Microsoft turns the popular game into an “AI Olympics.”
The blockish and slightly dorky computer game Minecraft may turn out to be a great place for humans and AI to learn how to work together.
An experimental new version of the game, released by Microsoft researchers this month, can be used to train an AI to perform all sorts of tasks, from crossing bridges to building complex objects. The new platform, called Project Malmo, makes it possible for a learning algorithm to control a Minecraft character that’s normally operated by a human player. But it also provides ways for human players and AI agents to work together, and a chat window through which a person can talk with a nascent AI.
“In the long run I want to work toward AI that can be taught by any user to help them achieve their goals,” says Katja Hoffman, a researcher at Microsoft Cambridge in the U.K. who leads the project.
