Policy Gradients

2 items

DOCDEV.to AI·5/10/2026

Understanding Reinforcement Learning with Neural Networks Part 2: Why Backpropagation Is Not Enough

This article, part of a series, explains why standard backpropagation is insufficient for certain reinforcement learning scenarios. It highlights the necessity of policy gradients by demonstrating how error calculation and derivative application differ from traditional neural network training.

neural networks reinforcement learning learning backpropagation

ARTICLEDEV.to AI·4/16/2026

Policy Gradients — Deep Dive + Problem: Valid Parentheses

Policy Gradients is a fundamental Reinforcement Learning algorithm that directly optimizes the policy, mapping states to actions, using gradient-based methods. It's crucial for handling high-dimensional action spaces and learning stochastic policies, offering advantages over value-based methods by learning the policy directly.

reinforcement learning machine learning Policy Gradients