DenseWiki is a new site that aims to provide simple, plain-English explanations of popular concepts in machine learning. They've started by adding explanations of a few popular concepts in reinforcement learning, starting with "Actor-Critic Methods".

"As a human, when you get better at playing a game (say soccer or boxing), isn't the improvement also usually accompanied by getting better at evaluating games -- i.e. answering questions such as 'which side is doing better' at any given point in a game?"

"It also goes the other way around -- being good at evaluating your own performance during a game also enables you to coach yourself, thus being able to try new things and get better over time -- without necessarily needing external supervision."

"And that is the fundamental intuition behind 'actor critic' methods. In essence, being your own critic helps you grow as an actor, growing as an actor makes you a better critic, and the cycle continues."

Actor Critic Methods -- A simple explanation

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