Quantum speed-ups in reinforcement learning

Quantum Nanophotonic Materials, Devices, and Systems, pp. 18

Abstract

As the field of artificial intelligence is pushed forward, the question arises of how fast autonomous machines can learn. Within artificial intelligence, an important paradigm is reinforcement learning, where agents - learning entities capable of decision making - interact with the world they are placed in, called an environment. Thanks to these interactions, agents receive feedback from the environment and thus progressively adjust their behaviour to accomplish a given goal. An important question in reinforcement learning is how fast agents can learn to fulfill their tasks. To answer this question we consider a novel reinforcement learning framework where quantum mechanics is used. In particular, we quantize the agent and the environment and grant them the possibility to also interact quantum-mechanically, that is, by using a quantum channel for their communication. We demonstrate that this feature enables a speed-up in the agent's learning process, and we further show that combining this scenario with classical communication enables the evaluation of such an improvement. This learning protocol is implemented on an integrated re-programmable photonic platform interfaced with photons at telecommunication wavelengths. Thanks to the full tunability of the device, this platform proves the best candidate for the implementation of learning protocols, where a continuous update of the learning process is required.

Authors 12

1. Valeria Saggio

   University of Vienna

   Affiliation as printed

   Univ. of Vienna (Austria)

2. Beate E. Asenbeck

   University of Vienna

   Affiliation as printed

   Univ. of Vienna (Austria)

3. Teodor Strömberg

   University of Vienna

   Affiliation as printed

   Univ. of Vienna (Austria)

4. Peter Schiansky

   University of Vienna

   Affiliation as printed

   Univ. of Vienna (Austria)

5. Vedran Dunjko Aachen Leiden Univ. (Netherlands)

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden Univ. (Netherlands)

6. Nicolai Friis

   Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Innsbruck

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (Austria)

7. Nicholas C. Harris

   Lightmatter (United States)

   Affiliation as printed

   Lightmatter (United States)

8. Michael J. Hochberg

   Nokia (United States)

   Affiliation as printed

   Nokia Corp. (United States)

9. Dirk Englund

   Massachusetts Institute of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)

10. Sabine Wölk

    Universität Innsbruck · Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

    Affiliation as printed

    Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany)

    Univ. Innsbruck (Austria)

    Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany)

11. Hans J. Briegel

    University of Konstanz · Universität Innsbruck

    Affiliation as printed

    Univ. Innsbruck (Austria)

    Univ. Konstanz (Germany)

12. Philip John Walther

    University of Vienna

    Affiliation as printed

    Univ. of Vienna (Austria)