A computer was trained to play Qbert and immediately broke the game in a way no human ever has

While the jury's still out on whether today's machine-learning techniques will ever create a program that could rival human intelligence, one thing about the future of artificial intelligence is clear: The machines are really good at playing games. And when the machines get good at the games, sometimes they come up with bizarre strategies and tactics that a human never would. For example: In a new unreviewed paper posted on Arxiv, which we saw through a tweet from researcher Miles Brundage, three researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany trained an agent using evolutionary strategies to play eight different Atari games from over 30 years ago. For one of the games, "Qbert," the AI found a way to exploit a bug in between levels, make the entire stage flash, and then rack up unlimited points. Even if you have never played "Qbert," you can tell that the agent is crushing the game.