Keeping up with the latest AI research can be an odd experience. On the one hand, you're aware that you're looking at cutting-edge experimentation, with new papers outlining the ideas and methods that will probably (eventually) snowball into the biggest technological revolution of all time. On the other hand, sometimes what you're looking at is just unavoidably weird and funny. Case in point is a new paper from Google's AI subsidiary DeepMind titled "Emergence of Locomotion Behaviours in Rich Environments." The research explores how reinforcement learning (or RL) can be used to teach a computer to navigate unfamiliar and complex environments.

Google's artificial intelligence company, DeepMind, has developed an AI that has managed to learn how to walk, run, jump, and climb without any prior guidance. The result is as impressive as it is goofy. Get the latest Google stock price here.

Google's parent company -- has an artificial intelligence company, called DeepMind. The company has developed an AI that has managed to learn how to walk, run, jump, and climb without any prior guidance. The result is as impressive as it is goofy. Get the latest Google stock price here. Site highlights each day to your inbox.

Google's artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary DeepMind has released a paper detailing how its AI agents have taught themselves to navigate complex virtual environments, and the results are weird, wonderful, and often extremely funny. The agents in the simulations were programmed with a set of sensors-- these allowed them to know things like when they were upright or if their leg was bent -- and a drive to continue moving forward. Everything else that you see in the video -- the agents' jumping, running, using knees to scale obstacles, etc. -- is the result of the AI working out how best to continue moving forward through reinforcement learning. The complexity of the agents' movements is a testament to how far AI has come in recent years. While agents in simulations like these often break down when faced with unfamiliar environments, DeepMind's have utilized startlingly sophisticated movements to traverse obstacles.

Google has made great strides in artificial intelligence in recent years. It has already shown the world its DeepMind AI can defeat humans in ancient board games. It has launched one of the most advanced AI assistants for smartphones and other Internet-connected products. But Google wants AI to have a humanistic side, to be more inclusive. And to help bring this, the tech giant has announced a new project called PAIR.

Interestingly, in another game called Wolfpack (see gameplay video below), which requires close coordination to successfully cooperate, we find that greater capacity to implement complex strategies leads to more cooperation between agents, the opposite of the finding with Gathering. So, depending on the situation, having a greater capacity to implement complex strategies may yield either more or less cooperation. The new framework of sequential social dilemmas allows us to take into account not only the outcome of the interaction (as in the Prisoner's dilemma), but also the difficulty of learning to implement a given strategy.

Google has taught its DeepMind AI to navigate a parkour course by using reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning is the practice of rewarding desirable behaviour. The faster the AI could navigate the virtual parkour course, the greater the reward. Further incentives and penalties were added for various other metrics. "We train several simulated bodies on a diverse set of challenging terrains and obstacles, using a simple reward function based on forward progress," explains Nicolas Heess, a researcher on the project.

Reinforcement learning (RL) is the practice of teaching and guiding behavior by using a reward system. Desirable behavior produces rewards; undesirable behavior does not. It's a common tool used in machine learning, and now the the Alphabet team has used it to teach the DeepMind AI to successfully navigate a parkour course. The team wanted to see if simple rewards would work in a complex environment. They set up a virtual parkour course with drops, hurdles and ledges and set a reward for forward progress.

Google is developing a new system designed to prevent artificial intelligence from going rogue and clashing with humans. It's an idea that has been explored by a multitude of sci-fi films, and has grown into a genuine fear for a number of people. Google is now hoping to tackle the issue by encouraging machines to work in a certain way. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

Less than a year afterestablishing an artificial intelligence lab in Canada, Google is once again expanding its presence up north. DeepMind, a subsidiary of the search giant that experiments with novel ways to apply AI, today announced the launch of a new research center in Edmonton. The facility is the unit's first major outpost outside its native UK when not counting the modestcontingent of staffers based in Google's Mountain View headquarters. Research efforts will be led by three professors from the University of Alberta, which has a long history of collaborating with DeepMind.