Reinforcement learning is one type of machine learning that focuses on finding optimal actions through trial-and-error interactions with an environment. It involves an agent taking actions in an environment, receiving rewards or punishments, and learning a policy that maps states to actions to maximize rewards over time. The document provides an overview of reinforcement learning concepts like the agent, environment, policy, rewards, and observations. It also discusses when reinforcement learning should and should not be used compared to other machine learning methods.