RL for Recommender Systems, Part 1: Foundations
Why reinforcement learning matters for recommendations, a refresher on MDP fundamentals, and understanding the spectrum from bandits to full RL.
Writing on AI/ML, real estate, and business trends.
All of my thoughts on recent trends in these industries, collected in chronological order.
RL for Recommender Systems, Part 2: Production Policy Gradients
A deep dive into YouTube's REINFORCE system and Google's Actor-Critic extension, including the critical Top-K correction and off-policy learning.
RL for Recommender Systems, Part 3: Advanced Topics
Deep dives into Netflix's slate evaluation, Kuaishou's retention optimization, and Spotify's cold-start solution.
RL for Recommender Systems, Part 4: Implementation Guide
Pinterest's latest RL systems, a decision framework for choosing your approach, and a practical implementation roadmap.