However, vanilla reinforcement learning should handle this OK. Agents that don’t investigate extraordinary claims will be exploited and suffer—and a conventional reinforcement learning agent can be expected to pick up on this just fine.
Would these agents also learn to pick up pennies in front of steam rollers?
That depends on its utility function.
In fact, falling for Pascal’s mugging is just the extreme case of refusing to pick up pennies in front of a steam roller, the question is where you draw a line dividing the two.
The line (if any) is drawn as a consequence of specifying a utility function.
That depends on its utility function.
The line (if any) is drawn as a consequence of specifying a utility function.