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Optimal control of the future via prospective learning with control

Yuxin Bai,Aranyak Acharyya,Ashwin De Silva,Zeyu Shen,James Hassett,J. Vogelstein

Published 2025 in Unknown venue

ABSTRACT

Optimal control of the future is the next frontier for AI. Current approaches to this problem are typically rooted in reinforcement learning (RL). RL is mathematically distinct from supervised learning, which has been the main workhorse for the recent achievements in AI. Moreover, RL typically operates in a stationary environment with episodic resets, limiting its utility. Here, we extend supervised learning to address learning to \textit{control} in non-stationary, reset-free environments. Using this framework, called''Prospective Learning with Control''(PL+C), we prove that under certain fairly general assumptions, empirical risk minimization (ERM) asymptotically achieves the Bayes optimal policy. We then consider a specific instance of prospective learning with control, foraging -- which is a canonical task for any mobile agent -- be it natural or artificial. We illustrate that modern RL algorithms fail to learn in these non-stationary reset-free environments, and even with modifications, they are orders of magnitude less efficient than our prospective foraging agents.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2025

  • Venue

    Unknown venue

  • Publication date

    2025-11-11

  • Fields of study

    Mathematics, Computer Science

  • Identifiers
    arXiv 2511.08717
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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