AI planners in Minecraft could help machines design better cities

The open-endedness of the challenge means that AIs need to master multiple objectives. To win, they must impress eight human judges from a range of backgrounds, including architects, archaeologists, and game designers. These judges score the AI city planners in four areas: how well they adapt their designs to specific locations; how well the layouts work, according to criteria such as whether there are bridges and roads between different areas; how appealing they are aesthetically; and how much the designs evoke a narrative--are there details that tell a story about how a town came to be, such as a ruin or a pit from which building materials might have been mined? "Making a Minecraft village for an unseen map is something a 10-year-old human could do," says Salge. "But it is really difficult for an AI." For example, one entrant started by identifying the type of environment--desert or forest, say--and then generated buildings that looked as if they had been built out of common local materials.