Artificial Intelligence Uses Neural Networks to Win at Super Mario Kart, Epic Final Race Ensues - TechEBlog

AI and machine learning have been in development for quite some time, but MarI/O aims to bring them to video games. YouTube user "Seth Bling" first tried it on Super Mario World, and now, it's been reprogrammed from Super Mario Kart. Like the previous experiment, MarI/O wasn't taught anything beforehand, and only a few simple parameters were set. The AI uses a "fitness level" to determine what buttons to press and so forth, literally being incentivized to continue doing so. After many attempts, it finally managed to beat the computer, using several dirt paths to increase efficiency.