David Abel on the Science of Agency @ RLDM 2025

David Abel on the Science of Agency @ RLDM 2025

From TalkRL: The Reinforcement Learning Podcast by Robin Ranjit Singh Chauhan

September 8, 2025 · 60 min · Episode 72

About this episode

David Abel discusses the intersection of reinforcement learning and agency, exploring foundational questions in the field.

David Abel is a Senior Research Scientist at DeepMind on the Agency team, and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His research blends computer science and philosophy, exploring foundational questions about reinforcement learning, definitions, and the nature of agency. Featured References Plasticity as the Mirror of Empowerment David Abel, Michael Bowling, André Barreto, Will Dabney, Shi Dong, Steven Hansen, Anna Harutyunyan, Khimya Khetarpal, Clare Lyle, Razvan Pascanu, Georgios Piliouras, Doina Precup, Jonathan Richens, Mark Rowland, Tom Schaul, Satinder Singh A Definition of Continual RL David Abel, André Barreto, Benjamin Van Roy, Doina Precup, Hado van Hasselt, Satinder Singh Agency is Frame-Dependent David Abel, André Barreto, Michael Bowling, Will Dabney, Shi Dong, Steven Hansen, Anna Harutyunyan, Khimya Khetarpal, Clare Lyle, Razvan Pascanu, Georgios Piliouras, Doina Precup, Jonathan Richens, Mark Rowland, Tom Schaul, Satinder Singh On the Expressivity of Markov Reward David Abel, Will Dabney, Anna Harutyunyan, Mark Ho, Michael Littman, Doina Precup, Satinder Singh — Outstanding Paper Award, NeurIPS 2021 Additional References Bidirectional Communication…

People in this episode

Guest: David Abel

Topics covered

  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Agency
  • Computer Science
  • Philosophy

Keywords

  • DeepMind
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Research

Mentioned in this episode

Products: DeepMind

Books & works: The Big World Hypothesis

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