Machines Are Developing Language Skills Inside Virtual Worlds

Machines are learning to process simple commands by exploring 3-D virtual worlds. Devices like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home have brought voice-controlled technology into the mainstream, but these still only deal with simple commands. Making machines smart enough to handle a real conversation remains a very tough challenge. And it may be difficult to achieve without some grounding in the way the physical world works. Attempts to solve this problem by hard-coding relationships between words and objects and actions requires endless rules, making a machine unable to adapt to new situations.