At this week's BlizzCon convention in California, game developer Blizzard announced that it would release tools to allow third parties to teach artificial intelligences to play the real-time wargame Starcraft II. The tools are being developed in collaboration with Google's DeepMind team, and will use the DeepMind platform. In a blog post accompanying the announcement, the DeepMind team said Starcraft "is an interesting testing environment for current AI research because it provides a useful bridge to the messiness of the real world." The game involves interconnected layers of decisions, as players use resources to build infrastructure and assets before engaging in direct combat. StarCraft's complexity when compared to Chess or Go, then, makes it closer to the real-world problems faced by computers which do things like plan logistics networks.

The AI has a long ways to go before it's on a level of competing at a tournament, but right now Vinyals and the crew working on DeepMind have been setting up the parameters and giving the AI the necessary tools to play the game effectively. Since it doesn't use hands or have a physical body, it does everything through simulation, which can create a bit of a conundrum when facing off against humans, given that the AI could technically cheat and access keystrokes and mouse actions in ways that only a computer cold, thus cheating at the game by making millions of calculated moves per minute.

Earlier this year, researchers' artificial intelligence beat a human in the dazzlingly complex board game known as Go. It was a milestone in machine learning. Now, the same Google-backed researchers that designed AlphaGo have their sights set on dominating a new game: Starcraft, the classic computer strategy game that has attracted millions of fans, some of whom duel online in professional tournaments hosted by real-life sports leagues. Researchers from U.K.-based DeepMind want to train a bot that can play StarCraft II in real time -- making decisions about which military units to send on scouting missions, and how to allocate resources and, ultimately, conquer other players. Beginning next year, the game will serve as a research platform for any AI researcher who wants to use it, potentially allowing myriad player-algorithms to train off of the same game.

At BlizzCon on Friday, Google research scientist Oriol Vinyals announced that StarCraft 2 was being opened up to artificial intelligence researchers around the world. The goal: to create better AI opponents for StarCraft 2, and possibly even create AI coaches that could teach humans how to better play the strategy game. Of course, the goal of AI development is not just to match human players but best them, and just as DeepMind's AI program AlphaGo beat human champion Go player Lee Se-dol earlier this year, DeepMind wants its AI to someday take on a human StarCraft 2 champion. There will be more details about DeepMind's interest in StarCraft 2 revealed later during the convention, and we'll update you if we hear anything else.

In its quest to advance artificial intelligence research, Google's DeepMind has created systems capable of mastering a range of Atari computer games, and besting humans at the ancient Chinese board game Go. Now, the company is seeking to overcome an even bigger challenge -- creating an AI system that can play, and perhaps master, "StarCraft II." The company announced Thursday that it was teaming up with Blizzard Entertainment -- the maker of the real-time strategy game -- to open up "StarCraft II" to AI and machine learning researchers around the world. This means that anyone with the inclination and skills to do so can test and train their AI systems using StarCraft's complex gaming environment. "DeepMind is on a scientific mission to push the boundaries of AI, developing programs that can learn to solve any complex problem without needing to be told how. Games are the perfect environment in which to do this, allowing us to develop and test smarter, more flexible AI algorithms quickly and efficiently, and also providing instant feedback on how we're doing through scores," the company said in a statement.

Google's DeepMind is teaming up with Blizzard Entertainment Inc. to open up the world of the game StarCraft II to artificial intelligence researchers. DeepMind Staff Research Scientist Oriol Vinyals (above) announced the new partnership today during Blizzcon, Blizzard's annual convention held in Anaheim, Calif. According to Vinyals, who is himself a longtime StarCraft player, Blizzard will be releasing a StarCraft II application programming interface early next year that will allow researchers to build and train AI agents to play the game. "For StarCraft players like myself, advances in AI could deal some drastic benefits," Vialys said. "For example, we might see more interesting AI opponents for a variety of skill levels or AI coaches that can help players improve. And there's still a long way to go, but maybe we'll even see an agent take on the Blizzcon champion in a show match."

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.

Researchers at Google's DeepMind AI company are teaming up with Blizzard Entertainment to release an API tailored for AI research environments based in StarCraft II. The company plans to make the interface available to AI researchers and developers next year. Blizzard's release of the API will open the field for programmers to create and train their own AI agents to play StarCraft II. According to DeepMind's Oriol Vinyals, research like this could lead to more interesting AI opponents in video games or AI coaches that help players enhance their own skills. Opponents in StarCraft II make quick decisions, have limited knowledge of the map, and make moves simultaneously.

Inspired by Google DeepMind's success with the creation of AlphaGo earlier this year -- an AI machine capable of playing the ancient game Go to an expert level -- Blizzard is looking to expand the player base for its real-time strategy (RTS) game, StarCraft 2. Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Morhaime announced during BlizzCon 2016's keynote presentation that the company is teaming up with DeepMind to make StarCraft 2 available to some of the most advanced AI players. The goal is to test the limits of modern artificial intelligence by seeing if it can learn to play a complex game that takes quick thinking like StarCraft 2. StarCraft 2 is both visually challenging, oftentimes leaving players without the ability to see what their opponents are doing, and relies heavily on cunning gameplay. Allowing AI machines the ability to try and learn to play -- and master -- the game will be the next step in seeing if artificial intelligence can mirror human intelligence. Researchers interested in using the RTS game to test how AI responds to it will be able to do so early next year. Blizzard is working on modifications for the game that will allow researchers to build systems specifically for the purpose of learning to play StarCraft 2. Those modifications are expected to be ready for release sometime within the first quarter.

Google's Deepmind AI has already learned how to best humans at Go, but now Deepmind's resources will be pointed at an entirely different game: Starcraft II. Blizzard just announced at Blizzcon that it is partnering with Google to open up Starcraft II as a research platform for those building AI programmers. "Blizzard will release an API early next year that will allow researchers and hobbyists around the world to build and train their own AI agents to play Starcraft II," said Oriol Vinyals, a research scientist at Google DeepMind. Rather than Google building an unstoppable Starcraft II machine on its own, Blizzard wants to give anyone the change to build their own AI bot using the upcoming API. Essentially, this framework serves as a testing ground for building and training new AIs -- it could lead to better AI in Starcraft II itself, or we could see better AI player coaches, or maybe just an unbeatable AI bot. "There's still a long way to go, but maybe we'll even see an agent take on the BlizzCon champion in a show match," Vinyals said.