Microsoft Using 'Minecraft' To Improve Artificial Intelligence

By Jackie Villegas, Christian Post Contributor Friday, March 18, 2016

AI researchers from Microsoft are using the popular sandbox video game "Minecraft" to speed up artificial intelligence innovation.

The research project, which is currently being conducted at the Microsoft Research facility in New York City, aims to improve what researchers call general artificial intelligence, which is akin to the complex way human beings learn, decide, and resolve problems. Though numerous theoretical studies have been conducted on general artificial intelligence, researchers have been hampered by the lack of practical methods of exploring the technology.

"Minecraft," the intellectual property for which was acquired by Microsoft in 2014, provides the perfect setting for artificial intelligence research. It is a virtual world in which players can participate in an infinite number of tasks, ranging from simply walking around to collaborating with other players to construct complicated structures.

"Minecraft is the perfect platform for this kind of research because it's this very open world," Katja Hoffman, one of the developers behind the AIX platform that makes Microsoft's AI research possible, said in a press release.

"You can do survival mode, you can do 'build battles' with your friends, you can do courses, you can implement our own games. This is really exciting for artificial intelligence because it allows us to create games that stretch beyond current abilities," she explained.

"It's a digital playpen for artificial intelligence," senior researcher Fernando Diaz said. "It's an environment in which we can develop an algorithm for teaching a young artificial intelligence to learn different concepts in the world."

AIX, which was developed in Microsoft's Cambridge, UK lab, was publicly unveiled on Monday, March 7. The platform will allow researchers and computer scientists to turn "Minecraft" into a testing ground for artificial intelligence. According to Hoffman, the idea for AIX was borne out of her own frustrations about the limitations of platforms utilizing less complicated video games for AI research.

Microsoft's researchers are currently using AIX to conduct their own studies. The AIX platform will be made available though an open-source license this summer.