Microsoft official project "Project AIX" with artificial intelligence on Minecraft

Minecraft in September 2014AcquisitionMicrosoft believes that Minecraft, which allows users to enjoy games with free thought, is the best place for research on artificial intelligence, and conducts research on artificial intelligence using Minecraft for artificial intelligence researchers and amateur enthusiasts We will announce the platform for the summer of 2016 to be released.

Project AIX: Using Minecraft to build more intelligent technology - Next at Microsoft
http://blogs.microsoft.com/next/2016/03/13/project-aix-using-minecraft-build-intelligent-technology/


Minecraft to run artificial intelligence experiments - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35778288


At Microsoft's laboratory in New York, artificial intelligence using Minecraft is being studied. The researcher is trying to make the character climb up the character in the game of Minecraft, which is very easy as the operation of the minecraft, but the research team has the self-learning ability mounted on the artificial intelligence and the artificial intelligence I am programming to climb the highest place in the virtual world of Minecraft.

This research is conducted as a simulation when artificial intelligence is placed in a situation where it is not even known what action should be taken in a completely new environment, artificial intelligence firstly understands surrounding situations, and important information (Climbing a hill) and information of low importance (such as whether the surroundings are bright or dark). Many trials and errors occurred in the course of learning artificial intelligence, and it is said that artificial intelligence gradually learns the goal of the game gradually taking a failure such as falling into a river or thrusting into lava about. Fernando Diaz, the leader of the laboratory, says, "We are not programming a simple task for artificial intelligence but programming self-learning abilities."

The photographs below are researchers at the Microsoft New York Institute.


Research on artificial intelligence's self-learning ability is done using the platform "AIX" developed at Microsoft's Cambridge Research Center. AIX is a software designed to improve the performance of artificial intelligence and tests the self-learning ability of artificial intelligence using Minecraft. Katja Hofmann, one of the developers of AIX, used to use another platform for researching artificial intelligence, but since there are various restrictions depending on the platform, we want to study more freely It seems he came up with the idea of ​​AIX.

According to Mr. Hofmann, Minecraft seems perfect for research on artificial intelligence, as a reason, "Minecraft has unlimited possibilities, unlike other games, from simple tasks like finding a treasure box, We can do a variety of tasks, such as difficult tasks like cooperating with each other to create a building, "Hofmann says. Also, because you can fight with friends in survival mode or compete in architecture, set goals yourself and play, so in order for artificial intelligence to learn beyond the bounds of existing abilities, Minecraft Things with just a good game.

The demonstration screen that actually uses AIX to let Mine Craft play artificial intelligence is as follows.


By using the window displayed in the corner of the game screen, you can see "What kind of judgment is made by artificial intelligence and you are progressing the game".


Also, in research on artificial intelligence utilizing Maincraft, not only using AIX, but also researchers themselves actually playing Minecraft.


Programming techniques that let artificial intelligence perform simple tasks have developed rapidly in recent years, and as computers like translating languages, computers can translate languages, speak words like Siri,Automatically generatedYou can do tasks such as. However, the fields that researchers call "general intelligence" are not yet well developed. General intelligence is similar to complex decision-making tasks that humans learn and decide on things. Robert Schapire of the Microsoft New York Institute says, "It is easy for humans to perceive sounds, lights, smells, feel, etc, but it is a very difficult task for artificial intelligence," he says. Hofmann thinks that it is difficult to let a computer perform tasks similar to humans because the whole picture of how humans combine multiple tasks has not been elucidated yet.

So far, it was difficult to implement the theoretical research of artificial intelligence in the real world from the viewpoint of system and cost. However, using Minecraft, you can perform tasks such as making hills climb up to computers in the virtual world, and you can do research at low cost because development costs and repair costs of robots are all unnecessary . It is also possible to add difficult tasks one after another, and furthermore, because users can help each other by helping each other, the research team is planning to proceed with an experiment that human beings and artificial intelligence work jointly in the future And that.

The goal of the project using AIX and Minecraft at Microsoft's New York Institute is to "build a platform for artificial intelligence research that can be used not only by Microsoft's research team but also by an external artificial intelligence research community," Hofmann He says. At the time of writing, Microsoft researchers are making private beta, and it is scheduled to be released as open source in the summer of 2016.

Similarly, as a project to install artificial intelligence in games, studies have been carried out in which Mario is equipped with artificial intelligence and self-learned.

What is an artificial intelligence project that Mario self-learns and even has emotions? - GIGAZINE