Richard Sutton to keynote RISEx 2026 on 'Robot Kindergarten': robots must learn online
RichardSSutton · x · 2026-11-08
Richard Sutton will deliver the opening keynote at RISEx 2026 in Edmonton, presenting the Tashan/Openmind Robot Kindergarten — an ambitious project led by the Openmind Research Institute (Edmonton) and Tashan Technology (Beijing) to make robots learn online by trial and error from their own experience, the way animals do.
Sutton argues robotics has overwhelmingly focused on learning from human demonstration datasets instead of online learning, which demands a fundamentally different approach: anti-fragile robot bodies, tactile-sensing skin, extensive onboard compute, and continual real-time learning algorithms. These remain rarely done, requiring major engineering commitment plus breakthroughs in RL algorithms. The project has just begun; the talk will focus on the challenge and ambition. His core thesis: robots must learn online.
More from AGI Musings
- JEV Gets Its First Paper as Researchers Split on Research Merit vs Closed Business Model — teortaxesTex · 2026-11-08
- "Humans overfit to confirmation too" — a witty mode collapse analogy for AI slop debate — flowersslop · 2026-11-08
- bayeslord: Stop treating AI as a monolith — four distinct goals demand precise language — sebkrier · 2026-11-08
- AI doesn't change how unique your niche interests are, argues dev pixlpa — pixlpa · 2026-11-08
- Albert Gu: Bitter Lesson isn't 'just scale Transformers' — algorithmic innovation matters — sewon__min · 2026-11-08
- The 'evolutionary mismatch' chart explaining why humanity will ignore AI warnings — sebpaquet · 2026-11-08