An AI learned to play hide-and-seek. The strategies it came up with on its own were astounding.

This week, leading AI lab OpenAI released their latest project: an AI that can play hide-and-seek. It's the latest example of how, with current machine learning techniques, a very simple setup can produce shockingly sophisticated results. The AI agents play a very simple version of the game, where the "seekers" get points whenever the "hiders" are in their field of view. The "hiders" get a little time at the start to set up a hiding place and get points when they've successfully hidden themselves; both sides can move objects around the playing field (like blocks, walls, and ramps) for an advantage. The results from this simple setup were quite impressive.