Artificial Intelligence: If there is such a thing as a “sequential-decision” task, what does a “non-sequential decision” task look like?

Question

I have heard that neural networks are very good when implementing solutions to sequential-decision tasks. However, I assume that the qualifier "sequential" exists because there must likewise be a "non-sequential" realm. Just wondering if there were some standard, canonical examples some people knew of the top of their head. Thanks :)

Answer 1

Recognizing a picture of your mother. Deciding what you're going to have for breakfast. Coming up with examples of non-sequential decision tasks.

Answer 2

Driving is a good example of a sequential task: You are always deciding whether to steer straight, left, or right. It is sequential because there is some uncertainty in the vehicle; you might steer straight but the car goes a little bit to the right. When you notice this, you correct by steering a little to the left. There would be no way to make all the decisions ahead of time, close your eyes, and drive without crashing.

Planning a path from A to B is an example of a non-sequential task (e.g., Google maps). You know the map, you know the start & goal, and you know the road network. You can make all decisions at once (not sequential) and complete the task (finding a path).

More generally, you'll be making sequential decisions anytime you have some uncertainty and observe something, then react appropriately. From a machine learning perspective, this is the difference between Supervised learning and Online learning.