AI engineering glossary · Reinforcement learning
What is state?
State: A description of the situation at a particular moment that holds the information needed to decide what to do next. In a formal model, the future depends on the past only through this description. Choosing what to put into it is a key design step.
State: an example
In a cricket-strategy simulator, the state could be overs left, wickets in hand and the current run rate: for example 12 overs, 6 wickets, 7.5 runs per over.
Related terms
More Reinforcement learning terms
- Stochastic policy
- Target network
- TD error
- TD(0)
- TD(lambda)
- Temporal-difference learning
- Terminal state
- Thompson sampling
Where you learn it
State is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.