Claim · 1961-01 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Minsky (1961) uses "reinforcement learning device" for a machine component trained by reinforcement signals.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence → uses the name →

Where it appears

No collection page holds this claim. It is listed with its records in the explorer.

Claim and evidence

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligenceuses the name ↓

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1961-01 · publication Records dated 1961 →

Scope and limitsEarliest located by the recorded search (the Dartmouth proposal and Samuel 1959 do not use the phrase). Minsky’s 1954 dissertation, which Sutton and Barto say discussed reinforcement learning, was not retrieved. Not evidence of coinage. The passage names a proposed kind of component; it does not show that such a device was built (cross-family check).

The evidence 02

primary sourceSupports the claim

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription)

Proceedings of the IRE · 1961-01

Archived copy, captured 2026-10-05: Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription)

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“The device U is not itself a reinforcement learning device”

Location in source section on secondary reinforcement and expectation models

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Marvin Minsky
Version: Later HTML transcription; introduction and summary of the argument read by the pre-1996 candidate search. Transcription hosted at web.mit.edu.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-06
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2026-10-05: Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription). An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2026-10-05. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.
Attribution: Marvin Minsky, "Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence", Proceedings of the IRE 49 (1961).
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (10 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (31 October 2026, item 70) re-read the record’s sources and found that they support what the record states. Its point that the proposed device is not presented as implemented was applied at admission. No human editorial review.

primary sourceSupports the claim

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription)

Proceedings of the IRE · 1961-01

Archived copy, captured 2026-10-05: Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription)

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“The device P might be constructed along the lines of a reinforcement learning device.”

Location in source section on prediction and expectation

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Marvin Minsky
Version: Later HTML transcription; introduction and summary of the argument read by the pre-1996 candidate search. Transcription hosted at web.mit.edu.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-06
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2026-10-05: Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription). An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2026-10-05. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.
Attribution: Marvin Minsky, "Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence", Proceedings of the IRE 49 (1961).
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (14 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. A cross-family machine check (31 October 2026, item 70) re-read the record’s sources and found that they support what the record states. Its point that the proposed device is not presented as implemented was applied at admission. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A passage of the document uses a name for a family of methods or a term, in the sense the concept’s naming criterion describes or, where labelled, in another sense. The record documents the use; it is not evidence that the name began there, and it implies no influence on or from another text.

Date. Date of publication, as the source gives it.

Record ID th-rl-minsky-1961-term