Google's DeepMind partners with Unity to train AI agents in virtual worlds - SiliconANGLE

Alphabet Inc.'s artificial intelligence group DeepMind Technologies Ltd. said today it will research AI agents with 3-D game development company Unity Technologies Inc., which made the engine for the popular Pokemon Go game. The two companies plan to create a virtual test ground for AI agents that may eventually be used in fields such as autonomous driving and robotics. "DeepMind researchers are trying to crack huge AI problems and Unity provides them with a solution of creating complex virtual environments that will enable the development of algorithms capable of learning to solve complex tasks across diverse environments," Danny Lange, vice president of machine learning and AI at Unity Technologies, said in a statement. "We believe the future of AI is being forged by increasingly sophisticated human-machine interactions, and Unity is proud to be the engine that is enabling these interactions." DeepMind, thanks to its backing from Google-parent Alphabet Inc., has established itself as one of the leading organizations working in AI field, having published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers on the subject in journals such as Nature and Science.