Microsoft using Minecraft to train artificial intelligence

Minecraft has become a worldwide phenomenon in recent years, and its blocky universe be used to hone the next generation of artificial intelligence? Computer scientists at Microsoft Research think so, and have been using the game's universe to train an AI'agent' to learn how to do things, such as climb a mountain, using the same types of resources a human has when they learn a new task. Much to Stephen Hawking's chagrin, AI has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, and computers can now understand speech and translate it, as well as being able recognise images and write captions about them. But computers still aren't very good at what researchers call general intelligence, which is more similar to the nuanced and complex way humans learn and make decisions. This is where AIX, a platform developed by Katja Hofmann and her colleagues in Microsoft's Cambridge lab, comes in. The system is a mod for the Java version of Minecraft and code that helps artificial intelligence agents sense and act within the game environment.