Do you savor that moment when you load up a game and hit "start", knowing you're about to chill with some electronic entertainment and leave the world behind? Enjoy it while you can, because in the future the computer might decide to play itself instead. A group of Hungarian researchers at Eotvos University have trained an artificial intelligence to play Ms. Pac-man, and are celebrating this advance in artificial system education - perhaps unaware that they've just made humans redundant even in the field of slacking off.
Video games are an ideal testbed for education (just like we used to
try to convince our parents). A game is a massively simplified world
with a clearly defined set of rules, good results (blow up the enemy)
and bad results (don't get blown up by the enemy) and many reduce the
complex philosophical question of "How well am I doing in life?" to a
single number - the score. These clear specifications and the ability
to measure success or failure provide excellent tests for various
artificial intelligence strategies. While some might sniff at some of
the results (a mere 8186 on the Ms Pac-Man), the researchers were
extremely pleased to witness how their AI programs learned how to play
the classic arcade game.
They're so happy, they don't seem to realise that they've doomed mankind. Simply put:
1) Computers run games
2) Computers run every vital service in modern civilisation
3) Now computers can play games
It isn't going to take an AI long to see that step two there is just
getting in the way. Then we're talking Mad Max II collapse-of-society
time. We've always known that the machines were going to wipe us out,
but at least we had the consolation that it would be a kick ass horde
of red-eyed Arnold Schwarzeneggers hunting us down through time and
violence - making a big effort, focusing on us, paying attention like
we're something really important. Now we're just going to be left to
rot and fend for ourselves while the computers host the vastest and
fastest LAN game ever seen - and I don't know about you, but I'd rather
go out like a doomed action hero than the ignored wife of a World of
Warcraft addict.
The scientists might not realise what they've done, but you can't trust
such a perverted bunch of techno-fetishists. We all know that the
internet is full of weird and unlikely perversions - but this is the
first time I've heard of people sitting around watching computers play
with themselves.
AI Learns to play Ms Pac Man http://www.robotworldnews.com/100389.php