Skip to main content

Machine Unlearning #5 (Reinforcement Learning)

Machine Unlearning is a series broken up into tiny, one-minute readable pieces to humor our ever-shortening attention span. Sharing the links to every single piece right below:


Reinforcement Learning is a slightly different learning model than the other techniques that we have discussed previously. Therefore, I wouldn’t be able to explain the same using the fruit basket example that we have been using all this while. Let’s replace apples and oranges with self-driving cars!


Suppose that you are at Google or Tesla and are trying to train a car to drive by itself! How would you go about that? Driving requires the knowledge of much more than turning the ignition on and steering the wheel. You should know to keep the side of the road, to stop at the red signal, or to keep off the footpath, for instance.


You decide not to overwhelm the poor machine by laying out all the rules at once. Instead, you take an “on the fly” approach, by letting the car take decisions in a real-time manner, and by giving feedback on the merit of the decision taken.


If the car stops at a red light, you reward it by giving positive feedback. If the car sways off the road and runs over people sleeping on the footpath, you punish it by giving it negative feedback. The car learns by repeating the decisions that gave it positive feedback and avoiding the decisions that gave it negative feedback.


Now, for the real world story. My mother - a brown-skinned Indian - used to be teased by some of her brown-skinned relatives, for being dark-skinned. As a result, she grew up with the notion that dark-skinned was bad (negative feedback). Whenever she used to try out a bright colored outfit, they would chide her by saying that the bright colors did not compliment her complexion. The repeated feedback reinforced this belief in her mind, and she resorted to wearing pale-colored clothes during the colorful years of her youth. It took her years of unlearning to realize that dark colors did in fact suited her well.


Not just her relatives, but the teachers at her school, who are supposed to be implanting progressive thoughts in young minds, were guilty of reinforcing regressive ideas. She used to recall accounts of the nuns who ran the Convent School she was a student of slut-shaming students for coming to school with a bright bindi on their forehead. Sweet Jesus!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Rejection

About four years ago, I self-published my first novel, I Want Your Life . Self-publishing was not my initial plan. Like most aspiring writers, I envisioned my book being published under the label of one of the prominent publishing houses in the country, such as Penguin or HarperCollins. However, my editor gave me a reality check and explained that large publishing houses receive several submissions daily, making it highly unlikely for a first-time writer to get noticed. More than the prestige of being published under an established banner, my excitement lay in seeing my story in the form of a book. So, I chose the self-publishing route. After months of back-and-forth with my publishing team - proofreading, editing, revisions, illustrations, book registration, and printing - my book was finally out. It was truly a dream come true. The upside of self-publishing is the sweet certainty of getting published. The downside, however, is that you are responsible for everything, including promot...
1 comment
Read more

Roasted

  At Chico’s home ‘Mama, you promised to take me out for lunch on Sunday if I got good grades in the exams…’ seven-year-old Chico complained to his mother, Laila, as she lay confined to the comforts of her couch on a lazy Sunday morning. ‘Ugh…’ Laila groaned as she continued to scroll through reels. 'And we will go on a Sunday!’ ‘Today is Sunday, Mama!’ Chico started pulling at his mama bear’s arms. ‘Well, another one is due in seven days…’ Laila muttered, unwilling to move, but the thought of not having to cook lunch did tempt her. ‘Okay, if I promised you, you shall have it. Tell me what you want. I'll order…’ ‘No, Mama, I want to go out and dine, and I want you to take a selfie at the restaurant and post it, and I want my friends to ask me about it in class.’ Laila pulled her eyes from the screen and looked at her son. He was growing smart indeed. ‘Okay, fine, you got it. What do you want to have, though?’ ‘Roasted Chicken!’ At Durien’s Chicken Farm ‘But why can’t we go ou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Familial Cowswami

Last day, I had the misfortune of interacting with the husband of one of my cousins at a family event. Since we’ve already established my feelings toward him, let me clarify that he is not an evil person. It’s just that our ideologies and outlooks toward life could poetically be described as Yin-Yang—completely opposite, with no common ground. That’s fine; everyone is entitled to their vision, as long as they don’t try to claim their vision as the only correct one and attempt to shove it on others who haven’t asked for advice. After exchanging pleasantries, we got down to the “real talk.” He started by asking me why I am still sticking around here (India) and not moving abroad. To set the context, he has been working in the Middle East ever since I first met him at my cousin’s wedding, around fourteen years ago. His wife and kids, who used to live with him, recently moved to Canada, possibly to settle there once he retires. Of course, moving abroad seems to be the trend (or even the no...
2 comments
Read more