This New Atari-Playing AI Wants to Dethrone DeepMind

Artificial intelligence is not a contact sport. Currently, algorithms mostly just compete to win old Atari games, or accomplish historic board gaming feats like pwning five human Go champions at once. These are just practice rounds, though, for the way more complicated (and practical) goal of teaching robots how to navigate human environments. Vicarious, an AI company, has developed a new AI that is absolutely slammin' at Breakout, the paddle vs. brick arcade classic. Its AI, called Schema Networks, even succeeds at tweaked versions of the game--for instance, when the paddle is moved closer to the bricks.