What AI needs to learn to master alien warfare

To learn how humans and AI systems can best live together, we may need to kill a whole lot of Zerg. DeepMind, the AI-focused unit of Alphabet, and the games company Blizzard Entertainment are releasing a set of tools that will let will programmers unleash all sorts of AI algorithms inside the space-themed game StarCraft. The game is more challenging than most of those tackled by AI programs to date. Not only is StarCraft extremely complex, it also requires planning far ahead and trying to second-guess what your opponent is up to. This means developing AI programs capable of matching humans ought to help researchers explore new facets of humanlike intelligence with machines.