The video game's algorithm can be described as a form of reinforcement learning. The grid where the Pac-Man eats pellets while avoiding ghosts is its environment.

The results show that reinforcement learning can do more than master board games. When trained to solve long-standing puzzles in protein science, the software excelled at creating useful molecules.

So, reinforcement learning algorithms have all the same philosophical limitations as regular machine learning algorithms. These are already well-known by machine learning scientists.

For the last few years, Seattle-based software engineer Peter Whidden has been training a reinforcement learning algorithm to navigate the classic first game of the Pokémon series — in that ...