Unfortunately, the new training platform created by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, is only available to AI -- so if you're human, you're out of luck. The new'college' is, in actuality, a training platform called Universe, whereby AI can interact with games, web browsers, protein folding software, and "transfer learning," which allows them to take what they've learned in one application and apply it to another. The AI engages via Virtual Network Computing, or VNC, which involves them sending simulated mouse and keyboard strokes. The Universe digital suite's home is in the OpenAI artificial intelligence learning center in San Francisco, where developers will begin "measuring and training AI agents." OpenAI is the non-profit brainchild of entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who have made no secret of their ambitions to greatly accelerate the research and development of transhumanist technologies.

Microsoft's continued investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning technology is paying dividends. The company has partnered with OpenAI, a non-profit company founded earlier this year to advance the field of machine intelligence for the benefit of humanity. As part of the deal, announced Tuesday, OpenAI will use Microsoft Azure as its primary cloud provider, an important win for Microsoft as it competes with the likes of Amazon, Google, and IBM to power the next generation of intelligent applications. OpenAI is backed by the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, controversial investor Peter Thiel, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Y Combinator Partner Jessica Livingston. On top of that, Microsoft also launched a set of cloud services all aimed at furthering intelligent applications.

OpenAI, the billion-dollar San Francisco artificial intelligence lab backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, just unveiled a new virtual world. It's called Universe, and it's a virtual world like no other. It's a place where AI can learn to do just about anything. Other AI labs have built similar worlds where AI agents can learn on their own. Researchers at the University of Alberta offer the Atari Learning Environment, where agents can learn to play old Atari games like Breakout and Space Invaders. Microsoft offers Malmo, based on the game Minecraft.

OpenAI, the nonprofit backed by Elon Musk and Peter Thiel to promote artificial intelligence that helps rather than harms humanity, opened a new virtual training center on Monday. It's called Universe, and anyone building artificial intelligence programs can use it. With Universe, developers can train artificial intelligence applications with games, websites, web browsers and other apps. The idea here is that the more an AI system practices using interfaces designed for human users, the more human-like AI can become. But since Universe is open for anyone to use, that leaves the door open to developers who may utilize Universe to train AI in a way that would beget harm -- precisely what Musk's nonprofit aims to prevent.

Elon Musk's OpenAI will introduce Universe, a virtual training ground aimed at teaching AI to play video games, use apps and even interact with websites. OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research company backed by the Tesla founder and billionaire entrepreneur, defines Universe in a blog post as "a software platform for measuring and training an AI's general intelligence across the world's supply of games, websites and other applications." Put simply, Universe will provide a gym that allows AI agents to go beyond their specialized knowledge of an individual environment to something approaching common sense. "Any task a human can complete with a computer." Using a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) remote desktop, it allows the AI to control the game or app using a virtual keyboard and mouse, and to see its output by analyzing the pixels displayed on the screen.

The artificial intelligence researcher Russ Salakhutdinov made headlines today when he said was going to start publishing journal articles and spending time talking to academics. That wouldn't be news, except Salakhutdinov works for Apple--a company famous for an extreme breed of corporate secrecy. Over the past two decades, people who work at Apple haven't talked to much of anyone about the far-reaching research (or anything else) happening inside the company. And that certainly includes academics. Uber Buys a Mysterious Startup to Make Itself an AI Company In OpenAI's Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do Google's AI Reads Retinas to Prevent Blindness in Diabetics Google's Hand-Fed AI Now Gives Answers, Not Just Search Results In OpenAI's Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do In OpenAI's Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do Google's AI Reads Retinas to Prevent Blindness in Diabetics Google's AI Reads Retinas to Prevent Blindness in Diabetics Google's Hand-Fed AI Now Gives Answers, Not Just Search Results Google's Hand-Fed AI Now Gives Answers, Not Just Search Results But Salakhutdinov works in an area where secrecy just doesn't play.

The artificial intelligence researcher Russ Salakhutdinov made headlines today when he said was going to start publishing journal articles and spending time talking to academics. That wouldn't be news, except Salakhutdinov works for Apple--a company famous for an extreme breed of corporate secrecy. Over the past two decades, people who work at Apple haven't talked to much of anyone about the far-reaching research (or anything else) happening inside the company. And that certainly includes academics. Uber Buys a Mysterious Startup to Make Itself an AI Company In OpenAI's Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do Google's AI Reads Retinas to Prevent Blindness in Diabetics Google's Hand-Fed AI Now Gives Answers, Not Just Search Results In OpenAI's Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do In OpenAI's Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do Google's AI Reads Retinas to Prevent Blindness in Diabetics Google's AI Reads Retinas to Prevent Blindness in Diabetics Google's Hand-Fed AI Now Gives Answers, Not Just Search Results Google's Hand-Fed AI Now Gives Answers, Not Just Search Results But Salakhutdinov works in an area where secrecy just doesn't play.

Two of the biggest names in artificial intelligence are opening their doors to everyone. Google's DeepMind, the AI system that famously defeated the world champion of the board game Go earlier this year, and OpenAI, an AI collaboration from Elon Musk and others, are making their software platforms available to researchers, developers, and anyone else who wants to use them. The two companies made their announcements in separate blog posts Monday. The two platforms both use deep learning, a form of machine learning that allows AI systems to grow smarter. In its post, DeepMind, which was acquired by Google in 2014, wrote that its goal is to create "systems that can learn to solve any complex problem without needing to be taught how."

In DeepMind Lab, AI agents observe the world as an image, in pixels, rendered from their own first-person perspective. They also may receive a reward (or punishment) signal. Two big entities making advances in artificial intelligence are opening up their AI training platforms, with the aim of getting closer to developing general intelligence. DeepMind, Alphabet's artificial intelligence division, announced Monday that it's open-sourcing DeepMind Lab, its 3D game-like platform for agent-based AI research. In a blog post, the DeepMind team argued that developing general intelligence -- the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and operate in an environment without pre-programming -- should be easier in a 3D world observed from a first-person viewpoint (like DeepMind Lab).

Agents use the same senses and controls as humans: seeing pixels and using a keyboard and mouse. Universe makes it possible to train a single agent on any task a human can complete with a computer.