The Kafkaesque Squid Game is back and feels like a manifestation of Reinforcement Learning technique GRPO in action?
The word "Kafkaesque" has been on my mind lately, and after finishing Squid Game 2 this weekend, the dots connected. Kafkaesque describes situations that are bizarre, uncontrollable, and inescapable, where winning or overcoming seems impossible. This perfectly captures the feeling of being trapped in the Squid Game, with its arbitrary rules, deadly consequences, and dehumanizing atmosphere.
Around the same time, I was learning about the Deepseek model and its use of the GRPO (Group Relative Policy Optimization) reinforcement learning technique. GRPO promotes cooperation among AI agents, leading to diverse strategies and accelerated learning. This sparked a realization: Squid Game 2 is a manifestation of GRPO in action, with players forming alliances and adapting their strategies in unexpected ways.
Intrigued, I discussed this with Gemini. It highlighted how GRPO in a game like Squid Game could lead to rebellion, unexpected alliances, and even "meta-gaming" by the organizers to counter c…