StarCraft II: DeepMind unveils latest game its AI plans to conquer
Source: The Guardian
After its success at mastering the ancient Asian boardgame of Go, DeepMind is planning to learn its next game – and it’s about as different as it can possibly be.
The London-based AI research firm, a subsidiary of Google, is teaming up with Californian gaming company Blizzard to take on the real-time strategy game StarCraft II.
One of the most popular eSports in the world, StarCraft II meets many of the requirements for an interesting challenge for DeepMind to take on. Not only do the game’s best players easily beat the top AI opponents, but it also introduces new domains for the DeepMind team to explore.
Most importantly, StarCraft II is a game full of hidden information. Each player begins on opposite sides of a map, where they are tasked with building a base, training soldiers, and taking out their opponent. But they can only see the area directly around units, since the rest of the map is hidden in a “fog of war”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/04/starcraft-ii-deepmind-game-ai?CMP=twt_a-technology_b-gdntech
Teaching computers to play the board game Go is impressive, but if we really want to push the limits of machine intelligence, perhaps they’ll need to learn to rush a Zerg or set a trap for a horde of invading Protoss ships.
StarCraft, a hugely popular space-fiction-themed strategy computer game, will soon be accessible to advanced AI players. Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the game, and Google DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on developing general-purpose artificial intelligence, announced the move at a games conference today.
Teaching computers to play StarCraft II expertly would be a significant milestone in artificial-intelligence research. Within the game, players must build bases, mine resources, and attack their opponents’ outposts. Mastering such a complex and sprawling game takes finely honed skills, strategic acumen, and a good dose of cunning. It is visually relatively complex, and players often cannot see what their opponent is up to. It should therefore be an ideal place for computers to make the next big leap in mimicking human intelligence.
Modifications to StarCraft II, the latest version of the game, will be released in the first quarter of next year, making it possible for AI researchers to build systems that can use experimentation, observation, and other cutting-edge learning techniques to improve their play. For example, it might be necessary to use machine-learning systems that rely on delayed rewards and are capable of observing and mimicking human players.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602796/starcraft-will-become-the-next-big-playground-for-ai/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post
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