In 1951, Marvin Minsky, then a student at Harvard, borrowed observations from animal behavior to try to design an intelligent machine. Drawing on the work of physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who famously used dogs to show how animals learn through punishments and rewards, Minsky created a computer that could continuously learn through similar reinforcement to solve a virtual maze.

At the time, neuroscientists had yet to figure out the mechanisms within the brain that allow animals to learn in this way. But Minsky was still able to loosely mimic the behavior, thereby advancing artificial intelligence. Several decades later, as reinforcement learning continued to mature, it in turn helped the field of neuroscience discover those mechanisms, feeding into a virtuous cycle of advancement between the two fields. Read More