Patent ID: 7837543

Claim:
A method comprising: causing one or more processing units to perform instructions to: detect a first game state at a first action interval of a gaming environment; select a first action of an adaptive agent for the first game state, wherein to select comprises: evaluating multiple action values corresponding to multiple possible actions of a policy for the active agent, wherein the policy maps the first game state to the possible actions and includes the multiple action values, and wherein individual action values represent a corresponding reward amount that the adaptive agent can expect to accumulate starting from the first game state by applying a corresponding individual possible action; and selecting a possible action corresponding to a highest action value of the multiple action values as the first action of the adaptive agent; apply the first action of the adaptive agent to the first game state in the first action interval to produce a second game state in a second action interval within the gaming environment; determine a reward associated with the first action interval based on compliance with a defined goal within the gaming environment; compute an action value for the first action interval based on the reward; and modify the policy to reflect the computed action value in correspondence with the first state and the first action.