Exploration, Exploitation, and Engagement in Multi-Armed Bandits with Abandonment

The traditional multi-armed bandit (MAB) model for recommendation systems assumes the user stays in the system for the entire learning horizon. In new online education platforms such as ALEKS or new video recommendation systems such as TikTok, the amount of time a user spends on the app depends on how engaging the recommended contents are. Users may temporarily leave the system if the recommended items cannot engage the users. To understand the exploration, exploitation, and engagement in these systems, we …

app education engagement exploitation exploration horizon multi-armed bandits online education platforms recommendation recommendation systems systems tiktok video