basic equations:

${\hat q}^n(s^n,a^n) = r(s,a) + \max_{a'} {\bar Q}^{n-1}(s^{n+1},a')\\ {\bar Q} ^n(s^n,a^n) = (1-\alpha) {\bar Q} ^{n-1}(s^n,a^n) + \alpha {\hat q} ^n(s^n,a^n)$

where $r(s^n,a^n)$ is the reward from being in a state $s^n$ and taking an action $a^n$ (chosen according to some rule), and where we have to simulate our way to the next state $s^{n+1}$ given that we are in state $s^n$ and take action $a^n$. The parameter $\alpha$ is a smoothing factor (also called a stepsize or learning rate) that may decline over time. These updating equations became known as Q-learning.

Over time, researchers found that Q-learning did not always work (in fact, it often did not work). The second edition of Sutton and Barto’s classic book Reinforcement Learning (which appeared in 2018) now includes parameterized policies, upper confidence bounding, Q-learning and a class of lookahead policies known as Monte Carlo tree search.

The intersection of “learning” and “making decisions.”

Note that you can use machine learning to make decisions if you are trying to mimic what a human would do.  In this case, the observations “y” would be actual decisions made in the past.  You have a “cost” function which is to minimize the differences between the model $f(x|\theta)$ and the observed decision.  However, you need these observations, whereas when you are doing “optimization” (making decisions), you do not need these responses – you just need the performance metric $C(S,x)$.

What is stochastic optimization?

Stochastic optimization describes any problem where we intermingle making decisions and then making observations that affect the performance of the decision. These problems come in many flavors, such as:

• Make decision $x$, see information $W$, stop.
• Make decision $x^0$, see information $W^1$, make another decision $x^1$, stop.
• Sequential decisions and information: $S^0,x^0,W^1,S^1,x^1,W^2,S^2,\ldots, W^N,S^N, x^N$ where $S^n$ is the state variable, which captures everything we need to determine $x^n$. Note that state variables may include beliefs about unobservable parameters.
• Infinite horizon problems, where $N\rightarrow \infty$, and where the information $W^n$ comes from a stationary distribution.

We assume that each time we make a decision we receive a contribution $C(S^n,x^n)$, although there are problems where we go through a sequence of learning steps $x^0, \ldots, x^N$ producing a final design $x^{\pi,N}$, where we only care about the performance of the final design, which we write as $F(x^{\pi,N},\hat{W})$. Here, $\pi$ describes the algorithm (or policy) for determining $x^{\pi,N}$ in $N$ iterations (or experiments), and where $\hat{W}$ is a random variable that captures the environment in which the design $x^N$ is implemented.

For these problems, the decisions $x^n$ could be binary, discrete or continuous, scalar or vector-valued.

The core problem is designing a rule or policy for determining $x^n$ which we write as $X^\pi(S^n)$. We then want to find the policy that maximizes either the cumulative reward

$max_\pi \mathbb{E}\{\sum_{n=0}^N C(S^n,X^\pi(S^n))|S^0\}$

or the final reward

$max_\pi \mathbb{E}F(x^{\pi,N},\hat{W})$

where $x^{\pi,N}$ is the solution resulting from applying search algorithm (policy) $\pi$.

Both of these optimization formulations involving searching over policies. Searching over policies (which are forms of functions) is comparable to the challenge faced in machine learning where the search is for the best statistical model (which is also a function). However, the class of policies for making decisions is much broader than the set of functions used in machine learning. We describe these next.

The classes of policies for stochastic optimization

There are two broad classes of policies:

1. The policy search class – These are policies that have to be tuned over time to work well in terms of the performance metric (maximizing rewards, minimizing costs, …). This tuning is usually done offline in a simulator, but may be done in the field.
2. The lookahead class – These policies work by finding the action now, given the state we are in, that maximizes the one-period reward plus an approximation of the downstream value of the state that the action takes us to (this may be random).

Each of these classes are divided into two additional subclasses. The policy search class includes:

• Policy function approximations (PFAs) – This is the simplest class, and includes analytical functions that map state to action. These include lookup tables (if it is cold, wear a coat; buy-low, sell-high policies in finance), parametric models (bid for ad-clicks = $a-b \times (sales)$ ), neural networks.
• Cost function approximations (CFAs) – These are parametrically modified optimization problems. For example, let $x$ be the reduction in blood sugar from drug $x$, and let $\bar{\mu}_x$ be our estimate of the reduction for a new patient. We could just choose the drug that maximizes $\bar{\mu}_x$, but we have a lot of uncertainty. Let $\bar{\sigma}_x$ be the standard deviation of this estimate. A good policy for choosing a drug to test would be given by $x=argmax_x\left(\bar{\mu}_x + \theta \bar{\sigma}_x\right)$, where $\theta$ is a tunable parameter. Increasing $\theta$ encourages trying drugs where there is more uncertainty. Parametric CFAs are widely used in practice, since they can be any deterministic optimization problem where tunable parameters have been introduced to handle uncertainty. For example, using a navigation system to estimate the travel time to the destination, but then adding a buffer for traffic delays, is a form of CFA.

The lookahead class can also be divided into two subclasses:

• Policies based on value function approximations (VFAs) – If we are in a state (this might capture how much inventory we have on hand), and take an action (e.g. ordering more inventory) that takes us to a new state, we might estimate the value of being in this new state. This estimate (we can rarely do this exactly) is known as a value function approximation. VFAs are comparable to the Q-factors in Q-learning, and can be approximated using any of the tools from machine learning.
• Direct lookaheads (DLAs) – The easiest example of a DLA is a navigation system that decides whether you should turn or go straight by finding the best path (or at least an approximation) to the destination. This path can be updated periodically during the trip. Another example of a DLA is when you plan several moves into the future when playing a game to determine what move you make now.

These four classes of policies (PFAs, CFAs, VFAs and DLAs) cover every possible method for making decisions over time that has been used by any of the research communities working on sequential decisions, along with any method used in practice. In other words, I claim that these four classes are universal, which means they include whatever you might be using now (without knowing it).

We close by noting that these four classes of policies span all the methods currently used in reinforcement learning for sequential decision problems, but the four classes are much broader, and covers a broader class of problems.