When Microsoft acquired Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion, the idea was for the tech giant to break into mobile gaming with the developer’s massively popular title, Minecraft.
Now, researchers at Microsoft are using a new platform called AIX to train an artificial intelligence agent to learn how to climb a hill in the open-world game.
The goal is to teach what’s called ‘general intelligence’, the ability to learn lessons from one’s environment and make decisions. In a blog, Microsoft describes it thusly:
A computer algorithm may be able to take one task and do it as well or even better than an average adult, but it can’t compete with how an infant is taking in all sorts of inputs – light, smell, touch, sound, discomfort – and learning that if you cry chances are good that Mom will feed you.
