Thomas
Walsh
Profile
Thomas is a senior research scientist at Sony AI where he investigates the use of reinforcement learning in game-AI applications. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Rutgers University and a B.S. in computer science from UMBC. Before joining Sony AI, Tom led an industry AI team focused on workforce applications and held research positions at MIT, the University of Kansas, and the University of Arizona. Tom’s previous research spans multiple domains including robotics, education, and logistics. His work has been published in top AI conferences and journals including AAAI, ICML, and NeurIPS.
Message
“I am fascinated by the process of learning. At Sony AI, I study how AI agents explore their environments and how they react to different experiences and tasks. To do so, I construct training regimes to teach agents and develop illustrative tests to confirm the desired behaviors. This research helps us build exciting AI agents for games, but also teaches us about how AI and humans learn and adapt with new experiences.”
Publications
Experience replay (ER) is a crucial component of many deep reinforcement learning (RL) systems. However, uniform sampling from an ER buffer can lead to slow convergence and unstable asymptotic behaviors. This paper introduces Stratified Sampling from Event Tables (SSET), whi…
Modern reinforcement learning systems produce many high-quality policies throughout the learning process. However, to choose which policy to actually deploy in the real world, they must be tested under an intractable number of environmental conditions. We introduce RPOSST, a…
Experience replay (ER) is a crucial component of many deep reinforcement learning (RL) systems. However, uniform sampling from an ER buffer can lead to slow convergence and unstable asymptotic behaviors. This paper introduces Stratified Sampling from Event Tables (SSET), whi…
Blog
December 5, 2023 | Game AI
RPOSST: Testing an AI Agent for Deployment in the Real World
Bleary-eyed engineers know the anxiety that comes with a deployment, and the importance of testing every aspect of a product before it goes to the “real world.” Will the response time be fast enough? Is there a combination of user…
Bleary-eyed engineers know the anxiety that comes with a deployment, and the importance of testing every aspect of a product befor…
October 4, 2022 | GT Sophy | Game AI
The Race to Turn a World-class AI into a World Champion
GT SOPHY TECHNICAL SERIES Starting in 2020, the research and engineering team at Sony AI set out to do something that had never been done before: create an AI agent that could beat the best drivers in the world at the PlayStation®…
GT SOPHY TECHNICAL SERIES Starting in 2020, the research and engineering team at Sony AI set out to do something that had never be…
July 12, 2022 | Gaming | GT Sophy
How to Train Your Race Car
GT SOPHY TECHNICAL SERIES Starting in 2020, the research and engineering team at Sony AI set out to do something that had never been done before: create an AI agent that could beat the best drivers in the world at the PlayStation®…
GT SOPHY TECHNICAL SERIES Starting in 2020, the research and engineering team at Sony AI set out to do something that had never be…
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